The Forgotten War Of The Korean War

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The Forgotten War
The Korean War was the first military action of the cold war and an effort to restrain the growing communist aggression. Despite this however, this war is often forgotten, perhaps it is because The Korean War wasn’t a “declared war” and ended in an unsatisfactory stalemate (U.S Enters). Though the Korean War was overshadowed by World War II and the Vietnam War, the Korean people took the freedom we helped buy with our blood and rose to be one of the top ten economies in the world (Transition). The Korean War is a largely forgotten, overlooked encounter which has a tremendous influence on global politics, ideologies, and rivalries; this war encouraged the civil rights movement in America, it promoted the exchange of…show more content…
On June 25, 1950, the war began when North Korean soldiers poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between North and South Korea. North Korea aimed to militarily conquer South Korea and unify Korea under the communist regime. Many feared it was the first step in a communist campaign to take over the world (Korean War in Stages). “If we let Korea down,” President Harry Truman said, “the Soviets will keep right on going and swallow up one place after another” (Lowe). The fight on the Korean peninsula was a symbol of the global struggle between east and west. When President Truman stated encountered Dr. Syngman Rhee, president of the South Korean Republic, in October 1948, he stated:
In my generation, this was not the first occasion when the strong had attacked the weak.... Communism was acting in Korea just as Hitler, Mussolini, and the Japanese had acted ten, fifteen, and twenty years earlier. I felt certain that if South Korea was allowed to fall, Communist leaders would be emboldened to override nations closer to our own shores. (Hill)
In 1951 as fighting continued along the 38th parallel, negotiations stalled. Both sides were willing to accept a ceasefire, but they could not agree on the repatriation of prisoners of war. After two years of negotiation, the armistice was signed on July 27, 1953. The agreement allowed the prisoners of war to stay where they liked and drew a new boundary near the 38th parallel and creating the “demilitarized zone”, which still
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