The story of the Inchon landing during the Korean War, and the last stroke of Douglas MacArthur's career, including information about the decision making process as the American and South Korean troops invaded North Korea and pushed to the Yalu River, dividing North Korea and China.

AN. ABILITY TO furnish skilled forces to meet emergency situations on short notice has long been a hallmark of the Marine Corps. When the call came for such a force to be dispatched to Korea on 2 July 1950, the Corps was handicapped by the strictures of a peacetime economy. Nevertheless, a composite brigade consisting of a regiment and an air group was made available within a week's time. With a reputation built largely on amphibious warfare, Marines of the 1st Brigade were called upon to prove their versatility in sustained ground action. On three separate occasions within the embattled Perimeter-south toward Sachon and twice along the Naktong River-these Marine units hurled the weight of their assault force at the enemy. All three attacks were successful, and at no point did Marines give ground except as ordered. The quality of their performance in the difficult days of the Pusan Perimeter fighting made them a valuable member of the United Nations team and earned new laurels for their Corps.

In the opening campaign of the Korean War, the First Provisional Marine Brigade participated in a massive effort by United States and South Korean forces in 1950 to turn back the North Korean invasion of the Republic of Korea. The brigade’s actions loom large in marine lore. According to most accounts, traditional Marine Corps discipline, training, and fighting spirit saved the day as the marines rescued an unprepared U.S. Eighth Army, which had been pushed back to the “Pusan Perimeter” at the southeastern tip of the Korean peninsula. Historian and retired marine Kenneth W. Estes undertakes a fresh investigation of the marines’ and Eighth Army’s fight for Pusan. Into the Breach at Pusan corrects discrepancies in earlier works (including the official histories) to offer a detailed account of the campaign and place it in historical context. Drawing on combat records, command reports, and biographical materials, Estes describes the mobilization, organization, and operations of First Brigade during the first three months of American participation in the Korean War. Focusing on the battalions, companies, and platoons that faced the hardened soldiers of the North Korean army, he brings the reader directly to the battlefield. The story he reveals there, woven with the voices of soldiers and officers, is one of cooperation rather than interservice rivalry. At the same time, he clarifies differences in the organizational cultures of the U.S. Army and the Marine Corps. Into the Breach at Pusan is scrupulously fair to both the army and the marines. Estes sets the record straight in crediting the Eighth Army with saving itself during the Pusan Perimeter campaign, but he also affirms that the army’s suffering would have been much greater without the crucial, timely performance of the First Provisional Marine Brigade.

The history of the 24th Infantry regiment in Korea is a difficult one, both for the veterans of the unit & for the Army. This book tells both what happened to the 24th Infantry, & why it happened. The Army must be aware of the corrosive effects of segregation & the racial prejudices that accompanied it. The consequences of the system crippled the trust & mutual confidence so necessary among the soldiers & leaders of combat units & weakened the bonds that held the 24th together, producing profound effects on the battlefield. Tables, maps & illustrations.

"The 5th RCT in Korea; The Pusan Perimeter Battles, 1950." documents the combat operations of the US Army's 5th Infantry Regimental Combat Team from its deployment to the frontlines of the Korean War's Pusan Perimeter Campaign. The 5th RCT reached Korea at the close of July, 1950, just as UN forces were prepared to make their last ditch stand against the Communist invasion of South around the port of Pusan. The 5th was immediately engaged in defensive operations near Masan, engaging in the battle for "Fox Hill" through the first week of August. Thereafter, the RCT participated in the ill-fated "Task Force Kean" counteroffensive, culminating in the disasterous action at "Bloody Gulch" in which the RCT's trains and attached artillery were overrun. The 5th RCT was subsequently reorganized, and with new leadership, conducted a successful defense of positions on Sobuk-San Mountain, the "Battle Mountain," from which they repelled the last efforts of the North Koreans to overwhelm the southern portion of the UN Perimeter. This work is based on the regimental war diary of the 5th RCT, long thought lost by official historians, and contributions by veterans of the actions of this period. The actions of the 5th RCT demonstrate the successful, though difficult and at times bloody, transition of a peacetime military unit into one hardened for combat.