China Intervenes in the Korean War

October 25, 1950

Overview

United Nations and U.S. armies have captured the North Korean city of Pyongyang, and the North Korean Army is near collapse. China’s leader, Mao Zedong, has previously agreed to send troops to North Korea if they were needed, and as allied troops approach the Yalu River, Chinese units attack South Korean troops. Shortly thereafter, approximately 200,000 Chinese troops begin to pour south across the border. UN and American forces are slowly pushed back down the Korean peninsula and the Korean War, which the United States had believed to be nearly over, instead enters a new phase.1

¹Roy E. Appleman, South to the Naktong, North to the Yalu (June–November 1950, United States Army in the Korean War (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, 1992), 638–770; Doris M. Condit, The Test of War, 1950–1953, History of the Office of the Secretary of Defense (Washington, D.C.: Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense, 1988), 71–72 notes that China had given several indications that it would not remain uninvolved if the United States invaded North Korea. But U.S. intelligence analysts concluded that a full-scale Chinese intervention was unlikely in 1950.