Posted on 08/02/2018 11:32:48 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Our country rightly paused last week to honor the service of America’s Korean War veterans and to note our continuing interest in helping protect a democratic South Korea.
Fighting in the Korean War came to a halt 65 years ago, when negotiations finally yielded an armistice that halted hostilities, created the Demilitarized Zone and separated the Korean Peninsula into a north-south division. The conflict, which included some of the American military’s most desperate battles and most inspiring demonstrations of heroism, took the lives of 36,000 Americans.
Among the dead was Marine Pfc. Edward “Babe” Gomez of Omaha, a graduate of Omaha Central High School. During combat on Sept. 14, 1951, Gomez fell on a grenade to save his fellow Marines. He “gallantly gave his life for his country,” reads the Medal of Honor citation signed by President Harry Truman and awarded posthumously to Gomez.
During a ceremony Friday with Gov. Pete Ricketts at the Nebraska State Capitol, South Korea’s deputy consul general in Chicago, Donghan Yang, presented “Ambassador of Peace” medals to Korean War veterans and to the families of those who had died or could not be there.
“Sixty-eight years ago, U.S. soldiers were sent to fight in a country they didn’t know, for a people they’d never met,” the Korean representative said. “The Korean people will remember the courage and sacrifice of the U.S. soldiers forever.” Ricketts told the gathering of about 70 Korean War veterans: “We’re here to tell you ... that your sacrifices are remembered, and honored.”(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at omaha.com ...
The Forgotten War.
Nearly as many GIs died in Korea in a far shorter time than Vietnam but it was always as if it never happened. Eclipsed in the public mind by Vietnam and WWII.
It was also the right thing to do, to set up a DMZ and stop fighting. What are the odds President Eisenhower knew it would still be unresolved after all these years? Perhaps he suspected it, thus the strong warning about the (alive and thriving) military-industrial complex.
Should have used nukes to end that war back then.
This article just inspired a very rebuttal to those young politicians who claim to be democratic socialists. It has be benefit of being simple, direct and to the point. Just pose this question to them:
So who is better off, the people of North Korea or the people of South Korea?
No intellectually honest person can argue the point.
Many have said that we won WWII and we “tied” in the Korean War. Not so.
We won the Korean War. The North Koreans’ goal was to take over S. Korea, and they almost did in the early part of the conflict, moving their troops all the down to the southern part of S. Korea and controlling the entire peninsula.
But the US and allies fought the Norks all the way back from the south and pushed them back across the DMZ, keeping S. Korea free and independent.
What started the Korean war? Did any Koreans attack United States? Or were we playing world police?
NoKo 25 million people
SoKo 54 million
It was well worth it. The 25 million in NoKo are going to get a very pleasant cultural shock when the borders between the two become moot.
No one really attacked the United States in World War I, the Spanish-American War, the Mexican-American War or the Persian Gulf War.
Potsdam Conference, 1945. Truman, Churchill, and Stalin agreed to divide Korea when the Japanese were kicked out.
North Korea.
No.
Yes.
Please refer to RR's question posted upthread: So who is better off, the people of North Korea or the people of South Korea?
Unless you're ok with communist totalitarian hegemony, I'd say that the ChiComs jumping in on the side of the Norks was a ringing endorsement of Allied involvement.
For those who don’t know, Potsdam is a well-off section of Berlin, Germany.
You may be surprised but I do have a life and can not stay on line all day to reply to posts.
Communist countries do not need to be changed from outside, they have built in seeds internally to guarantee demise of their regimes.
Examples: East Germany, Poland, and other formerly Soviet Satellites.
They have changed their political systems without wars.
Even China of the Mao era is now unrecgnizable, creating more new Billionaire business owners. I visited Vietnam recently, and it does not resemble anything like the one we lost 50,000 soldiers during war and even though we were unable to defeat the communist North Vietnam, private businesses are creating wealth again.
The main thing we should be wary of is sneaky interference from current authoritarian regimes in our democracy.
With $21 Trillion national debt and growing, is not a good time to act as world policeman. Kudos to the Potus for pushing members of NATO to carry more load.
Please read post #14.
It can be argued - and I maintain - that absent America's myriad forms of pressure from the end of WWII to the present,
no signifcant change (other than an overall worsening of conditions for the common man) would have occurred in the Soviet Union, China, or any of their client states.
Further, this is utter nonsense: .. even though we were unable to defeat the communist North Vietnam.
The North's only 'victory' was over feckless political cowards, their toadies at the DoD, and a complicit, seditious enemedia right here at home.
Finally, absent US markets and technology, the Chinese economy would have remained as moribund as any other communist/statist failure.
What started the Korean war? Did any Koreans attack United States? Or were we playing world police?
____________________________________________
The communists attacked us, they have for a hundred years. We, as the big dog on the block, are the end goal. Without our perseverance, it all crumbles ... in fact it would be easy. While you throw out the tired cliche “world police”, imagine the world without us.
Laissez faire is an open invitation for tyrants, afternoon tea & lady fingers for the intellectually dishonest lazy invertebrates.
LOL I never said who was responsible for the desperate departure of scrambling helicopters out of Saigon. Absolutely it was Washington DC calling the shots and not the military.
But that is a deflection tactic used typically by liberals.
Again my real point is, we do not need to send young brave Americans to countries like Vietnam, and spend tremendous amount of blood and treasure and have nothing to show for it. The communists of North Vietnam took over the entire country of Vietnam and renamed Saigon as Ho Chi Minh city.
Then what happened? The hard working people of Vietnam themselves figured out communism was not the way to go. Now there are private entrepreneurs creating wealth there. I traveled to Hanoi and some port cities, and was impressed with the modern looking infra structure which never existed during Ho Chi Minh.
Real reason North Korea agreed to a summit with POTUS is because the difference between capitalist South and communist North is more stark with every passing year. Those people will change from within, which is better for us than by trying to change them by military force.
Best policy is to keep our military so strong, no one will want to start a war with us. We can’t change any country by military force. It did not work in Vietnam. It did not work in Iraq. We shed incredible amount of blood and treasure and gained nothing.
If indigenous people of any country are hard working, they will get rid of communism all by themselves. It does not happen overnight. It takes 1 or 2 or even 3 generations. China today looks nothing like it looked under chairman Mao-Tse-Tung. Ditto with Vietnam.
And there are some other countries, which will never improve such as Afghanistan because the fanatic religion controls their minds.
‘Deflection’ ? !
What I was referencing happened waaay before the helos left Saigon, but I’m guessing that you knew that.
You also seem to be lauding several effects while discrediting or ignoring their underlying causes.
Wars are certainly horrible things, but there are worse things.
Anyway, I’m out .. cheers.
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