Video: 'Eisenhower Visits Korea (1952)'

(Tuesday, December 2, 1952, 7:57 p.m. Korean Standard Time; during the Korean War, part of the Cold War and the Korean conflict) — Making good on his most dramatic promise of the 1952 presidential campaign, U.S. President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower arrived in Korea tonight for a firsthand view of the bitter and frustrating Korean War, which Eisenhower vowed to end.

After visiting the troops, their commanders, and South Korean leaders, and receiving briefings on the military situation in Korea, Eisenhower concluded, “we could not stand forever on a static front and continue to accept casualties without any visible results. Small attacks on small hills would not end this war.”

Eisenhower departed South Korea on the evening of Friday, Dec. 5, 1952.

During the presidential campaign of 1952, Eisenhower, the Republican nominee, was critical of the Truman administration’s foreign policy, particularly its inability to bring an end to the conflict in Korea.

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President Harry S. Truman challenged Eisenhower to come up with an alternate policy. Eisenhower responded with the startling announcement on Oct. 24 that if he were elected, he would personally go to Korea to get a firsthand view of the situation.

The promise boosted Eisenhower’s popularity and he handily defeated Democratic presidential nominee Adlai E. Stevenson.

After taking office on Jan. 20, 1953, Eisenhower adopted a get-tough policy toward the communists in North Korea. He suggested that he would “unleash” the Nationalist Chinese forces on Taiwan against communist China, and he sent only slightly veiled messages that he would use any force necessary (including the use of nuclear weapons) to bring the war to an end unless peace negotiations began to move forward.

The Chinese, exhausted by more than two years of war, finally agreed to terms, and an armistice was signed on July 27, 1953.