<text id=00he1400><title>Shattering of the Morning Calm: Introduction</title>
<history>US Air Force: Events History</history>
<article><hdr>Shattering of the Morning Calm: Introduction</hdr><body>
<p>The North Korean army slashed across the 38th parallel and sliced through South Korean defenses. Battered and in full retreat, the Republic of Korea needed help. Only the United States was in a position to offer it.
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<p>Word of the attack got to Headquarters, Far East Air Forces, at 10:00 a.m. Sunday morning on 25 June 1950, six hours after the border crossing. The immediate task for FEAF was to assist in the evacuation of Americans, and airlift was assembled by mid-afternoon.
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<p>Next morning, General Douglas MacArthur, now commander of United Nations forces, ordered Fifth Air Force chief Major Genera; Earle E. Partridge to cover the Inchon embarkation of departing Americans. Partridge called in the North American F-82Gs of the 4th, 68th and 3339th Fighter (All-Weather) Squadrons (FAWS) from their Japanese base. The US Air Force was at war again.
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<p>What made the Korean conflict different was the single fact that the US atomic bomb monopoly had been broken. The Russians had the weapon, and certainly would use it if attacked. Kim Il Sung's North Korea, and Mao Tse-Tung's China, then just a few months old, were client states of the USSR. Would the Soviet Union take action in the event of a certain defeat for North Korea, or a threat against China? Nobody could be sure.
