While the public expected Dwight Eisenhower would make a trip to the peninsula, as he promised to do so during his campaign, they didn’t know when it would happen. On December 2, 1952, Eisenhower arrived in Korea and spent three days surveying troops there. To keep details of the visit hidden, the administration gave off the impression he was still in the country by making a number of cabinet appointments from the president’s home. [Business Insider]
I am not surprised how little US non-profit and corporate support the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC is receiving. It is called “The Forgotten War” for a reason. However, it is great to see how much South Korean corporations have stepped up to help the National Park Service maintain the memorial. With that all said shouldn’t this be something the government should be funding in the first place and not rely on private donations?:
The Korean War Veterans Memorial on the National Mall is often considered one of the most striking of the war memorials, with the seven-foot-tall stainless steel statues of soldiers anticipating combat, and its dark gray granite wall etched with images of those who supported the troops.
While more than 36,000 Americans died in the combat mission in the Korean War, historians often call it the “forgotten war.” And now, with the Korean War Veterans Memorial Foundation struggling to set up a maintenance fund for the memorial, and to build a Wall of Remembrance, those looking for the necessary financing are feeling forgotten all over again — the only backing is coming from overseas.
“Our greatest support comes from corporate Korea,” said William E. Weber, the chairman of the foundation and a retired colonel in the United States Army who served in the Korean War. “American corporations — forget it.” He said no American corporate entities had committed to supporting the foundation’s efforts to meet its $5 million fund-raising goal. [New York Times]
If you haven’t been to the UN Cemetery in Busan it is definitely worth checking out as it is the only cemetery with UN servicemembers buried together:
Hundreds of Korean War veterans around the world offered a moment of silence on Wednesday, turning to face the direction of Busan where the fallen U.N. soldiers killed during the war are buried.
In the South Korean port city, 40 veterans from 11 countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Turkey attended the ceremony that began at 11 a.m. in the United Nations Memorial Cemetery (UNMCK).
The Turn Toward Busan ceremony, arranged by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, was simultaneously observed in Canada, New Zealand and the Philippines. The ceremony was held in some 40 cities of the 21 nations that fought together to safeguard freedom decades ago.
The cemetery is the only place in the world where fallen U.N. servicemen are buried. According to the ministry, 40,670 servicemen of the 21 U.N. allied nations were killed during the conflict, with 104,280 wounded and 4,116 missing. A total of 23,000 U.N. servicemen were laid to rest at UNMCK. [Korea Times]
A US Soldier killed during the Korean War has had his remains identified and buried with full military honors in California:
Army Cpl. Robert V. Witt, 20, of Bellflower, went missing in the Korean War. His remains have recently been returned to his family.
Nearly 65 years after his death, Laverne Minnick’s older brother is finally coming home to rest.
The remains of Army Cpl. Robert V. Witt, a 20-year-old Bellflower man missing since the Korean War, were identified last month, and returned earlier this week to Minnick, 82, his last surviving family member.
“I am so happy. He’s going to be home, where he belongs, with his family,” said Minnick, a Huntington Beach resident.
Witt will be buried with full military honors at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier on Friday.
TASK FORCE FAITH
In late November 1950, Witt was assigned to 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 31st Regimental Combat Team, 7th Infantry Division, known as Task Force Faith, the Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said in a press statement.
They were attacked by thousands of Chinese forces at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. On Dec. 1, 1950, remnants of the 31st Regimental Combat Team tried moving to a position south of the reservoir, but the next day, Witt was reported missing in action, the statement said.
In 1953, during the prisoner of war exchanges known as Operation Little Switch and Operation Big Switch, repatriated U.S. soldiers told officials that Witt had been captured during the battle and died from malnutrition. He death is estimated at Jan. 31, 1951.
208 BOXES OF UNIDENTIFIED BONES
His remains, however, were not among those returned by Communist forces in 1954, the statement said.
Between 1990 and 1994, North Korea returned to the United States 208 boxes of unidentified human bones, no full skeletons, primarily fragments. U.S. officials later realized the boxes contained remains from 600 Korean War veterans, the statement said.
North Korean documents included in the repatriation said that some of the bones were recovered from the area where Witt was believed to have died.
REMAINS IDENTIFIED
In July 2000, a joint U.S./North Korean team excavated a burial site near Hwaong-Ri Village, and recovered additional human remains.
The only remains of Witt that were found in the boxes and the excavation site were his two femurs. [Press Telegram]
If there is one thing the Kim regime is persistent in pursuing is a peace treaty with the US to end the Korean War. The reason they are persistent is that a formal peace treaty would then call into question the continued existence of the US-ROK alliance. The North Koreans have tried for decades to drive a wedge between the ROK and the US and a peace treaty is one way they try and do this:
North Korea has called on the United States to sign a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War, without commenting on the summit talks between President Park Geun-hye and U.S. President Barack Obama.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency quoted the North’s Foreign Ministry as saying in a statement that Pyongyang and Washington could remove the source of war and put an end to the nuclear arms race by building trust.
The ministry reportedly said that one way to establish peace on the Korean Peninsula is for the North to bolster its defense capability based on nuclear weapons, while another way is for Washington to abandon its hostile policy toward Pyongyang and accept the North’s call for a peace treaty to replace the armistice agreement.
The statement came 20 hours after the South Korea-U.S. summit, in which Park and Obama called for the North’s denuclearization. [KBS World Radio]
This was a good way for President Park to begin here visit to the US:
President Park Geun-hye on Wednesday paid tribute to Americans troops killed in the 1950-53 Korean War as she began the second day of her visit to the United States.
Park laid down wreaths at the Korean War Veterans Memorial and observed a moment of silence as a military brass band played somber music.
“I came here to convey South Koreans’ mind that (we) will not forget those who helped us when we were in trouble,” Park told a group of surviving veterans and family members of those who served in the war at the ceremony that drew about 120 people.
High-profile participants included Clifton Truman Daniel, the eldest grandson of former U.S. President Harry Truman; and retired Col. Thomas Fergusson, a grandson of Edward Almond, the late commanding general of the U.S. X Corps.
Almond helped about 98,000 North Korean refugees evacuate by deciding to dump all weapons overboard to get more refugees aboard evacuation ships at the port of Heungnam in 1950.
Park also later shook hands with some of the participants.
“You are a true hero. Countless of Koreans are alive today thanks to you,” Park told retired Rear Adm. J. Robert Lunney, who served as a crew member of the S.S. Meredith Victory that brought 14,000 North Korean refugees from Heungnam to South Korea during the war. [Yonhap]
This photo, provided by Dewey McLean, a U.S. veteran of the 1950-53 Korean War and currently geology professor emeritus at Virginia Tech and taken during the war, shows part of the well-preserved Fortress Wall, seen near Yongsan Middle School, on Mount Nam in Seoul. McLean served as a corporal for a transport unit of the U.S. 8th Army when he was stationed here from 1952-53. The 18.6-kilometer wall, which follows the ridges of four inner mountains surrounding the center of Seoul, was well-kept and underwent regular repairs throughout the 1392-1910 Joseon Dynasty. South Korea plans to apply for the ancient defensive wall to be given World Heritage Status in 2016. (Yonhap)
This is why whenever the Chinese claim about historical revisionism in Japan I have to roll my eyes because they are just as bad at making up history to suit their political purposes:
The Chinese intervention in the 1950-53 Korean War had safeguarded peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, according to China’s ambassador to North Korea on Thursday, echoing controversial views from China that the war was waged out of U.S. aggression.
Ambassador Li Jinjun made the remarks on Wednesday when he paid his tribute to the Chinese troops killed during the war. Wednesday marked China’s Martyrs’ Day on the eve of the country’s National Day.
The Korean War broke out on June 25, 1950, when tank-led North Korean troops invaded South Korea. The United States and 20 other allied countries fought on the side of South Korea under the United Nations flag, while Chinese soldiers came to help North Korea. The conflict ended in a cease-fire on July 27, 1953.
During his visit to a cemetery of Chinese war dead in North Korea, Li praised the role of the Chinese intervention in the Korean War.
“You fought with the North Korean army and people to defeat the imperialist aggressors,” Li said, according to his remarks posted on the Chinese Embassy’s website.
The Chinese intervention in the Korean War “revived the cold breeze of China, safeguarded peace and stability in the region and around the world,” Li said.
Despite warming ties between South Korea and China, the Chinese view of how the Korean War started also remains controversial.
China’s school textbooks stop short of mentioning that North Korea’s invasion sparked the Korean War, and the Chinese Communist Party officially refers to the three-year conflict as “The War to Resist the U.S. and Aid North Korea.” [Yonhap]
