By this time the Korean police action had become a 2.5 year nightmare and endless maneuvers for useless hill sides as elusive as the jungles of south Vietnam 15 years later. Battling Soviet trained and equipped North Koreans, WW2 hero general Douglas MacArthur had pushed north towards the Chinese border, despite repeated warnings from Beijing ensuring Truman that the Chinese would never enter the war. In the late fall of 1950 hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops streamed across the Yalu river, sending US and allied forces reeling backwards in a frantic retreat. The marines who spearheaded the breakout did not consider it a retreat. "Retreat, hell!" said their commander. "We're just advancing in a different direction". Time magazine called it the worst defeat the US had ever suffered. Truman wrote in his diary: WW3 is here.
