MY SAY: NORTH KOREA IN CONTEXT
On June 25, 1950, the Northern Korean People’s Army crossed the 38th parallel dividing the Communist North from the Republic of South Korea in the South. The invasion was staged at various checkpoints with the avowed goal of unifying Korea under the Norths’ Communist regime.
President Harry S. Truman responded by adding American forces to the United Nations combined armies assigned to aid the Republic of South Korea, and named General Douglas MacArthur as Commander General of defense of the South.
After a series of forays and defeats and renewed advances the 38th parallel was restored and the South’s capital Seoul was retaken.
By 1951, President Truman bowing to pressure, abandoned the goal of unifying Korea and issued strategy for limited conflict to avoid escalation of hostilities which could provoke China and the Soviet Union.
General MacArthur publicly challenged the President which led to his dismissal.
The rest is history. On July 27, 1953, seven months after his inauguration, President Eisenhower implemented an armistice. There was to be no surrender or victory such as obtained when Shinto Imperialism and Nazi Germany were vanquished. After almost 50,000 U.S. troops died, the Korean Peninsula remained divided by the 38th parallel and the Kim dynasty remained in control of the North.
Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong il, and Kim Jong un, successively imposed brutal tyranny on its citizens. Furthermore, every American administration has been bedeviled by North Korea’s military adventurism in capturing the USS Pueblo in 1968, continued support of Iran with arms and technology shipments, and more recently, a buildup of nuclear capability and long-range missiles.
Truman may have been correct in firing General Mac Arthur but history has vindicated the general whose speech to Congress is dazzling in its prophetic clarity. It is posted below in its entirety. Rsk
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