ABSTRACT
From a political point of view, a leading factor in the background to the Korean tree Incident was undoubtedly the Mayaguez crisis. In that situation, the United States had responded quickly with large military forces, attacked Koh Tang and the Cambodian mainland, and achieved the swift release of the ship's crew. Immediately after the incident, the US Army/United Nations Command staff in the forward operations center at Yongson, in Seoul, South Korea, formed a crisis-action team under the supervision of the chief of the Current Operations Branch. This team began integrating the reports coming out of the Joint Security Area and started actively thinking about possible US responses. In the Defense Department, two primary agencies were involved, each with a specialized mission. One was the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the other was the Defense Department agency. The plan—named Operation Paul Bunyan—was developed with both tactical and strategic/political objectives.
