Brigade Action on the Southwestern Front 102 Chindong-ni Area 107 Sachon Offensive, 8–10 August 1950 130 Sachon Offensive, 10 August 1950 133 Sachon Offensive, 11 August 1950 134 Sachon Offensive--Changchon Ambush 145 Sachon Offensive, Situation 12–14 August 149 Enemy Counterattack, Hill 202 154 First Naktong Counteroffensive 180 First Naktong, Situation 17 August 1950 185 First Naktong, Situation 18 August 1950 199 First Naktong, Seizure of Objective Two 202 First Naktong, Seizure of Objective Three 205 Second Naktong Counteroffensive, 3–5 September 1950 218 Second Naktong, Marine Attacks of 3–4 September 1950 223 Second Naktong, Enemy Counterattack 232 CHAPTER I Korea, Doorstep of Strategy _The Historical Background--The Russo-Japanese War--Korea as a Japanese Colony--The Partition of Korea--Red Victory in China--Civil Strife in Korea_ It meant little to most Americans on 25 June 1950 to read in their Sunday newspapers that civil strife had broken out in Korea. They could hardly have suspected that this remote Asiatic peninsula was to become the scene of the fourth most costly military effort of American history, both in blood and money, before the end of the year. Yet the danger of an explosion had been present ever since the end of World War II, when the United States and the Soviet Union rushed into the political vacuum created in Korea by the defeat of Japan. The Korean question came up officially for the first time at the Cairo Conference of December 1943. With Soviet Russia not yet being represented as a belligerent in the Far East, the United States, Great Britain and China agreed that “in due course Korea shall become free and independent.”[1] [1] Quoted in James F. Byrnes, _Speaking Frankly_ (New York: Harper, 1947), 221. Any discussion of this issue had to take into consideration Korea’s status as a Japanese possession since 1910. Government, industry, commerce, agriculture, transportation--every phase of Korean life had been administered by Japanese for the benefit of Japan. As a consequence, the 25,000,000 inhabitants of the peninsula were woefully lacking in experience to fit them for the responsibilities of independence.