On to the Yalu

Thousands of Marines huddled in their landing craft, watching with foreboding as they drew closer and closer to the seawall at Inchon. Overhead, American planes pounded the shore. The North Koreans were waiting, and they were an enemy the Americans had learned not to underestimate. This is the Inchon landing - the last bold stroke of Douglas MacArthur's career. It is September 1950, and American forces have been on the defensive for almost 3 months - ever since the North Koreans launched a surprise attack across the 38th parallel, capturing Seoul in two days and pressing the Americans and their South Korean I was back into a tip of the South Korean Peninsula around Pusan. For a while it seemed that all was lost. Inchon is the beginning of a victory. But it is a short-lived victory, and it leads to catastrophe. The Americans have struck back with a skill and energy the North Koreans had not expected, but, in doing so, they soon overreach themselves. MacArthur brushes aside caution and sets out in hot pursuit of the suddenly retreating Communists. As Americans and South Korean troops crossed into North Korea and push on towards the Yalu River that divides Korea from China's Manchuria, the real question becomes: Will the Red Chinese come to the aid of their ideological comrades?