Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 4:39am

The Korean War-Not The Forgotten War

June 25, 1950, the North Koreans, at the instigation of Stalin, invaded South Korea.  The US, under UN auspices, intervened under General Douglas MacArthur.  In a brilliant campaign, MacArthur led the American and allied forces to victory, largely destroying the North Korean Army and conquering most of North Korea.  Massive Chinese intervention led to a see-saw war up and down the Korean peninsula, with a stalemate ensuing from July 1951-July 1953.  Eisenhower got the North Koreans and their Chinese and Soviet backers to finally agree to a truce by threatening to use nuclear weapons in Korea.

Our POWs during the war were treated with the usual barbarity with which Communist regimes have treated prisoners of war.

One reason that the war dragged on is because many North Korean and Chinese prisoners of war did not want to be repatriated.  Harry Truman, to his everlasting credit, refused to send them back against their will:  “We will not buy an armistice by turning over human beings for slaughter or slavery“.  Eventually, in a stunning rebuke to Communism, some 46,000 North Korean and Chinese soldiers refused repatriation.  Conversely, only 22 Americans and 1 Brit refused repatriation, with almost all of them eventually returning after the war.

The Korean War was one of the deadliest conflicts fought by the US:  33,746 dead and 103, 284 wounded, with the vast majority of the casualties sustained in the first year of the war.  It was also a frustrating war, as the film clip from the movie Pork Chop Hill well illustrates.  That film is perhaps the best depiction of the surreal quality of the war, as the US and its allies fought against the Orwellian regimes of North Korea and China, with the Soviet Union hovering in the background.

My uncle Ralph McClarey fought in that war as an Army infantryman.  I have written about him here.  Ralph has always had an excellent sense of humor, his Donald Duck imitation would make an ox roar with laughter, and his sense of humor and his rosary sustained him through some bitter fighting.  Here’s to you uncle Ralph, and to the men you served with!  In a tough, bitter and often thankless war, you stopped Communist aggression and saved tens of millions of human beings from living under one of the worst tyrannies ever devised by fallen Man.  Some people call Korea the Forgotten War.  It will never be forgotten by me.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
3 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Saturday, June 26, AD 2010 9:01am

“Greet them ever with grateful hearts.”
– Lawrence Stallings, chapter heading, The Doughboys.

We owe these wonderful men debts we can never pay.

We can love them, and honor them, and help them where we can.

Athanasiuscmundo
Saturday, June 26, AD 2010 11:36am

I like reading military history books. The one I like the most about the Korean War is called “Shepherd in Combat Boots”. Its about Father Emil Kapaun who is presently a candidate for sainthood. He was captured by the Communist Chinese and resisted their attempts to brainwash UN soldiers.
Also, China finally admitted to its people that the North Koreans started the Korean War. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/southkorea/7853746/China-rewrites-history-of-Korean-War.html

Tito Edwards
Saturday, June 26, AD 2010 1:58pm

Over 40,000 Communist troops refused to return to their totalitarian regimes.

While we have Catholics on many dissident websites, blogs, and political organizations advocating for the socialist policies our brave men died fighting against.

Discover more from The American Catholic

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Scroll to Top