Walton Walker backed South Korea, and China allied with the Soviet Union in what was to become the first military action of the Cold War. Shortly after 75,000 North Korean troops with tanks invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950, American air and sea forces were ordered by President Harry S. Truman to give South Korean troops support. The U.S. Eighth Army was ordered to intervene and drive the invaders back across the 38th parallel, the border between the two countries. With only four lightly equipped and poorly trained divisions, Walker began landing troops on the southeast side of the Korean peninsula
2008 US beef protest in South Korea from $3.8 billion in 2003 to $1.4 billion in 2005. An attempt to reopen the South Korean market to US beef imports in 2006 (restricted to boneless meat from cattle less than 30 months old) failed when the South Korean government discovered bone chips in a shipment of 3.2 tons of meat. Sporadic attempts made in the following year also failed for similar reasons. On 17 January 2008 representatives of the president of South Korea met with Alexander Vershbow, the U.S. ambassador to South Korea to discuss beef imports. Further talks were held between 11 and 17 April 2008. On