<P> In a series of emergency meetings that lasted from 2 to 5 October, Chinese leaders debated whether to send Chinese troops into Korea . There was considerable resistance among many leaders, including senior military leaders, to confronting the U.S. in Korea . Mao strongly supported intervention, and Zhou was one of the few Chinese leaders who firmly supported him . After Lin Biao politely refused Mao's offer to command Chinese forces in Korea (citing his upcoming medical treatment), Mao decided that Peng Dehuai would be the commander of the Chinese forces in Korea after Peng agreed to support Mao's position . Mao then asked Peng to speak in favor of intervention to the rest of the Chinese leaders . After Peng made the case that if U.S. troops conquered Korea and reached the Yalu they might cross it and invade China the Politburo agreed to intervene in Korea . On 4 August 1950, with a planned invasion of Taiwan aborted due to the heavy U.S. naval presence, Mao Zedong reported to the Politburo that he would intervene in Korea when the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) Taiwan invasion force was reorganized into the PLA North East Frontier Force . On 8 October 1950, Mao Zedong redesignated the PLA North East Frontier Force as the Chinese People's Volunteer Army (PVA). </P> <P> To enlist Stalin's support, Zhou and a Chinese delegation arrived in Moscow on 10 October, at which point they flew to Stalin's home at the Black Sea . There they conferred with the top Soviet leadership which included Joseph Stalin as well as Vyacheslav Molotov, Lavrentiy Beria and Georgi Malenkov . Stalin initially agreed to send military equipment and ammunition, but warned Zhou that the Soviet Union's air force would need two or three months to prepare any operations . In a subsequent meeting, Stalin told Zhou that he would only provide China with equipment on a credit basis, and that the Soviet air force would only operate over Chinese airspace, and only after an undisclosed period of time . Stalin did not agree to send either military equipment or air support until March 1951 . Mao did not find Soviet air support especially useful, as the fighting was going to take place on the south side of the Yalu . Soviet shipments of matériel, when they did arrive, were limited to small quantities of trucks, grenades, machine guns, and the like . </P> <P> Immediately on his return to Beijing on 18 October 1950, Zhou met with Mao Zedong, Peng Dehuai, and Gao Gang, and the group ordered two hundred thousand Chinese troops to enter North Korea, which they did on 25 October . UN aerial reconnaissance had difficulty sighting PVA units in daytime, because their march and bivouac discipline minimized aerial detection . The PVA marched "dark - to - dark" (19: 00--03: 00), and aerial camouflage (concealing soldiers, pack animals, and equipment) was deployed by 05: 30 . Meanwhile, daylight advance parties scouted for the next bivouac site . During daylight activity or marching, soldiers were to remain motionless if an aircraft appeared, until it flew away; PVA officers were under order to shoot security violators . Such battlefield discipline allowed a three - division army to march the 460 km (286 mi) from An - tung, Manchuria, to the combat zone in some 19 days . Another division night - marched a circuitous mountain route, averaging 29 km (18 mi) daily for 18 days . </P> <P> Meanwhile, on 15 October 1950, President Truman and General MacArthur met at Wake Island in the mid-Pacific Ocean . This meeting was much publicized because of the General's discourteous refusal to meet the President on the continental United States . To President Truman, MacArthur speculated there was little risk of Chinese intervention in Korea, and that the PRC's opportunity for aiding the KPA had lapsed . He believed the PRC had some 300,000 soldiers in Manchuria, and some 100,000--125,000 soldiers at the Yalu River . He further concluded that, although half of those forces might cross south, "if the Chinese tried to get down to Pyongyang, there would be the greatest slaughter" without air force protection . </P>

Which nation supplied military aid to north korea during the korean war (1 point)