Book contents
- The Long Search for Peace
- The Official History of Australian Peacekeeping, Humanitarian and Post–Cold War Operations
- The Long Search for Peace
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Maps
- Preface
- Glossary
- Part 1 Actor and observer
- 1 The origins of peacekeeping
- 2 St George and the maiden
- 3 Inventing peacekeeping
- 4 Failure
- 5 Success
- 6 Observing at a critical moment
- 7 An intractable dispute
- 8 ‘Tough men wanted’
- 9 Australia and the problem of Palestine
- 10 The Six Day War and after
- 11 ‘If you’re not confused, you don’t understand the situation’
- 12 Over jungle and swamp
- 13 A reluctant start
- 14 The first decade
- 15 Australia and the invention of peacekeeping
- Part 2 New ambitions
- Part 3 Carrying on
- Conclusion
- Book part
- Bibliography
- Index
- Plate Section (PDF Only)
6 - Observing at a critical moment
Australia and Korea, 1947–53
from Part 1 - Actor and observer
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 September 2019
- The Long Search for Peace
- The Official History of Australian Peacekeeping, Humanitarian and Post–Cold War Operations
- The Long Search for Peace
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Maps
- Preface
- Glossary
- Part 1 Actor and observer
- 1 The origins of peacekeeping
- 2 St George and the maiden
- 3 Inventing peacekeeping
- 4 Failure
- 5 Success
- 6 Observing at a critical moment
- 7 An intractable dispute
- 8 ‘Tough men wanted’
- 9 Australia and the problem of Palestine
- 10 The Six Day War and after
- 11 ‘If you’re not confused, you don’t understand the situation’
- 12 Over jungle and swamp
- 13 A reluctant start
- 14 The first decade
- 15 Australia and the invention of peacekeeping
- Part 2 New ambitions
- Part 3 Carrying on
- Conclusion
- Book part
- Bibliography
- Index
- Plate Section (PDF Only)
Summary
On 24 June 1950, two Australian UN military observers, Major Stuart Peach and Squadron Leader Ronald Rankin, completed a report on their observation of South Korean forces along the border between North and South Korea. At 4am the next day, North Korean tanks and infantry crashed across the border, thus initiating the Korean War. Within two days, based on Peach and Rankin’s report, the UN Security Council had passed resolutions authorising the use of force to eject the North Koreans from the South. The Peach–Rankin report became perhaps the most important written by Australian UN observers in the 70 years of Australian peacekeeping.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Long Search for PeaceObserver Missions and Beyond, 1947–2006, pp. 134 - 157Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019