Posted on 08/02/2020 3:31:53 PM PDT by Perseverando
"FREEDOM IS NOT FREE" is the inscription on the Korean War Memoria l in Washington, D.C.
The Korean War started June 25, 1950.
Communist North Korea invaded South Korea, killing thousands.
Outnumbered South Korean and American troops, as part of a U.N. police action, fought courageously against the Communist Chinese and North Korean troops, who were supplied with arms and MIG fighters from the Soviet Union.
Five-star General Douglas MacArthur was Supreme U.N. Commander, leading the United Nations Command from 1950 to 1951.
MacArthur made a daring landing of troops at Inchon, deep behind North Korean lines, and recaptured the city of Seoul.
With temperatures sometimes forty degrees below zero in the Korean mountains, and Washington politicians limiting the use of air power against the Communists, there were nearly 140,000 American casualties:
in the defense of the Pusan Perimeter and Taego;
in the landing at Inchon and the freeing of Seoul;
in the capture of Pyongyang;
in the Yalu River where nearly a million Communist Chinese soldiers invaded;
in the Battles of Changjin Reservoir, Old Baldy, White Horse Mountain, Heartbreak Ridge, Pork Chop Hill, T-Bone Hill, and Siberia Hill.
The word "democracy" has two main definitions:
the first is a political form of government where every citizen votes on every issue everyday and the majority rules. This only successfully worked on a small city-state basis where every citizen could physically be present at every meeting;
the second definition of "democracy" is simply a general reference to citizens ruling themselves.
It was the second definition that came into popular usage during the Cold War.
Harry S Truman compared Communism and Democracy in his Inaugural Address, January 20, 1949:
"We believe that all men are created equal because they
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I found an old scrapbook with photos of my Dad in the Korean War after he passed away.
He was just a skinny kid from the farm.
I watched the flag pass by one day,
It fluttered in the breeze;
A young Marine saluted it,
And then he stood at ease.
I looked at him in uniform,
So young, so tall, so proud;
With hair cut square and eyes alert,
He’d stand out in any crowd.
I thought . . . how many men like him
Had fallen through the years?
How many died on foreign soil?
How many mothers’ tears?
How many pilots’ planes shot down
How many died at sea
How many foxholes were soldiers’ graves
No, Freedom is not Free.
I heard the sound of Taps one night,
When everything was still;
I listened to the bugler play,
And felt a sudden chill;
I wondered just how many times
That Taps had meant "Amen"
When a flag had draped a coffin
Of a brother or a friend;
I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands.
With interrupted lives.
I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea,
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No. Freedom is not Free!
©Copyright 1981 by Kelly Strong
Used with the author’s permission. Kelly Strong composed this poem when he was a senior at Homestead High School in Homestead, FL, serving as a Junior ROTC cadet. It was written as a tribute to his father, a career marine who served 2 tours in Vietnam. Kelly is now a married father of 3 and resides in Mobile, AL. He is retired from the Coast Guard after 24 years service and is a Captain at a major U.S. Airline.
PEACE without FREEDOM is TYRANNY..
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