Truman Orders U.S. Air, Navy Units To Fight In Aid Of Korea

Washington, June 27--President Truman announced today that he had ordered United States air and naval forces to fight with South Korea's Army. He said this country took the action, as a member of the United Nations, to enforce the cease-fire order issued by the Security Council Sunday night.

Then acting independently of the United Nations, in a move to assure this country's security, the Chief Executive ordered Vice Admiral Arthur D. Struble to form a protective cordon around Formosa to prevent its invasion by Communist Chinese forces.
Along with these fateful decisions, Mr. Truman also ordered an increase of our forces based in the Philippine Republic, as well as more speedy military assistance to that country and to the French and Vietnam forces that are fighting Communist armies in Indo-China.

After he had started these moves that might mean a decided turn toward peace or a general war, the President sent Ambassador Alan G. Kirk to the Russian Foreign Office in Moscow to request the Soviet Union to use its good offices to end the hostilities. This was an obvious proffer of an opportunity for Russia to end the crisis before her own forces might get involved.

New York Times, "On This Day."

The New Anti-Semitism Can Give You a Headache

I'll let Mr. Nordlinger do all the talking this time:

Jews, Decoy and Real [Jay Nordlinger]

The news about “decoy Jews” in Holland is making the rounds. And I was especially interested in this column by Paul Belien, available from Hudson New York. (Yes, you read that right: no commas no nothin’.) I’ll excerpt a little of the column, or a lot:

Last week, a television broadcast showed how three Jews with skullcaps, two adolescents and an adult, were harassed within thirty minutes of being out in the streets of Amsterdam. Young Muslims spat at them, mocked them, shouted insults and made Nazi salutes. “Dirty Jew, go back to your own country,” a group of Moroccan youths shouted at a young indigenous Dutch Jew. “It is rather ironic,” the young man commented, adding that if one goes out in a burka one encounters less hostility than if one wears a skullcap.

I wonder what those young Moroccans meant by “your own country.” Helen Thomas means Germany and Poland, chiefly. (She did not specify Auschwitz: That was the “peace activists” and “humanitarians” aboard that Turkish ship.) Do they mean Israel? It must be so confusing for a Jew, this “go home” stuff. Where’s home? Poland? Israel? Mars?

But the Moroccans clearly have a sure sense of home: Holland, and Europe generally...

...Now, check out this bit:

The deployment of “decoy Jews”, however, is being criticized by leftist parties such as the Dutch Greens. Evelien van Roemburg, an Amsterdam counselor of the Green Left Party, says that using a decoy by the police amounts to provoking a crime, which is itself a criminal offence under Dutch law.

Got that? If you go out looking like a Jew, and a Muslim physically assaults you, it’s your fault — kind of like it’s your fault if you’re a girl and your skirt is too short. To be on the safe side: Don’t look Jewish. And if you do look Jewish, you had better be Jewish, or the Dutch Greens won’t like it. Or something.

The new anti-Semitism is sometimes hard to keep up with.

Or, if you’re a Muslim, and you assault a Jew who is actually a Jew, that’s kind of bad, but if you assault a Jew who turns out to be a decoy — even though you thought he was a Jew — that’s not so bad, because you were tricked . . . or something.

The new anti-Semitism can give you a headache.

Stay

"CONSTITUTES ALL OUT OFFENSIVE AGAINST ROK"

The trip out [departing from Baltimore's new airport for a short Presidential vacation] was smooth and we landed about 2:00 P.M. [in Kansas City] . . . . The president was met by his sister [Mary Jane Truman] and others and drove . . . to his home in Independence [Missouri] . . . . Later in the evening I received queries from the United Press about reports of fighting in Korea where the communist-inspired armies in the north launched an attack on the American-dominated southern portion. I did not communicate with the president, however. During the night I was awakened by the delivery of a message to the president from Secretary of State [Dean] Acheson, forwarding a report from Korea of the outbreak of hostilities.

Assistant Press Secretary Eben Ayers
Diary entry, June 24, 1950
Papers of Eben A. Ayers

From the Truman Library.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE REQUESTED THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE BE TRANSMITTED TO THE PRESIDENT:

TO THE PRESIDENT

FROM SEOUL

TO SECRETARY OF STATE

NO NINE TWO FIVE, JUNE TWO FIVE ONE ZERO ABLE MIKE

NIACT

SENT DEPARTMENT NINE TWO FIVE CMA REPEATED INFORMATION CINCFE.

ACCORDING KOREAN ARMY REPORTS WHICH PARTLY CONFIRMED BY KMAG FIELD ADCIQZR REPORTS, NORTH KOREAN FORCES INVADED ROK TERRITORY AT SEVERAL POINTS THIS MORNING. ACTION WAS INITIATED ABOUT FOHR ABLE MIKE ONGJIN BLASTED BY NORTH KOREAN ARTILLERY FIRE. ABOUT SIX ABLE MIKE NORTH KOREAN INFENTRY COMMENCE CROSSING PARALLEL IN ONGJIN AREA, KAESONG AREA, CHUNCHON AREA AND AMPHIBIOUS LANDING WAS REPORTEDLY MADE SOUTH OF KANGNUMG ON EAST COAST. KAESONG WAS REPORTEDLY CAPTURED AT NINE ABLE MIKE WITH SOME ONE ZERO NORTH KOREAN TANKS PARTICIPATING IN OPERATION. NORTH KOREAN FORECES, SPEARHEADED BY TANKS, REPORTEDLY CLOSING IN ON CHUNCHON. DETAILS OF FIGHTING IN KANGNUNG AREA UNCLEAR, ALTHOUGH IT SEEMS NORTH KOREAN FORCES HAVE CUT HIGHWAY. AM CONFERRING WITH KNAG ADVISORS AND KOREAN OFFICIALS THIS MORNING RE SITUATION. IT WOULD APPEAR FROM NATURE OF ATTACK AND MANNER IN WHICH IT WAS LAUNCHED IT CONSTITUTES ALL OUT OFFENSIVE AGAINST ROK.