Tag: Korean War

The Forgotten War

Closing Thought–23Sep21

The war that time tries to forget….the 1950s and the Korean War……this basically brought down America’s ‘Caesar’, MacArthur…..

For those that have fallen for the erasing of this conflict from American collective memory….I can fill in the blanks…..

The Korean war began on June 25, 1950, when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south. This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War. By July, American troops had entered the war on South Korea’s behalf. As far as American officials were concerned, it was a war against the forces of international communism itself. After some early back-and-forth across the 38th parallel, the fighting stalled and casualties mounted with nothing to show for them.  Meanwhile, American officials worked anxiously to fashion some sort of armistice with the North Koreans. The alternative, they feared, would be a wider war with Russia and China–or even, as some warned, World War III. Finally, in July 1953, the Korean War came to an end. In all, some 5 million soldiers and civilians lost their lives in what many in the U.S. refer to as “the Forgotten War” for the lack of attention it received compared to more well-known conflicts like World War I and II and the Vietnam War. The Korean peninsula is still divided today.

https://www.history.com/topics/korea/korean-war

Let’s take a look at the major battles of this conflict…

Korea was under the rule of the Japanese Empire between the year 1910 and the end of World War II. In 1945, the country was liberated by the Soviet Union from the Japanese rule as a result of the agreement with the United States. The Soviet Union settled in the North while the United States settled in the South of Korea. As a result of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, Korea was split into two with separate governments in 1949. However, both the government claimed to be the legitimate Korean government. The conflicts between these governments resulted in battles when North Korea moved into South Korea in 1950. The war marked series of wars that were to follow. To this far, no treaty has been signed and the two countries are technically still at war.

16. First Battle of Seoul

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/major-battles-of-the-korean-war.html

AS Americans put this deadly conflict out of their minds the next will be Vietnam….as those vets grow older and pass on there will be few that will keep their memory alive….hopefully people like me will keep Korea and Vietnam in their minds and in their memories.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–25Jun20

Today 70 years ago America’s most forgotten war began….

Seventy years ago, the Korean War broke out. On June 25, 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea, leading to one of the gravest crises of the Cold War.

For the leaderships of South Korea and the United States, the North Korean attack constituted a strategic surprise for which they were totally unprepared. Yet, within two days, the administration of President Harry Truman in the United States managed to mobilize the United Nations Security Council into adopting two crucial resolutions. The first criticized the North Korean invasion and called for its armed forces to withdraw immediately from South Korea; the second called on members of the United Nations to lend assistance to South Korea in its efforts to repel the invasion.

https://thediplomat.com/2020/06/the-korean-war-at-70/

What could possibly make the world go to war again just a few short years after the last one had ended?

The Korean war began on June 25, 1950, when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south. This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War. By July, American troops had entered the war on South Korea’s behalf. As far as American officials were concerned, it was a war against the forces of international communism itself. After some early back-and-forth across the 38th parallel, the fighting stalled and casualties mounted with nothing to show for them. Meanwhile, American officials worked anxiously to fashion some sort of armistice with the North Koreans. The alternative, they feared, would be a wider war with Russia and China–or even, as some warned, World War III. Finally, in July 1953, the Korean War came to an end. In all, some 5 million soldiers and civilians lost their lives in what many in the U.S. refer to as “the Forgotten War” for the lack of attention it received compared to more well-known conflicts like World War I and II and the Vietnam War. The Korean peninsula is still divided today.

https://www.history.com/topics/korea/korean-war

I refuse to let this date go by without a mention of the brave men and women that fought and died in a froze wasteland on the Korean Peninsula.

Please take a few minutes to give these people the respect they are due.

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thoughts–06Aug19

Some good news from the Korean War….more than two dozen MIAs have been identified by the remains returned by North Korea….

Defense Department officials have identified 25 more missing service members from the cases of remains turned over by North Korean officials last year, a major advance for dozens of families who have waited decades for closure in the deaths of their loved ones.

The identifications were first announced by Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday afternoon and later confirmed by officials at the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency during their annual briefing to families of the Korean War, held in Washington.

On Friday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the news “A promise kept from the agreement between (North Korean) Chairman Kim (Jong Un) and President Donald Trump … to return all of our fallen heroes.”

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2019/08/02/more-than-two-dozen-missing-korean-war-troops-just-identified-from-returned-remains/

This excellent news for the families of these fallen heroes….may they now get the closure that they have waited so long to obtain.

This is one of the few positive things to come out of the dealings with Kim and North Korea…..these families deserved to know the fate of their loved ones.

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

June 25, 1950

Closing Thought–25Jun19

That is the date when the North Koreans rushed South of the border….the day the Korean War began.

The Korean War? Some say that it was the first battle against communism (I disagree)…….a quick simple look at the war……

Though the Korean War started on this day 65 years ago—June 25, 1950—when North Korean tanks crossed the 38th parallel, the boundary with South Korea, TIME’s reporting from the following week reveals it took several days for the United States to realize the scope of what had happened.

It was early Sunday morning in Korea, the middle of Saturday afternoon in Independence, Mo. In the former, TIME reported, “North Korean radio broadcast war whoops” as “past terraced hills, green with newly transplanted rice, rumbled tanks.” In the latter, U.S. President Harry Truman was visiting with friends and supporters in his home state when he received a telephone call from Secretary of State Dean Acheson.

http://time.com/3915803/korean-war-1950-history/

https://www.history.com/topics/korea/korean-war

If reading is too difficult then this short video can help……

https://youtu.be/yxaegqvl4aE

My look into the past and the Korean War was made possible by something that I read (I am always finding something for I read a lot)……

North Korea already has China watching their back but it may be that North Korea will once again embrace Russia as it did in the early days of the Korean War……

Both Moscow and Pyongyang have common grievances with Washington and may work together to evade sanctions

It seems almost inevitable that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin at some point in the near future, possibly in the port city of Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East.

The United States should be concerned.

Since this would be the first meeting between the two leaders since Kim came to power in 2011, the summit provides an important opportunity for both Russia and North Korea to advance their interests.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/korea-watch/will-cold-war-allies-russia-and-north-korea-be-reunited-50747

This is something I hope those “experts” on the Asia situations will keep this in their reports and intel…..but with this president I would not bet on anything at all.

North Korea In The News!

I realize that our Beloved Supreme Leader has said that he trust Kim and that Kim would not break his word to Trump….and yet Kim has done just that…..

North Korea fired at least one unidentified projectile from the country’s western area on Thursday, South Korea’s military says. It was the second such launch in the last five days and a possible warning that nuclear disarmament talks could be in danger, the AP reports. The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff had no other immediate details, and it wasn’t clear what the North had fired. But some analysts have said that if the North returns to the kind of longer-range banned weapons that it tested in 2017, when many feared a Washington-Pyongyang standoff could end in war, it will be a strong sign that a frustrated North Korea is turning away from diplomacy.

A summit earlier this year between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ended in failure. North Korea wants widespread sanctions relief in return for disarmament steps that the United States has apparently seen as insufficient. Longer-range ballistic missile tests, banned by the United Nations and seen as threatening by surrounding countries, would likely result in more sanctions. The launch came hours after the North, through its state media, described its firing of rocket artillery and an apparent short-range ballistic missile on Saturday as a regular and defensive military exercise and ridiculed South Korea for criticizing the launches.

Apparently North Korea has done what it does the best….Lie to American presidents…..and Trump is no different and may be the most gullible of the bunch…..

North Korea on Saturday tested a new short-range missile system and a multiple-rocket launch system, marking the regime’s first missile launches since November 2017. The tests reflect Kim Jong Un’s continued adherence to the regime’s longtime strategy of blackmail diplomacy, which seeks to secure sanctions relief without making meaningful concessions of its own.

The projectiles “landed in the water east of North Korea and didn’t present a threat to the United States or South Korea or Japan,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday. At the same time, he said, the United States remained committed to reaching a deal with Pyongyang to achieve its “final and fully verified denuclearization.”

The tested short-range missile is a new system (based on the Russian Iskander) for North Korea’s military. Both the missile system and the rocket system can now target major U.S. military bases in South Korea, namely the newly built Camp Humphreys and Osan Air Base and beyond.

https://www.fdd.org/analysis/policy_briefs/2019/05/07/north-korea-short-range-missile-test-reveal-kims-true-intent/

On another side of this situation…the US has walked out of the negotiations on the Korean War remains……

In a new sign of troubled relations with North Korea, the Pentagon said Wednesday it has suspended its efforts to arrange negotiations on recovering additional remains of US service members killed in the North during the Korean War. In a statement Wednesday, the Pentagon’s Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency said it has had no communication with North Korean authorities since the Hanoi summit between President Trump and Kim Jong Un in February. That meeting focused on the North’s nuclear weapons and followed a June 2018 summit at which Kim committed to permitting a resumption of US remains recovery, which had been suspended by the US in 2005.

“As a result, our effort to communicate with the Korean People’s Army regarding the possible resumption of joint recovery operation for 2019 has been suspended,” the agency said. “We have reached the point where we can no longer effectively plan, coordinate, and conduct field operations in the DPRK during this fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30, 2019.” The agency had hoped to arrange for recovery operations this spring, but the North never agreed to face-to-face negotiations to work out details such as payments required for the provision of support services by the North Korean army, reports the AP. Last summer the North turned over 55 boxes of what it said were the remains of an undetermined number of US service members. Thus far, three American service members have been identified from those remains.

After writing this draft news broke that the US had confiscated NK’s 2nd largest cargo ship for sanctions violations…..

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48221507

I recall something that was used in the military and has now become mainstream……..the North Korea situation is…..SNAFU!  (the “F” does not stand for “Fouled”)

A Soldier Comes Home

Closing Thought–19Mar19

Another Korean War Unknown soldier has been identified…..

The remains of an Ohio soldier killed during the Korean War have been identified.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said in a statement Monday that Army Cpl. Stephen Nemec, of Cleveland, was accounted for on July 13, 2018.

Officials say the 21-year-old soldier was reported killed fighting against the Chinese People’s Volunteer Forces at Turtle Head’s Bend, near the village of Unsan, North Korea, on Nov. 2, 1950. He was buried at a United Nations cemetery that was soon closed as the situation in North Korea worsened.

Remains received in an exchange with Chinese and North Koreans after the war were interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

A renewed effort to identify unknown remains resulted in Nemec’s identification. Burial arrangements haven’t been announced.

May the family of Cpl. Nemec find the closure they have long been denied and may Cpl. Nemec Rest In Peace.

The Manchurian Candidate

Cooler weather has once again come to town,,,,,My Saturday and my Better Half and I will settle in and watch the Manchurian Candidate…..a great way to spend Saturday……speaking of the Manchurian Candidate…..

One of my favorite movies of all time is the Manchurian Candidate….the 1960s original not the remake with Denzel…..the re-make just did not have the same impact as the original…..these are a couple of trailers form the original….

What a fanciful movie…..a little trip into fantasy right?

Maybe no so much……..

An influential politician who’s actually an enemy mole, turned while a prisoner of war, and now subverting America … It’s the subject of Homeland, the hit cable series. Ironically, the program’s second season on Showtime unfolds exactly 50 years after a classic movie first named its theme.

The Manchurian Candidate premiered in October 1962. Since then the specific strain of ideological corruption has mutated, from communism to violent Jihadism, but the public remains fascinated with the concept of brainwashing – of Americans returning from captivity secretly beholden to foreign enemies. Now U.S. government records, many declassified after decades of secrecy, are finally revealing the real story behind the enduring meme.

https://www.realclearhistory.com/articles/2012/10/30/manchurian_candidate_was_no_mere_fiction.html

Fiction imitates Life……

Ain’t history grand?

Coolness and the garden make for a great afternoon…..a little wine, cheese, nuts and fruit…….and my buddy Mo…..

1950’s–What Happened To Peace In Korea?

A war ends with a ceasefire and there is no further attempts to bring about a lasting peace…..after 60+ years why is that?

Most recently Our Dear Leader help a “summit” with the leader of North Korea, Kim…..and after this meeting we were promised that the Korean Peninsula would be nuke free soon…..

But let’s step back in time shall we…..the the 1950’s we and our allies fought a war on the Korean Peninsula and after a couple of bloody years a ceasefire was signed and the hostilities halted….a ceasefire but why no peace pact?

Yep a history question so that I can flex my historical muscle…..try it it is fun…….

In the long history of Korea, nothing compares to the 20th century division of the peninsula or the war that followed. That war has not finished, and a peace treaty remains elusive. China, North Korea and South Korea all seek a peace treaty, but 11 U.S. presidents since 1953 have been unwilling to agree.

If President Trump turns out to be the exception, that shift could help put an end to more than a half-century of conflict — and the role of the United States in determining whether peace arrives is not a small one. Neither is it coincidental: in fact, the U.S. has played a key role in keeping the conflict going as long as it has.

http://time.com/5360343/korean-war-american-history/

What is the reason that the US needed this conflict to continue?  Of course it is all about the Military-Industrial Complex……greed is a prime motivator.

In closing the Nuke News…….

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has issued its latest report on North Korea’s nuclear program, with its usual language expressing “grave concern” about any ongoing nuclear developments which might be active.

These reports on North Korea are a lot less specific than the IAEA reports one would be used to seeing on Iran, which is awash in IAEA inspectors since the nuclear deal. The IAEA has not a single inspector in North Korea, meaning everything in the report is based on second-hand reports and allegations.

Which means the IAEA report is in great measure just a reiteration of media reports we’ve already seen, with the conclusion that they haven’t seen any indication North Korea has stopped all nuclear activity. With no inspectors, they don’t really know, however.

The watchdog says that North Korea’s nuclear power plant is believed to still be running. It likely is since there’s never been report of a shutdown. The other speculations about activity are based heavily on media reports of what’s been seen in satellite images, and what third parties have guessed those may imply.

(antiwar.com)

Is there a de-nuke deal or not?  We were told that there was a deal and that denuclearization would commence…..I know it is early in the process but so far nothing seems to be progressing as we were told.

Soldiers Returned

One of the perks of the “summit” in Singapore with Kim/Trump has bore fruit…….the return of the remains of fallen soldiers during the Korean War.

An American military plane flew into North Korea on Friday and left with the remains of US troops who were killed during the Korean War, the White House says. It’s not clear how many, but South Korea’s Yonhap news agency estimates that 50 sets of remains were transferred. The plane brought the remains to the Osan Air Base in South Korea, where forensic tests will be conducted over the next few days, reports the Washington Post. After that, the remains will be sent to Hawaii ahead of a formal repatriation ceremony scheduled for Aug. 1.

“Today’s actions represent a significant first step to recommence the repatriation of remains from North Korea and to resume field operations in North Korea to search for the estimated 5,300 Americans who have not yet returned home,” said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders in a statement. The development comes out of the June summit between President Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Friday is the 65th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended hostilities.

One of the great parts of this “summit” is the return of the remains of soldiers killed.

Now the rigorous detail to ID the remains so that they can get a proper funeral.

We welcome them home finally.

Was Stalin A Sneak?

This week we seem to be fixated on Russia and its leader….so since I like history how about a little ditty about Russia and its leader…..

We all know about Stalin, the leader of the USSR, and his support for the regime in North Korea at the time of the Korean War.

There are many opinions on why the US fought that war….most are the opinion of the Red Scare and the spread of communism……well NK was already communist so there is no basis for a war of prevention….but recent documents have a whole new direction for the reason the US entered into the Korean War.

The following telegram from Joseph Stalin to Czechoslovak President Klement Gottwald on 27 August 1950 in which the Soviet leader explained his decision-making in the preceding months raises new questions about the origins of the Korean War. Did Stalin purposefully seek to entangle the United States in a military conflict on the Korean Peninsula? Did Stalin expect an intervention by the Chinese communists from virtually the beginning of the conflict? First published in the original Russian in Novaya I Noveishaya Istoriia in 2005,1 two experts, Beijing University Professor Donggil Kim and University of Georgia Professor William Stueck, provide an initial assessment of this potentially significant new finding.

Kim argues that the document suggests that Stalin gave Kim Il Sung permission to attack South Korea on 25 June 1950 not because he felt the US would not get involved, but precisely because he wanted the US to become entangled in a limited conflict in Asia. Other scholars, by contrast, have emphasized that Stalin secretly approved Kim Il Sung`s plan to attack during the North Korean leader’s secret trip to Moscow in April 1950 – only after receiving his assurances that South Korea could be overwhelmed so quickly, in a matter of a few weeks, that Washington would be unable to rescue it.2 From the very beginning he envisioned a conflict involving not just the North Koreans, but also the newly established People’s Republic of China. Doing so, Kim argues, would allow the Soviet Union to concentrate its energies on consolidating its European empire and forestalling the outbreak of a third world war. Kim bases his findings, which will be published in an NKIDP Working Paper later this year, on this and additional documents that have recently become available from the collection of the late Russian diplomat and historian Andrei Ledovskii as well as from Russian and Chinese archives.

https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/did-stalin-lure-the-united-states-the-korean-war-new-evidence-the-origins-the-korean-war

This war is one of the wars that the US population seems hell bent on removing from the American memory….they have done a pretty good job in removing World War One and now the Korean War is in their sights and after that it will be the Vietnam War.

NO war should be erased from the memory…..