"He wanted to know what assurance we could give the American people that we aren't getting the tar licked out of us [by the North Korean army]. It has never happened to us. It won't happen this time."
"In my generation, this was not the first occasion when the strong had attacked the weak….Communism was acting in Korea just as Hitler, Mussolini, and the Japanese had acted ten, fifteen, and twenty years earlier. I felt certain that if South Korea was allowed to fall, Communist leaders would be emboldened to override nations closer to our own shores."
The official of President Harry S. Truman
"General Bradley said that we must draw the line [against Communist expansion] somewhere. The President stated he agreed on that. General Bradley said that Russia is not yet ready for war. The Korean situation offered as good an occasion for action in drawing the line as anywhere else."
Gen. Douglas MacArthur
"I have just received the announcement of your appointment of me as the United Nations Commander of the international forces to be employed in Korea and can not fail to express to you personally my deepest thanks and appreciation for this new expression of your confidence. I recall so vividly and with such gratitude that this is the second time you have so signally honored me. Your personal choice five years ago as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers in Japan place me under an intimate obligation which would be difficult for me to ever repay and you have now added to my debt. I can only repeat the pledge of my complete personal loyalty to you as well as an absolute devotion to your monumental struggle for peace and good will throughout the world. I hope I will not fail you."
"I will defend Korea as I would my own country—just as I would California."
Lieutenant Colonel George Russell
"On the other side of every mountain [was] another mountain."
Edwin W. Pauley
"Communism in Korea could get off to a better start than practically anywhere else in the world."
