That's a victory. That's your legacy
WASHINGTON — Six decades after the Korean War ended, President
Barack Obama said Saturday that American veterans deserved a better
homecoming from a war-weary nation and that their legacy is the 50
million people who live freely in a democratic South Korea.
"Here in America, no war should ever be forgotten, and no veteran
should ever be overlooked," he said in a speech at the Korean War
Veterans Memorial on the National Mall, where ceremonies marked
the 60th anniversary of the end of hostilities on the peninsula.
Obama said the conflict didn't unite or divide the country the same way
World War II or the Vietnam War did, respectively, and that U.S. veterans
came home to neither parades nor protests because "there was, it
seemed, a desire to forget, to move on" by Americans tired of battle.
But they "deserved better," Obama said, adding that, on Saturday's
anniversary, "perhaps the highest tribute we can offer our veterans of
Korea is to do what should have been done the day you came home."
He appealed for people to pause and let these veterans "carry us
back to the days of their youth and let us be awed by their shining deeds."
In the audience of several thousand on a sunny and humid morning were
dozens of American and Korean veterans of the war. Obama asked them
to stand and be recognized.
The 1950-1953 war had North Korean and Chinese troops on one side
against U.S.-led United Nations and South Korean forces. It ended on
July 27, 1953, 60 years ago Saturday, with the signing of an armistice.
A formal peace treaty was never signed, leaving the Korean Peninsula in
a technical state of war and divided at the 38th parallel between its com-
munist north and democratic south. More than 36,000 Americans were
killed in the conflict. The U.S. still has 28,500 troops based in the south.
Yet the costs of the war continue to mount even amid relative peace.
Hostility remains between the two Koreas and between the North and the
United States, which still has no formal diplomatic relations with the com-
munist nation. That antagonism is rooted in the U.S. commitment to take
a lead role in defending the South should war again break out on the
peninsula.
Washington also has tried for years to wean its ally off its dependence
on the U.S. military, setting and then delaying target dates for switching
from U.S. to Korean control of the forces that would defend the South
against a possible new attack from the North.
Another legacy is the challenge of accounting for the roughly 7,900 U.S.
servicemen still listed as missing in action. Obama said the war is a reminder
that a country's obligation to its fallen and their families endures long after
battle. He pledged that the U.S. would not rest "until we give these families
a full accounting of their loved ones."
Obama also alluded to the Korean War sometimes being called the "forgotten
war" and noted long-standing suggestions that it was fought for naught,
summed up in the phrase "die for tie." He disputed that characterization,
saying "today, we can say with confidence that war was no tie. Korea was
a victory."
When 50 million South Koreans live in freedom in stark contrast to the dire
condtions endured by their countrymen in the North, "that's a victory. That's
your legacy," he said.
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