Page "Cold War (1947–1953)" Paragraph 30

In early 1950, the United States made its first commitment to form a peace treaty with Japan that would guarantee long-term U. S. military bases.

Some observers ( including George Kennan ) believed that the Japanese treaty led Stalin to approve a plan to invade U. S .- supported South Korea on June 25, 1950.

Korea had been divided at the end of World War II along the 38th parallel into Soviet and U. S. occupation zones, in which a communist government was installed in the North by the Soviets, and an elected government in the South came to power after UN-supervised elections in 1948.