The forgotten war
Richard Fulton
A lot has gone on in the last week, week and a half. There was the trade wrangling in Congress that finally gave President Obama his “fast track” authority so that he can negotiate in good faith with twelve Asian nations.
The Supreme Court announced its important decisions on Obamacare and same sex marriages. One upheld the Court’s feeling that they should not interfere with a clear meaning of a legislative act, the other gave the Court’s belief in the equal protection of the law.
South Carolina brought home with a sudden and tragic act the festering problems of hate in America amongst a minority that cannot abide the diversity of the American experience.
Lost in all of this was a significant anniversary, the sixty-fifth year since North Korea brazenly attacked South Korea in an attempt to unite the peninsula under a vicious communist regime led by Kim Il Sung. His grandson runs the broken North to this day.
On June 25, 1950, 90,000 well trained North Korean troops aided by 150 Soviet -built tanks rushed across the border between the two states (the 38th parallel) pushing back the unprepared Southern troops.
Immediately, the UN called for aid to the South, but that was slow in coming. United States troops were sent from Japan but without enough support. They and the South Korean troops were systematically pushed down to the very southern edge of the peninsula. To the last port city available, Pusan.
At great cost they dug in and held off the Northern advance. Gen. Douglas McArthur tried, against the advice of most of his aides, a bold move. He sent an invasion force into the port of Inchon close to the South’s capital far to the north (now controlled by the North Koreans) called Seoul.
It was a dramatic success, cutting off the South’s supply lines and relieving the army surrounded at Pusan and giving time for the arrival of troops from several UN nations, but 90% America, as well as military supplies.
The UN troops had the initiative and went into the North close to the Chinese border on the Yalu river. It was at this point that Chinese troops, “volunteers” they said, rushed to the aid of the North.
A story in the Omaha World-Herald described the disaster this way: “At night, 180,000 Chinese troops overran the right flank of the 8th Army in the west while 120,000 others surrounded the 20,000-man 1st Marine Division.”
It was the coldest winter in thirty years—down to 60 below. Supplies were hard to get to the UN troops. Blood plasma froze. But the Marines busted out south, bringing wounded and dead with them. It was the battle of Chosin Reservoir.
McArthur called for an atom attack on China, Truman said no and fired him.
What followed from January 1951 to July 1953 was a running battle that cost three times more casualties than the 1950 battles until there was a stalemated close to the 38th Parallel. Peace talks began.
They were never conclude, though an armistice was signed and fighting stopped. The war is still not formally over and both sides meet periodically at a small village along the parallel called Panmunjom.
Korea is the forgotten war, and the never ending war. To forget, however, is to discount the cost of that war. There are many veterans with harsh memories. American casualties include 36,574 deaths; 103,284 wounded; and 7,800 still to this day missing in action. And 1.217 million South Korean military and civilians died during the war.
That, if nothing else, should be remembered—and remembered with gratitude.
Material from David Hendee and Matthew Hansen of The World Herald.
