North Korea’s June 25 Surprise Attack: An Important Lesson

"Surprise" is hardly correct, is it? We were treating the Japanese as a belligerent for many months prior to the attack and offered them a plum target. Indeed, there is a plausible conspiracy theory that FDR tempted them into attacking so he could break his promise to the American people and take us to war. As to Korea, Stalin was quite explicit in his strategy for Soviet Expansion. (I still wonder why anyone questioned the "Domino Theory" when it was merely a restatement of Stalin's own vision) When Truman's Scty of State announced that the US would not fight a war to keep Korea from falling to the Communists, he gave them license to attack. Why then was anyone "surprised"?