[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 128 (Monday, August 1, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3799-S3801]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Korean War Veterans Memorial

  Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, I want to talk briefly about a very 
sacred place on our Nation's Mall, The National Mall, that I had an 
opportunity to visit yesterday. It is the Korean War Veterans Memorial 
that millions and millions of Americans have visited. Something 
happened last Wednesday that I wanted to talk about a little bit, a 
really important rededication of this very moving war memorial.
  Now, I like to get out on The Mall most days, go for a run in the 
morning when I am in DC, and I love our memorials, like everybody in 
America does, particularly the memorials that are dedications to the 
service of our military members, our veterans. The Presiding Officer is 
a veteran, a war hero. I have a ton of respect for her and her service. 
But whether it is the World War II or the Vietnam Memorial, one of the 
most moving memorials that I like to visit is the Korean War Veterans 
Memorial. Why? Well, I think there is so much we can all learn from the 
Korean war.
  In the Marine Corps, they really drill into you what happened during 
the Korean war. Unfortunately, not enough Americans know about the 
Korean war. But one of the big lessons is, you need to be ready. You 
need to be ready.
  In 1945, the U.S. military was the most fearsome military in the 
world, probably in the history of the world, and in 1950, just 5 years 
later, we had a very difficult time stopping a third world army in the 
opening months of the Korean war. Now, we rebounded, as Americans 
always do, but that is a lesson. That is a lesson for our country. In 
my view, the uniformed civilian leadership of our military did not 
serve their country well, letting the state of our forces become very 
unready. That is

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one of the lessons of that very difficult, brutal war.
  There is another lesson, and it is the nobility of service from our 
veterans that really is epitomized by service in the Korean war. The 
memorial has many beautifully engraved sayings, but one, when you think 
about it, is so moving and, in my view, depicts the nobility of 
American military service, particularly as it relates to that war.
  It says:

       Our nation honors her sons and daughters who answered the 
     call to defend a country they never knew and a people they 
     never met.

  Think about that--young men and women in America sent to fight 
halfway around the world to defend freedom. That is exactly what they 
were doing. And they didn't even know whom they were defending. A lot 
of them didn't even know where they were.
  To me, those words capture the essence of nobility, and so does the 
Korean War Memorial. You see part of it here. The centerpiece is nine 
large statues--soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines. They are grunts, 
infantry grunts on patrol. You can see there is a cold, wet wind 
whipping their ponchos. Their faces are full of fear, when you look at 
the statues, but also pride and determination. And all of this, in my 
view, captures the nobility of our service and our sacrifice as a 
nation in this war.
  Now, historians have referred to the Korean war as the ``forgotten 
war.'' I am kind of a Korean war history buff. I really, really dislike 
that term. I think we should just get rid of it. It is kind of a 
pejorative term in some ways. I have always thought it downplays the 
sacrifice and nobility and meaning of this very brutal conflict.
  I have often thought and said that, instead of the forgotten war, we 
should call it the noble war because it was a noble undertaking. It was 
a noble undertaking. Anyone who knows the history of this war or visits 
the memorial or knows a Korean war veteran or their family members 
knows that this was a noble undertaking by our great Nation, saving a 
country--literally saving a country--and we sacrificed a lot for it.
  That is the other thing that I think is very powerful on this 
memorial. Take a look at it--another depiction. You have heard it many 
times, but it is right there: ``Freedom is not free.'' ``Freedom is not 
free.'' Indeed, the freedoms that we enjoy in America, that so many 
countries around the world enjoy right now because of our military 
members over the course of history, decades--I always like to say, 
probably the greatest force in liberating mankind from oppression and 
tyranny in the world is the U.S. military. Think about it. Hundreds of 
millions of people. World War I; World War II; the Civil War, of 
course; but the Korean war, certainly. Over 37,000 Americans were 
killed in action, over 8,000 are still listed as missing in action, and 
over 103,000 Americans were wounded.
  And, of course, the killed and wounded Korean veterans and military 
and civilians from that war are literally in the millions--in the 
millions. But what also resonates are the very, very tangible results 
of the war in terms of freedom.
  Many of us have seen the famous satellite images at night taken over 
the Korean Peninsula--the whole peninsula. And if you look at the 38th 
parallel and what is north, it is literally dark and looks cold and 
looks lifeless. And if you look at everything south in that satellite 
picture, it is alive, bursting with life, and light.
  In my view, there are very few better illustrations of the disparity 
between freedom and authoritarianism than the image of that Korean 
Peninsula at night with those two countries--one is bright and alive, 
and one is dark and literally dead. American citizens, American 
soldiers, American military kept an entire country free.
  So what happened last week? I didn't think this war memorial, to be 
honest, could be improved--one of my favorites: powerful, as I have 
talked about; great words--but it was improved.
  Last Wednesday, I had the opportunity to attend the dedication--
really, the rededication--of the Wall of Remembrance that was added to 
the Korean War Memorial last week. The wall now has engraved on it the 
36,573 Americans that were killed in action--every one of them--like 
the Vietnam wall.
  This is an example of what you will see at the new memorial. I 
encourage everybody, every American, if you are in DC, go take a look; 
go pay your respects. It is so moving. It is dramatically improved, 
this memorial, which I didn't think could be improved upon.
  Importantly, intermixed in the names of the Americans are also the 
7,200 KATUSA soldiers. These were the Korean Army personnel who served 
with American forces, right alongside them. So they are just here. They 
are not divided by American and Korean. Those are just the ones who 
served with the Americans. Again, the Korean military--their killed-in-
action numbers are way higher than even these.
  And here is the other thing that is so moving about this memorial. 
The names are actually laid out by service--Army, Navy, Air Force, 
Marines. And they are actually listed according to rank. So if you look 
at the Vietnam Memorial, it is mixed in. It doesn't matter what 
service. And it is the date in which somebody was actually killed, 
chronologically.
  This is by military service and their rank. Why does that matter? 
What does it mean? Well, I will tell you what it means. It depicts the 
sacrifice of war, regardless of what the war is. Wars throughout 
history, up until now, always fall upon the young men and women of our 
great Nation--the 18-, 
19-, 20-year-olds. They are the ones who do the fighting, and they are 
the ones who do the dying.
  So, for example, this is actually a picture of the section after 
section after section after section, which is just U.S. Army Private 
First Class--U.S. Army PFCs. And it is just thousands, one group. Huge 
sacrifice. Huge sacrifice.
  So I encourage everybody to go out, take a look at this newly 
improved Korean War Memorial that was dedicated last week. It was such 
a moving ceremony. It was made all the more moving by the beautiful 
voice of Miss America, Emma Broyles, who sang ``God Bless America'' in 
front of the thousands of veterans who were there--thousands--
Americans, Koreans.
  By the way, Emma is a constituent of mine. She is the first Alaskan 
to win Miss America, first Korean American to ever win Miss America. So 
she did a great job.
  And the final thing I just want to mention--and I think the whole 
Senate--I am working on a Senate resolution, and I would love to get 
some of my colleagues here on the floor right now to join this 
resolution with me. It is a simple resolution saying thank you to the 
Korean government and the Korean people, because guess who paid for 
this memorial. It wasn't the American taxpayer. It was the Korean 
Government and the people of Korea. Over 22 million. We had tremendous 
support from our Korean war American veterans associations. They did a 
great job. But the vast, vast bulk of the funding for this new, 
incredibly moving Korean War Memorial was from the people of Korea and 
the Government of Korea. And they sent their defense minister, they 
sent their veterans affairs minister, they sent a huge delegation of 
members of their legislature all for this ceremony. So I want to thank 
all of them.
  And I want to thank our veterans, our Korean War veterans, who served 
in the noble war--not the forgotten war, the noble war, a proud moment 
of history between our two great nations--a history that has bonded 
us--the Republic of Korea and the United States of America--for 
decades.
  And now our Gold Star families and Korean War veterans can visit the 
names of their friends and families and loved ones who did this, as the 
memorial says:

       Answered the call to defend a country they never knew and a 
     people they never met.

  That is why this should be called the noble war.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.
  Mr. KAINE. Madam President, my remarks are coming about 6 minutes 
after I was intending to start. I would ask for permission to complete 
my remarks before the vote begins.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  (The remarks of Mr. Kaine pertaining to the submission of S. 4688 are 
printed in today's Record under ``Submitted Resolutions.'')
  Mr. KAINE. I yield the floor.

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