In an address to the nation on July 19, 1950, President Harry Truman explained “why it was necessary for the United States to resist aggression in Korea. ‘Korea is a small country, thousands of miles away, but what is happening there is important to every American. …The attack upon Korea was an outright breach of the peace and a violation of the Charter of the United Nations. …This is a direct challenge to the efforts of the free nations to build the kind of world in which men can live in freedom and peace. …This challenge has been presented squarely. We must meet it squarely.’ ”
– Richard N. Haass, War of Necessity, War of Choice, Pages 116-117