Once again... Thanks, F.D.R.; Thanks, Harry!

It really began in February, 1945. In that month, Churchill, Stalin and F.D.R. met at Yalta to discuss post-war plans for the world. That was scarcely two months short of Roosevelt's death, and he was hardly well enough to travel, much less plan the fate of the world. Some diplomats in attendance reported that the American president, old, weak and senile, sat nodding, drooling, as the others talked.

The three men divided Germany amongst them, then turned to Asia. Although Russia had played no significant part in the war with Japan, they decided to give the Soviets half of Korea - the other Allies (meaning the U.S.) the lower half.

Stalin installed a puppet Communist government in Korea, and essentially washed his hands of the peninsula. Within about three years, Kim Il-Sung was North Korea's ruling dictator.

Five and one-half years after Yalta, 60 years ago this past summer, I was working at WLDY, a small radio station in Ladysmith, WI.

On June 25, 1950, the bulletin bell rang on the Associated Press teletype machine at WLDY and we received the notice that North Korean forces had invaded South Korea. What followed is well recorded. American forces then in Korea consisted in large part of young, lightly trained men and women, there to help rebuild a nation - not to fight a war. The U.S. did little to reinforce these people. Instead, General Douglas MacArthur amassed a large fighting force and invaded the peninsula far behind North Korea's front line. They quickly swept across the peninsula, trapping North Korea's forces. America easily pushed all the way to the Chinese border. Everyone thought the war was over.

The Chinese Communists owed their very existence to Harry Truman's refusal to help Chiang Kai Shek resist their revolution. They showed their appreciation by attacking the American forces by air, from bases behind the Chinese border. General MacArthur knew the Chinese were weak and wanted to take out the offending Chinese air bases. Truman refused and relieved MacArthur of his command.

Emboldened by Truman's timidity, Chinese ground troops crossed the border to help the North Koreans. Fighting dragged on, claiming 36,576 American lives, plus many lives of other U.N. member nations and multiple times that number in Korean and Chinese lives.

When Harry Truman left office and Dwight Eisenhower was elected, Ike immediately went to Korea and arranged a cease-fire. I believe that the Koreans feared that President Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces which had won the war in Europe, would bring a terrible retribution if they continued their hostilities.

And so, for 57 years, the cease-fire has held. But, again America is displaying Truman-style timidity. And again, North Korea is reaching out for their dream of a unified Korea... under their control.