1864 : BATTLE OF KENNESAW MOUNTAIN On this day in 1864, Union General William T. Sherman launches a major attack on Confederate General Joseph Johnston's army at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in Georgia. Beginning in early May, Sherman began a slow advance down the 100-mile corridor from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Atlanta, refraining from making any large-scale assaults. The campaign was marked by many smaller battles and constant skirmishes but no decisive encounters. Johnston was losing ground, but he was also buying time for the Confederates. With Sherman frustrated in Georgia, and Ulysses S. Grant unable to knock out Robert E. Lee's army in Virginia, the Union war effort was stalled, casualty rates were high, and the re-election of Abraham Lincoln appeared unlikely. In the days leading up to the assault at Kennesaw Mountain, Sherman tried to flank Johnston. Since one of Johnston's generals, John Bell Hood, attacked at Kolb's Farm and lost 1,500 precious Confederate soldiers, Sherman believed that Johnston's line was stretched thin and that an assault would break the Rebels. So he changed his tactics and planned a move against the center of the Confederate lines around Kennesaw Mountain. He feigned attacks on both of Johnston's flanks, then hurled 8,000 men at the Confederate center. It was a disaster. Entrenched Southerners bombarded the Yankees, who were attacking uphill. Three thousand Union troops fell, compared to just 500 Confederates. The battle was only a marginal Confederate victory. Sherman remained in place for four more days, but one of the decoy attacks on the Confederate flanks did, in fact, place the Union troops in a position to cut into Johnston's rear. On July 2, Johnston had to vacate his Kennesaw Mountain lines and retreat toward Atlanta. Sherman followed, and the slow campaign lurched on into the Georgia summer. 1944 : US TROOPS LIBERATE CHERBOURG, FRANCE On this day in 1944, the Allies capture the fortified town and port of Cherbourg, in northwest France, freeing it from German occupation. Hitler had for all intents and purposes anticipated his own defeat when, in contrast with the analysis of his advisers, he accurately predicted that the D-Day invasion would be focused on Normandy. He knew the Allies needed to take a large port-and Cherbourg fit the bill. (The Brits had actually handpicked Cherbourg as the target for a "Cross-Channel" landing back in 1942.) Once the Allies actually landed on Normandy beaches June 6, the fall of Cherbourg was only a matter of time. 1950 : TRUMAN ORDERS U.S. FORCES TO KOREA: On June 27, 1950, President Harry S. Truman announces that he is Ordering U.S. Air and naval forces to South Korea to aid the Democratic nation in repulsing an invasion by communist North Korea. The United States was undertaking the major military operation, he Explained, to enforce a United Nations resolution calling for an end To hostilities, and to stem the spread of communism in Asia. In Addition to ordering U.S. Forces to Korea, Truman also deployed the U.S. 7th Fleet to Formosa (Taiwan) to guard against invasion by Communist China and ordered an acceleration of military aid to French Forces fighting communist guerrillas in Vietnam. At the Yalta Conference towards the end of World War II, the United States, the USSR, and Great Britain agreed to divide Korea into two Separate occupation zones. The country was split along the 38th Parallel, with Soviet forces occupying the northern zone and Americans Stationed in the south. In 1947, the United States and Great Britain Called for free elections throughout Korea, but the Soviets refused to Comply. In May 1948 the Korean Democratic People's Republic--a Communist state--was proclaimed in North Korea. In August, the Democratic Republic of Korea was established in South Korea. By 1949, Both the United States and the USSR had withdrawn the majority of Their troops from the Korean Peninsula. At dawn on June 25, 1950 (June 24 in the United States and Europe), 90,000 communist troops of the North Korean People's Army invaded South Korea across the 38th parallel, catching the Republic of Korea's Forces completely off guard and throwing them into a hasty southern Retreat. On the afternoon of June 25, the U.N. Security Council met in An emergency session and approved a U.S. Resolution calling for an "immediate cessation of hostilities" and the withdrawal of North Korean forces to the 38th parallel. At the time, the USSR was Boycotting the Security Council over the U.N.'s refusal to admit the People's Republic of China and so missed its chance to veto this and Other crucial U.N. Resolutions. On June 27, President Truman announced to the nation and the world That America would intervene in the Korean conflict in order to Prevent the conquest of an independent nation by communism. Truman was Suggesting that the USSR was behind the North Korean invasion, and in Fact the Soviets had given tacit approval to the invasion, which was Carried out with Soviet-made tanks and weapons. Despite the fear that U.S. Intervention in Korea might lead to open warfare between the United States and Russia after years of "cold war," Truman's decision Was met with overwhelming approval from Congress and the U.S. Public. Truman did not ask for a declaration of war, but Congress voted to Extend the draft and authorized Truman to call up reservists. On June 28, the Security Council met again and in the continued Absence of the Soviet Union passed a U.S. Resolution approving the use Of force against North Korea. On June 30, Truman agreed to send U.S. Ground forces to Korea, and on July 7 the Security Council recommended That all U.N. Forces sent to Korea be put under U.S. Command. The next Day, General Douglas MacArthur was named commander of all U.N. Forces In Korea. In the opening months of the war, the U.S.-led U.N. Forces rapidly Advanced against the North Koreans, but Chinese communist troops Entered the fray in October, throwing the Allies into a hasty retreat. In April 1951, Truman relieved MacArthur of his command after he Publicly threatened to bomb China in defiance of Truman's stated war Policy. Truman feared that an escalation of fighting with China would Draw the Soviet Union into the Korean War. By May 1951, the communists were pushed back to the 38th parallel, and The battle line remained in that vicinity for the remainder of the War. On July 27, 1953, after two years of negotiation, an armistice Was signed, ending the war and reestablishing the 1945 division of Korea that still exists today. Approximately 150,000 troops from South Korea, the United States, and participating U.N. Nations were killed In the Korean War, and as many as one million South Korean civilians Perished. An estimated 800,000 communist soldiers were killed, and More than 200,000 North Korean civilians died. The original figure of American troops lost--54,246 killed--became Controversial when the Pentagon acknowledged in 2000 that all U.S. Troops killed around the world during the period of the Korean War Were incorporated into that number. For example, any American soldier Killed in a car accident anywhere in the world from June 1950 to July 1953 was considered a casualty of the Korean War. If these deaths are subtracted from the 54,000 total, leaving just the Americans who died (from whatever cause) in the Korean theater of operations, the total U.S. dead in the Korean War numbers 36,516. 1968 : US FORCES BEGIN TO EVACUATE KHE SANH The U.S. Command in Saigon confirms that U.S. Forces have begun to evacuate the military base at Khe Sanh, 14 miles below the Demilitarized Zone and six miles from the Laotian border. The command statement attributed the pullback to a change in the military situation. To cope with increased North Vietnamese infiltration and activity in the area, Allied forces were adopting a more "mobile posture," thus making retention of the outpost at Khe Sanh unnecessary. The new western anchor of the U.S. Base system in the northern region would be located 10 miles east of Khe Sanh. The siege of Khe Sanh during the 1968 Tet Offensive had been one of the most publicized battles of the war because of the similarities it shared with the battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, in which the communist Viet Minh forces had decisively defeated the French and forced them from the war. Many in the American media had portrayed the battle for Khe Sanh as potentially "another Dien Bien Phu." The battle began on January 22 with a brisk firefight involving the 3rd Battalion, 26th Marines and a North Vietnamese battalion entrenched between two hills northwest of the base. An incessant barrage kept Khe Sanh's Marine defenders--which included three battalions from the 26th Marines, elements of the 9th Marine Regiment, and the South Vietnamese 37th Ranger Battalion--pinned down in their trenches and bunkers. During the 66-day siege, U.S. Planes, dropping 5,000 bombs daily, exploded the equivalent of five Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs in the area. The relief of Khe Sanh, called Operation Pegasus, began in early April as the 1st Cavalry (Airmobile) and a South Vietnamese battalion approached the base from the east and south, while the Marines pushed westward to re-open Route 9. The siege was finally lifted on April 6, when the cavalrymen linked up with the 9th Marines south of the Khe Sanh airstrip. In a final clash a week later, the 3rd Battalion, 26th Marines drove enemy forces from Hill 881 North. Gen. William Westmoreland, commander of U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam, contended that Khe Sanh played a vital blocking role at the western end of the Demilitarized Zone, and asserted that if the base had fallen, North Vietnamese forces could have outflanked Marine defenses along the buffer zone. Various statements in the North Vietnamese Communist Party newspaper suggested that Hanoi saw the battle as an opportunity to re-enact its famous victory at Dien Bien Phu. There was much controversy over the battle at Khe Sanh, as both sides claimed victory. The North Vietnamese, although they failed to take the base claimed that they had tied down a lot of U.S. Combat assets that could have been used elsewhere in South Vietnam. This is true, but the North Vietnamese failed to achieve the decisive victory at Khe Sanh that they had won against the French at Dien Bien Phu. For their part, the Americans claimed victory because they had held the base against the North Vietnamese onslaught. It was a costly battle for both sides. The official casualty count for the Battle of Khe Sanh was 205 Marines killed in action and over 1,600 wounded (this figure did not include the American and South Vietnamese soldiers killed in other battles in the region). The U.S. Military headquarters in Saigon estimated that the North Vietnamese lost between 10,000 and 15,000 men in the fighting at Khe Sanh. 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