Why forgotten war

Because the supreme commanders did not wish to meet, the chief negotiators signed a preliminary document at the "Peace Tent" at Panmunjom, followed by a formal signing by each commander at his headquarters hours later.

The most hotly contested issue at the armistice talks were the fate of prisoners of war, particularly North Koreans and Chinese who did not wish to return to their country of origin.

In the end, both sides agreed that all prisoners would be funneled through a Neutral Nations Commission for Repatriation. The formality of the interview and exchange process prolonged the painful ordeal for many a prisoner.

Repatriating Communist prisoners frequently staged demonstrations for the onlooking press, alleging inhumane treatment and harsh conditions in Allied prison camps.

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Related Content. The celebrated GI Bill—a transformative piece of legislation that provided veterans with financial assistance to go to school—was also more restrictive for Korean War veterans.

Although the bill was less generous, many Korean War veterans benefited greatly from the educational access that it afforded. It changed more than a few lives.

These stingy policies hit African American veterans especially hard. Under an executive order signed by Truman in , the Korean War was the first American war fought with integrated units. Even though whites and African Americans fought side by side, African Americans encountered injustice when they returned home.

The Korean War era GI Bill made no stipulation that schools veterans enrolled in had to desegregate or abandon discriminatory quota systems. For this reason, African American veterans faced limited choices. Further, segregation and racial prejudice won out against veteran hiring preferences in workplaces in the South.

Likewise, federal loan programs for African American veterans did not force changes in segregated communities and often stood out of reach because of redlining, the practice by which lenders refused to guarantee loans for property in African American neighborhoods. Restrictions on government spending and assistance had real consequences for the care of wounded veterans after the war. Hospitals closed and doctors resigned in the wake of the cuts. Korean War veterans faced long wait times.

Frostbite victims were some of the worst served. Korean War veterans who suffered emotional trauma found little comfort from the VA as well. It took decades for this oversight to be corrected. By , an official at the VA admitted the agency had not done enough to help veterans. Cold War politics also shaped the experience of coming home for many veterans, especially former prisoners of war POWs.

During the war some POWs cooperated with their Chinese and North Korean captors and provided propaganda materials like signed confessions. Though this is not uncommon in American military history, some seized upon it to suggest that Korean POWs had been brainwashed and constituted a fifth column. Korean War POWs were thoroughly interrogated on the slow cruise home and placed under government surveillance for years.

Government reform followed this trend as Eisenhower authorized the Code of Conduct in , an oath and ethical guide for behavior in the armed services that is still recited by active duty servicemembers today. The inconclusive nature of the end of the fighting proved unsettling for many Americans and shaped the way they saw the war and its veterans.

The armistice did not promise peace—only a pause. A tense demilitarized zone split Korea in half. These public sentiments pushed many Korean War veterans to bury their association with the war and embrace silence. The redemptive journey of Vietnam veterans changed this point of view. It would be wrong, therefore, if we refused to bury them in the National Cemetery simply because they allegedly had pro-Japan sympathies during the Japanese occupation.

Those heroes proved that they were true patriots when they saved our country during the Korean War. Meanwhile, we should disregard political propaganda based on false information. Jean-Paul Sartre was another example. Right after World War II, it was fashionable for European intellectuals and artists to subscribe to communism.

Recently, Korean newspaper articles shed light on the forgotten Battle of Gapyeong during the Korean War, in which US soldiers defeated 4, Chinese troops. In order not to forget the Korea War, we should keep excavating the sites of heroic incidents like the Battle of Gapyeong and be thankful to those foreign soldiers who defended our nation at the risk of their lives. We should also collect and publish recollections on the Korean War before the war generation dies out.

Otherwise, no one will remember. Choi Yearn-hong, is particularly meaningful.