Taiwan’s fate was influenced by events in Korea once before: When North Korean dictator Kim Il-sung attacked South Korea in June 1950, then-US president Harry Truman sent the US Seventh Fleet into the Taiwan Strait, thereby preventing the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from attacking Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) troops, which had just retreated to Taiwan. The PRC subsequently sent its troops across the Yalu River to assist Kim, who had been losing ground quickly, thus prolonging the conflict that only technically ended in 1953. This cemented an ambiguous status quo, but did not resolve the situation in Korea nor the debate on Taiwan’s future.