>
>With the 50th Anniversary of this sorry and brutal War upon us it is
>certainly worthy of reflection. When I was in the Navy in Japan in
1959-1961 the
>Korean War had ended just seven years before. I had the chance to fly over
to an airfield near the DMZ one weekend in 1961 and was shocked to see that
everthing appeared to be in frozen in Wartime alert conditions. The Korean
War was very much
>like the Vietnam War except it was colder, very much colder and it only
>lasted three years instead of 12 years.
>1. Veterans had all the same post-traumatic problems as Vietnam Vets as in
>adjusting back to life in the States.
>2. There were no Victory Parades or welcome home dancing in the street
>events as occured at the close of WW2. There was no Victory. If anything
>it ended in a tie - some say it was a loss - our first loss, as we had
>never lost a War prior to that.
>3. 58,000+ American troops died in VN and 54,000 died in
>Korea = hard to get an actual number - it could be much higher. The number
of wounded was enormous -
>huge numbers on both sides lost limbs, fingers and toes due to the brutal
>winter's and lack of proper cold weather clothing.
>4. MacArthur wanted to win by using the A-Bomb and tried to talk Truman
>into letting him do it. Truman almost gave in for a minute. MacArthur had
>to bite the bullet and just fade away. Had he done a little better in
Korea he could have been elected President.
>5. US troops have remained on South Korean soil for the past 50 years and
>Madeline Albright just said that they just might remain there, hmmm maybe
>forever.
>6. North Korea and South Korea are real good buddies right now: so its
one, two,
>three what did we fight there for? Don't ask me I....
>Ron Cabral
MA-SF STATE-1969
>
>
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