Korea in 1950 under American leadership, was the first time the United Nations went to war. It was only five years since World War II ended and what began as a conflict between regimes of the North and South quickly turned into a confrontation between East and West, threatening to escalate into a third world war. The Allied forces became embroiled in a war unlike any they had known yet for the Americas it served as a military rehearsal for one they would come to know only too well in Vietnam. This was a war of sharp contrasts like the harsh Korean terrain itself, ranging from freezing mountains in Winter to parched valleys in Summer, it started in rapid advances and retreats and ended in trench warfare much like the First World War.