REMEMBERING THE KOREAN WAR — AND THE AMERICAN VETERANS WHO SERVED

by Rees Lloyd

Lest we forget the American veterans who served, over 35,000 giving their lives: The Korean War began on June 25, 1950, when the communist Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea, under the communist dictator Kim Il Sung, without warning, invaded the capitalist Republic of  South Korea by sending waves of troops across the 38th Parallel which had divided the country when Japan surrender in WWII, and Japanese troops above the Parallel surrendered to the Soviet Union’s Red Army, while Japanese troops south of it surrendered  to U.S. forces.     By the time an armistice was signed on July 27, 1953, an estimated 33,574 American troops were killed in combat action; another 2,833 died of non-combat injuries or disease; some 103, 284 suffered non-fatal wounds, many of them permanently disabling; for a total of some 139,691 casualties.  

Altogether, some 5,720,000 Americans served in the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, or Coast Guard in the three years of the Korean War, all of them subject to deployment in the war zone if so ordered–which was an imminent not remote possibility after Communist China, backed and supplied by the Soviet Union,  sent hundreds of thousands of members of the Red Army into Korea on November 1, 1950 to fight Americans in aid of China’s communist North Korean ally. Indeed, there were fears that the Korean War would escalate into World War III and, perhaps, the first all-out nuclear war

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in WWII, was elected U.S. President in 1952, and as Commander-in-Chief, ended the Korean War in 1953 with North Korea driven back to its original position at the 38th Parallel. From the day of the armistice on July 27, 1953 to this day, North Korea and South Korea remain divided, and American troops remain in harm’s way  at the 38th Parallel with South Korean troops facing North Korean troops stationed on the other side. It remains a tense armistice, especially with North Korea declaring itself now a nuclear power, and making war threats.

Today, communist North Korea is an international pariah, a nation which refuses to feed its own people while devoting resources to developing nuclear weaponry, a nation where freedom is unknown .

In contrast, under democratic capitalism, South Korea is an American ally, a free country with elected leaders, and an economic power.

Only the service and sacrifice of American military in the Korean War  made this possible.
Yet, despite the gravity of the Korean War, which could have escalated into WWIII and nuclear war, and despite the service and sacrifice of Americans in that war, Korean War veterans are, for some reason, often not recognized for their service as are veterans of other wars.

"Why are we so often forgotten when veterans are honored for their service?" I have been asked by more than one Korean War veteran. And, it is true in my experience, that media or other commentators will cite the service of World War II veterans, and move on to discuss the Vietnam War, without recognizing the service and sacrifice of Korean War veterans, as if, somehow, it wasn’t a real war really defending freedom. Similarly,  I have been present when community groups (not veterans groups) have called on veterans to stand and be recognized, and Korean War veterans have been skipped over.

This may be in part due to the fact that it is the first war in which Americans served which was not officially called an American war, but a "United Nations Police Action," an ambiguous designation somehow lacking the power to inspire and invoke the kind of uniting of Americans as did WWII.  To this day, the Korean War  is often in media or even governmental discourse referred to as the "Korean conflict," rather than war.

But it was a real war, and it was Americans who were wounded and died doing the fighting.

And it was a war which really defended freedom.  What would history  have been, and what would the present be, had the communist dictator Kim Il Sung of North Korea, backed by Mao’s Red China and Stalin’s Soviet Union, not been driven back across the 38th Parallel and the republic of South Korea preserved by the service and sacrifice of Americans in military service?

All who served during the Korean War, especially those who were actually deployed and served in combat, and even more especially those who were wounded or died, deserve to be recognized and honored and thanked for their service on this anniversary day of the Korean War’s beginning, and on every day in our lives as free Americans who owe our freedom, in part, to their service and sacrifice.

(Rees Lloyd is a Vietnam-era veteran, who salutes and thanks all who served in the  Korean War.)

Robert Rosebrock

U.S. Army, 1965-67, Schofield Barracks, Hqs., U.S Army, Hawaii. Director, The Veterans Revolution, Captain, the Old Veterans Guard, and Director, We the Veterans.