Timeline of United States military operations May 1949. 1948–1949: China: Marines were dispatched to Nanking to protect the American Embassy when the city fell to Communist troops, and to Shanghai to aid in the protection and evacuation of Americans. 1950–1953: Korean War: The United States responded to the North Korean invasion of South Korea by going to its assistance, pursuant to United Nations Security Council resolutions. US forces deployed in Korea exceeded 300,000 during the last year of the active conflict (1953). Over 36,600 US military were killed in action. 1950–1955: Formosa (Taiwan): In June 1950, at the beginning of the Korean War, President Truman ordered
South Korea in the Vietnam War United States as a foreign army. Economic payment in return for the participation of Korea was an underlying cause for its participation, with a House Subcommittee hearing chaired by J. William Fulbright criticising the deployment of Korean forces as resembling the "hiring of mercenaries". Participation in combat was directly linked to monetary compensation, and during the Vietnamization period Park Chung-hee demanded further compensation in order for South Korea to take a more direct combat role, which the US was unwilling to do. South Korea at the time was alarmed by the United States' plan to move two of its military