Reply #35: Not quite

[Lurks Often]

In 1950, the US military was a shadow of what it was at the end of WWII, Truman and his Secretary of Defense, Louis A. Johnson, had drastically cut the military back. Things were so bad at the beginning of the war that the Army had to take tanks that were no longer being used and out on display, re-condition them and then send them to Korea. It cost Louis Johnson his job. Also we did not have the significant advantages in technology that we do now. In fact, the North Koreans entered the war with a better tank and better fighter then we did. We very nearly lost that war before reinforcements arrived. When we finally pushed the North Koreans back it was more due to superior leadership, since many of the mid-level and senior officers and NCO's were combat veterans from WWII, the invasion at Inchon and better logistics. The North Koreans had out run their supply lines when they pushed us all the way back to the port of Pusan.

Every war prior to Vietnam (and argument can be made for Vietnam as well) the US military has entered the war under equipped and unprepared and they paid for our government's failures to properly fund the military with their lives.