studying for the midterm

So simple a matter as whose troops crossed the 38th parallel first, on the morning of June 25, 1950, remained for years the subject of intense argument - let alone the question of for what purpose. The most prominent American historian of this conflict, having devoted well over a decade and some 1500 pages to studying its origins, could conclude as late as 1990 that "no one and everyone" was responsible: "Who started the Korean War? This question should not be asked" (Gaddis 71).