[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 67 (Thursday, May 25, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E882]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    MEMORIAL DAY AND THE KOREAN WAR

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. BOB STUMP

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 25, 2000

  Mr. STUMP. Mr. Speaker, America could have rejected the role of world 
leadership thrust upon her after the destruction and loss of human 
lives in World War II.
  But she accepted that role, and in so doing gave Americans an even 
stronger motive to celebrate Memorial Day this year.
  The special significance of this Memorial Day is its proximity to the 
50th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War on June 25th. More 
than a million Americans have died defending their country. Memorial 
Day is the day we honor them. This particular year, on this particular 
Memorial Day, with memories of those million dead heroes in formation 
before us, we might justly order ``front and center'' to the 55,000 
Americans who died in the Korean War.
  I've never understood why such a long and brutal war should be known 
as the ``Forgotten War.'' Perhaps it's the timing. It fell between 
World War II, a war that mobilized a nation, and the Vietnam War, a war 
that divided a nation and ended tragically. Perhaps it was the mood of 
a nation anxious to return to the peacetime pursuits of families and 
careers after World War II. But whatever the reason, Korea never loomed 
as large in our historical consciousness as World War II and Vietnam. 
What better time than the 50th anniversary to give that war and its 
veterans the recognition due them?
  In so doing, we take away nothing from America's other heroes or from 
the families who still grieve for them. This Memorial Day will still 
remind us of every sacrifice ever made on every battlefield, and not 
just to secure our own freedom.
  Mr. Speaker, fifty years ago international communism seemed to be the 
irresistible force of the future. It was a system geared for war and 
conquest. While the West greeted the end of World War II with relief 
and dreams of peace, the Soviet and Chinese masters saw it as the 
signal for the next wave of expansion. Who in the peace-loving West 
could stop them? In theory, only the United Nations. In reality, that 
meant the United States.
  When North Korean divisions poured across the 38th parallel into 
South Korea, America was not prepared. We responded anyhow. The first 
American units thrown into battle hung or until reinforcements arrived 
and the enemy eventually was forced to negotiate. South Korea is now 
free because 50 years ago America kept faith with an ally. Let us now 
keep faith with the guardians of Korea's freedom and our own.
  At first glance, America had no stake whatsoever in the freedom of 
Korea, so different from us culturally and halfway around the world. 
But a second, longer glance reminds us of our commitment to freedom 
around the world. That commitment is no mere theory, but a reality 
backed up by the blood of our citizen soldiers, sailors, airmen and 
marines.
  Mr. Speaker, many of us knew someone who shed that blood and never 
came home. It will be a somber day for us, because we can remember that 
person on our hometown streets or playgrounds, sitting next to us in 
class, delivering our newspaper or groceries, or pushing a lawn mower 
on his front lawn. We might remember his laughter, his voice over a 
telephone, and perhaps even our own shock at reading the news of his 
death in battle. We may even have tried to comfort a grieving family.
  But he isn't really dead. It can be said that no one is truly dead 
until the last person who remembers him is dead. We can honor our dead 
heroes by remembering them, every day but especially on Memorial Day.
  Again this year the President or someone representing him will place 
a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery. 
But the most heart-felt Memorial Day celebrations will take place at 
cities, towns and villages all over America. There will be parades, 
speeches, and decorated gravestones. For some Americans, Memorial Day 
will inspire them to write such heart-felt poetry as the following:

                             ``War's Glow''

                (By Steven R. Schutt, Prescott, Arizona)

     The old ones; they know
     the pain of war's glow.
     While the youthful dead strive,
     to keep illusions alive.
     Those who survived learned,
     how truth has been burned,
     with a history of heroes
     and reality spurned.
     All who came back, mellowed and aged.
     Time made from forget just how they had raged.
     But the old ones; they know,
     the pain of war's glow.

  Mr. Speaker, as long as such sentiments are alive in the hearts of 
private citizens, America will remain a great country and Memorial Day 
will remain an annual monument to our greatest heroes. This particular 
Memorial Day, I ask you and all Members to join me in a special salute 
to the casualties of the Korean War. Let us make the Korean War, the 
first challenge to communist expansion, a forgotten war no longer.

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