USS Toledo, a 13,600-ton Baltimore class heavy cruiser built at Camden, New Jersey was commissioned in October 1946. Following a Caribbean area shakedown cruise, in April 1947 she went to the Far East by way of the Suez Canal to begin a career of regular WestPac deployments. Toledo had just completed the third of these cruises when the outbreak of the Korean War in late June 1950 caused a hurried return to Asiatic waters. From July through October, her guns helped United Nations forces slow and stop the North Korean invaders, then, in landings at Inchon and Wonsan, throw them into retreat. In 1951 and 1952-53, Toledo made two more Korean War tours to provide gunfire support for the forces ashore.

Following the end of the Korean war in July 1953, Toledo continued her Seventh Fleet services, deploying six more times through November 1959. In January 1955, she supported the evacuation of the Tachen Islands, off the coast of China. The cruiser visited Australia in April and May 1958, as part of the commemoration of the 16th anniversary of the Battle of Coral Sea. USS Toledo was decommissioned in May 1960. She stayed in "mothballs" until October 1974, when she was sold for scrapping.