[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 123 (Thursday, July 27, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10788-S10789]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


           THE DEDICATION OF THE KOREAN WAR VETERANS MEMORIAL

  Mr. HEFLIN. Mr. President, on the Mall this afternoon, just across 
the reflecting pool from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, another unique 
symbol commemorating the sacrifice of our Nation's veterans was 
dedicated. The long-overdue memorial to our Korean war veterans was 
finally and officially opened to the public today, July 27, 1995, the 
42d anniversary of the armistice agreement ending that conflict.
  This stirring memorial truly deserves its rightful place on the 
national Mall, for, as a Washington Post editorial succinctly put it 
yesterday, `` `Korea' was a convulsive but finally proud event in the 
tradition of the presidents honored on this hallowed national ground.'' 
On the Korean Peninsula over 40 years ago, brave Americans led a score 
of nations in successfully thwarting Communist aggression. ``It was a 
moment in the history of freedom, and the 54,000 Americans who died and 
the many others who fought there earned the benediction in stone and 
steel now * * * bestowed.''
  Some have called the Korean war ``the forgotten war,'' since it did 
not 

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end in triumph--like World War II--or in bitter defeat--like Vietnam. 
It neither united us the way World War II did, nor did it divide us to 
the degree that Vietnam did. It was not even called a war, as such, but 
was generally referred to as a ``police action,'' or ``conflict.'' The 
memorial dedicated on the Mall today not only honors those who served 
and died in the Korean war, it also gives them their proper place in 
our Nation's collective memory.
  The Korean war is significant in our history for many reasons, one of 
those being that it was the stage for the first war in which a world 
organization--the United Nations--played a military role. It was a 
tremendous challenge for the United Nations, which had come into 
existence only 5 years earlier. We only recently commemorated its 50th 
anniversary, so it is perhaps fitting that the opening of the Korean 
Veterans Memorial coincides with that celebration, since it was the 
United Nations' first major test.
  The Korean war began on June 25, 1950, when troops from Communist-
ruled North Korea invaded South Korea. The United Nations called the 
invasion a violation of international peace and demanded that the 
Communists withdraw from the south. After the Communists refused and 
kept fighting, the United Nations asked its members to provide military 
aid to South Korea. Sixteen U.N. countries sent troops to help the 
South Koreans, and a total of 41 nations sent military equipment or 
food and other supplies. As we know, the largest share of U.N. support 
for South Korea came from the United States, and the greatest burden 
was born by American servicemen and women. China aided North Korea, and 
the former Soviet Union gave military equipment to the North Koreans.
  The war went on for 3 years, ending on July 27, 1953, with an 
armistice agreement between the United Nations and North Korea. A 
permanent peace treaty remains an elusive goal as 37,000 American 
troops to this day remain in South Korea to discourage a resumption of 
hostilities.
  In many ways, the Korean war set the pattern for future United States 
military efforts. It saw important innovations in military technology, 
such as fighting between jet aircraft as American F-86's battled 
Soviet-built MiG-15's. It was the first conventional war that could 
have easily escalated to atomic dimensions.
  The war unalterably changed the nature of superpower relations. The 
dramatic American demobilization after World War II was reversed and 
the United States has since maintained a strong military force. Cold 
war tensions mounted, and some historians argue that the war fostered 
dangerous ``McCarthyism'' at home.
  Hopefully, this moving memorial will help Americans of all ages come 
to better understand and appreciate the importance of the sacrifices 
made by those who fought and died during the Korean war. On this day of 
the dedication of their memorial, I stand with each of my colleagues in 
saluting all veterans of the Korean war. Their service and sacrifices--
as well as that of their families--are not forgotten.
  I ask unanimous consent that the text of the Washington Post 
editorial, ``The Korean War: On the Mall,'' from July 26 be printed in 
the Record.
  There being no objection, the editorial was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                      The Korean War: On the Mall

       A memorial to American veterans of the Korean War (1950-53) 
     is to be dedicated tomorrow on the Mall across the Reflecting 
     Pool from the Vietnam Memorial. It deserves to be there, for 
     ``Korea'' was a convulsive but finally proud event in the 
     tradition of the presidents honored on this hallowed national 
     ground.
       In Korea the United States led a score of nations 
     successfully resisting what was pure and simple Communist 
     aggression. It was a moment in the history of freedom, and 
     the 54,000 Americans who died and the many others who fought 
     there earned the benediction in stone and steel now being 
     bestowed.
       The Korean War can seem a grim and inevitable episode in 
     the grinding global collision of the Cold War. Yet at key 
     moments it was anything but fated. Secretary of State Dean 
     Acheson simply erred when he said in January 1950 that the 
     Korean peninsula, divided by Washington and Moscow as World 
     War II closed, was outside the U.S. ``defensive perimeter.'' 
     A fortnight later Stalin, the Soviet Communist leader, 
     instructed his envoy to tell North Korea's dictator, Kim Il 
     Sung, that ``I am ready to help him in this matter'' of 
     reuniting Korea.
       It was far from certain that the struggling American 
     president, Harry Truman, would reverse course and respond 
     resolutely when North Korea invaded in June. It was even less 
     predictable that Gen. Douglas MacArthur, author of the 
     Marines' legendary Inchon landing, would ignore the new 
     Chinese Communist government's warnings and, tragically, end 
     up fighting China too.
       With its evocative poncho-clad figures, the new memorial 
     captures the war's signature of foot-soldiers trudging into 
     endless combat. Once the battle had gone up and down the 
     peninsula several times, the war stabilized on the original 
     dividing line but continued at dear cost--until the stalemate 
     was mutually confirmed, until North Korea accepted the 
     American insistence that its soldiers who were prisoners in 
     the South would not be repatriated against their will.
       That the war ended not in World War II-type triumph but in 
     anticlimatic armistice has encouraged the notion that the 
     outcome was a compromise or even a defeat. But although the 
     aggressor was not unseated (the goal of Gen. MacArthur's 
     rollback strategy), North Korea was repulsed and South Korea 
     saved. Time and space were bought for a competition of 
     systems in which the South came to exemplify democratic and 
     free-market growth, while North Korea stayed a stunted and 
     dangerous hermit state. If there is yet a chance that things 
     may go better, it is because the United States did what it 
     had to in the war and then stayed the course, to this day.
     

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