ABSTRACT
On Sunday evening, 26 June 1950, we were having a dinner party at my home in Tokyo. The guests included Chief-of-staff, Gen. Ned Almond; Deputy Chief-ofstaff for SCAP, Gen. Alonzo P. Fox; Bill Biederlinden of G-l [personnel-Ed.]; Pinky Wright of G-3 [planning and conduct of operations-Ed.]; and all of General Headquarters. The dinner party was interrupted when we received a telephone call concerning the invasion of the Republic of Korea by the North Korean communist army. This news broke up the party. The problem of evacuat ing a considerable number of American citizens, most of whom were with the Economic Cooperation Administration and had been in Korea since its establish ment as a sovereign republic in 1948, was placed upon General MacArthur. Subsequently, air and naval support of the Republic of Korea forces by U.S. forces was authorized. The communist forces had overrun Seoul and had pene trated deeper into Republic of Korea territory in a drive toward Pusan, the southeastern port city.
