Video: '27th June 1950: President Truman sends US navy and air force to Korea'

(Tuesday, June 27, 1950, 8:00 a.m. EDT; during the Korean War, part of the Cold War) — U.S. President Harry S. Truman announced today that he is ordering U.S. air and naval forces to assist South Korean forces in their resistance of Sunday’s North Korean invasion.

At the same time, Truman ordered the U.S. 7th Fleet to Formosa in order to prevent invasion by communist China upon the Nationalist Chinese outpost on the island of Taiwan, reversing his previous decision not to intervene in the Chinese Civil War.

Video: 'Korean War - PART 6, The First Weeks (June, July 1950) 6.25' (Truman, United Nations vote at 0:34)

More than 14 hours later, at 10:45 p.m. EDT, With North Korea refusing to withdraw its forces from South Korea, United Nations Security Council Resolution 83 was voted upon, as a recommendation that “the Members of the United Nations furnish such assistance to the Republic of Korea as may be necessary to repel the armed attack.”

Video: 'PBS - American Experience - Truman (1997) 5of5' (Truman authorizes military action at 13:07)

The vote was 7-1, with Yugoslavia opposing, Egypt and India abstaining, and the USSR — a permanent member which could have vetoed the resolution — absent because it had walked out of the UN on January 10.