    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
    [June 25, 2000]
    [Pages 1264-1267]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 1264]]

    Remarks on the Observance of the 50th Anniversary of the
    Korean War
    June 25, 2000

        Thank you very much, Secretary Cohen,
    for your remarks and your outstanding service. General Myers, Mr. Ambassador, thank you
    so much for being here today. Chaplain Craven, Chaplain Sobel; especially, my
    friend Senator Glenn, whose life is a testament
    to the triumph of freedom.
        I would also like to thank Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs
    Gober for being here, and acknowledge that
    Secretary West and Congressman Charles
    Rangel, a Korean war veteran, are in Seoul
    today leading the American delegation at the commemoration activities
    there, and we ought to give them a big hand. They're representing us
    well. [Applause]
        I want to recognize Congressman Bishop and Congressman Faleomavaega and thank Senator Paul Sarbanes, who did so much to keep this Korean War Memorial
    beautiful. I want to thank the members of our Armed Forces here and
    around the world and especially those in Korea, whom I have had the
    honor of visiting on several occasions; and of course, and especially,
    the veterans and their families here today.
        Five years ago I had the honor of dedicating this remarkable
    memorial, and on that day, many who were seeing the 19 beautiful statues
    for the first time commented on how very lifelike they seemed. But one
    veteran wryly said, ``They were lifelike in every way but one. They were
    all 7 feet tall.'' He said, ``When I think about the courage of those
    who fought in Korea, I remember them as being 20 feet tall.''
        All across our Nation today, our fellow citizens are coming together
    to say to men and women who fought for freedom half a century ago, half
    a world away, we will never forget your bravery. We will always honor
    your service and your sacrifice.
        As we meet today, we are blessed to live, as Secretary Cohen said,
    in a world where, for the first time, over half the people on the globe
    live under governments of their own choosing. It has happened so rapidly
    that we may fall into the trap of thinking that it had to happen, that
    communism's fall and freedom's victory was inevitable.
        But 50 crowded years ago, the world we know today was anything but
    inevitable. Hitler was gone, but Stalin was not. Berlin was divided. A
    revolution across the Pacific began a fierce debate here at home over
    the question, who lost China? In 1949 the Soviet Union had detonated its
    first atomic bomb. As we struggled to rebuild Europe and Japan, the free
    nations of the world watched and wondered, when and where would the cold
    war turn hot, and would America meet the test?
        Fifty years ago today, the world got its answer in Korea, in a place
    known as the Uijongbu Corridor. In the early morning hours of June 25th,
    1950, 90,000 North Korean troops broke across the border and invaded
    South Korea.
        The only American there that day was a 31-year-old Army captain and
    Omaha Beach veteran named Joseph Darrigo.
    He was awakened by what he thought was thunder. But when the shell
    fragments hit his house, he ran half-dressed to his Jeep and drove.
    Within half a mile of the local train station, he couldn't believe what
    he was seeing, a full regiment of North Korean soldiers getting off the
    train. Now, he later recalled, ``Over 5,000 soldiers came against one
    person, me.''
        Captain Darrigo escaped that day. He
    went on to serve another year in Korea before an illness brought him
    home. Time has slowed him down some, but not much. And we are honored
    that he could be with us here today.
        I'd like to recognize Captain Joseph R. Darrigo. Please, sir, stand. [Applause]
        The truth is, the leaders of the Communist nations did not believe
    America would stand up for South Korea. After all, Americans didn't want
    another war; the blood still hadn't dried from World War II. Nobody
    wanted more rationing. Nobody wanted more Western Union boys riding up
    with telegrams from the War Department. Americans wanted to start
    families. They wanted to see gold stars on report cards, not gold stars
    in windows.
        But from the moment Harry Truman heard the news at home, on his
    first trip to Missouri since Christmas the year before, he knew this

    [[Page 1265]]

    was a moment of truth. If an invasion was permitted to triumph in Korea
    without opposition from the free world, no small nation again would have
    the courage to resist aggression. He knew American boys didn't fight and
    die to stop Nazi aggression only to see it replaced by Communist
    aggression.
        So Korea wasn't just a line on a map. It was where America drew the
    line in the sand on the cold war and where, for the first time, the
    nations of the whole world, together at the then newly created United
    Nations, voted to use armed force to stop armed aggression.
        The papers ordering Americans to combat in Korea included the
    marvelously romantic phrase, ``for duty beyond the seas.'' Some duty.
    For those who fought it, there was no romance. The war was bitter,
    brutal, and long.
        In the first weeks, not much went right. Troops from the Occupation
    Force in Japan were thrown into the middle of combat, not prepared to
    fight a war. Their weapons were rusty. Rockets from World War II
    bazookas bounced off Russian tanks like stones. In many ways, it wasn't
    a modern war at all. Oh, there were jets and helicopters, but most of
    the fighting was done with rifles, machine guns, bayonets, and mortars.
    Soldiers lived in sandbagged bunkers and stood watch on lonely ridges.
    It has been said that the Americans who fought in France in 1917 would
    have understood Korea, that the men who served under Lee and Grant would
    have recognized Korea.
        And then, of course, there was the weather. The cold war was never
    so cold as in Korea. It may be hard to believe today, but imagine. They
    spent a few minutes in temperatures from time to time more than 50
    degrees below zero. Now, imagine trying to fight a war in it. I'm told
    that pins even froze inside grenades. Many died from shock brought on by
    the cold. And then when summer came, there was no relief but, instead,
    100-degree heat and dust so thick, supply trucks had to keep their
    lights on at midday.
        There is no question: Korea was war at its worst. But it was also
    America at its best.
        These are men and women, as the memorial says, who answered the call
    to defend a country they never knew and a people they had never met.
    Throughout most of the war, they were unbelievably outgunned and
    outmanned, in some places 20 to 1. But they never gave up and never gave
    in.
        At Pusan Perimeter, troops were so spread out, if you looked left
    and right, chances were you couldn't see another soldier. But the line
    did not break. At Inchon, troops had to scale a dangerous seawall within
    a 2-hour window. They went on to take back Seoul. At Mig Alley,
    Americans encountered the world's fastest fighter jets. For every jet
    the enemy shot down, our pilots shot down 10. At Heartbreak Ridge and
    Pork Chop Hill, wave after wave of enemy soldiers came crashing in, but
    our troops stood their ground. And at the Chosen Reservoir, when
    legendary marine Lewis ``Chesty'' Puller heard that the Chinese troops
    had them surrounded, he replied, ``Good, now they can't get away.''
        The Americans, South Koreans, and our allies who fought in Korea set
    a standard of courage that may someday be equalled but can never be
    surpassed. Korea was not a police action or a crisis or a conflict or a
    clash; it was a war, a hard, brutal war. And the men and women who
    fought it were heroes.
        There is another subject that has to be addressed here today. When
    the guns fell silent, some asked what our forces in Korea had done for
    freedom, after all, for after all, the fighting began at the 38th
    parallel and ended at the 38th parallel. I submit to you today that
    looking back through the long lens of history, it is clear that the
    stand America took in Korea was indispensable to our ultimate victory in
    the cold war. Because we stood our ground in Korea, the Soviet Union
    drew a clear lesson that America would fight for freedom.
        Had Americans and our allies, from South Korea to as far away as
    Turkey and Australia, not shown commitment and fortitude, we could well
    later, as Harry Truman foresaw, have faced world war III. It is,
    therefore, not a stretch to draw the line of history straight from those
    brave soldiers who stood their ground on ridged lines in Korea 50 years
    ago to the wonderfully happy young people who stood and celebrated on
    the Berlin Wall 10 years ago.
        Because they all stood their ground, today, South Korea is a free
    and prosperous nation, one of the great success stories in the world, as
    the Ambassador said, with the world's 12th largest economy and, I might
    add, a remarkable democratic leader in President Kim Dae-jung.
        Because we have continued to stand with our democratic ally South
    Korea, with 37,000 American troops standing watch on the border today,

    [[Page 1266]]

    just as we have since 1953, we have kept the peace. And because of all
    that, there is now a chance for a different future on the Korean
    Peninsula.
        Last week's summit between President Kim Dae-jung and Chairman Kim Chong-il, the
    first of its kind in 50 years, was a hopeful and historic step. It was
    courageous of President Kim to go to Pyongyang. He had no illusions,
    however. Nor should we. There is still a wide gulf to be crossed; there
    is still tension on the Peninsula. North Korea still bears the wounds of
    self-inflicted isolation. The people there are suffering terribly. But
    if we hadn't done what we did in Korea 50 years ago, and if the United
    States and its allies hadn't stood fast down to the present day, South
    Korea might well look the same way.
        Korea helped remind us of a few other lessons, too, that our people
    and all our rich diversity are our greatest strength, that a fully
    integrated military is our surest hope for victory, that our freedom and
    security depends on the freedom and security of others, and that we can
    never, ever, pull away from the rest of the world.
        And finally, for all the talk about Korea being the ``forgotten
    war,'' we must never forget that for some, Korea is still alive every
    single day.
        In 1950 a young woman from Hannibal, Missouri, named Virginia Duncan
    saw her older brother, Hallie, go off to fight in Korea. He skipped his
    high school graduation because he wanted to join the service so badly.
    In Korea he sent letters home about every week. In one, he told them he
    was looking forward to a shipment of cookies from his mother.
        At the same time, in Belham, Kentucky, another young woman named
    Betty Bruce watched her brother, Jimmy, go off to war. He was the 10th
    of 11 children. His parents had to sign a permission slip so he could
    join the Army at 17. When he got there, he sent a letter home saying
    that no matter what happened, he was all right because he had given his
    heart to the Lord.
        Betty and Virginia never met. But in the winter of 1950, they both
    received the same awful news. On the day after Thanksgiving, Betty and
    her family got a knock at the door and two Army officers told her her
    brother was missing in action. Two weeks later, 4 days before her own
    wedding, Virginia and her family were told that her brother, too, was
    missing in action. Not long after, the cookies they sent came back home,
    marked ``return to sender.''
        For 50 years, Virginia and Betty asked questions without answers.
    Oh, they made sure their children came to know the uncles they had never
    met. They kept the pictures, and they prayed. They both had just about
    given up hope, but earlier this month, their prayers were answered.
    Three weeks ago, they both learned that a search and recovery team,
    working out of Hawaii, had identified the remains of two soldiers in
    North Korea.
        Today I am honored to say that the remains of Betty's brother,
    Sergeant Jimmy Higgins, and Virginia's brother, Sergeant Hallie Clark,
    Jr., are finally coming home to be buried at Arlington National
    Cemetery. I'd like to thank Virginia Duncan
    and Betty Bruce and their families for being
    here today and ask them to stand and be recognized. [Applause]
        Before I close, I also want to say a special word of appreciation to
    the men and women of the Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii,
    known as CIL-HI. Since 1996, they have recovered more than 40 sets of
    remains from Korea. On Memorial Day I announced that we had resumed
    talks with North Korea in hopes of recovering more. The talks were
    successful. Today I am pleased to announce that as we are here meeting,
    the latest team from CIL-HI is in the air, on the way to North Korea. We
    will not stop until we have the fullest possible accounting of all our
    men and women still missing in action there.
        To my fellow Americans and our distinguished allies and friends from
    Korea and those representing our other allies, we all know that Korea
    isn't about Hawkeye and Houlihan but about honor and heroes, young men
    and women willing to pay the price to keep a people they had never met
    free.
        To the veterans of the Korean war--those here, those around the
    country, those whom we must remember today--let me say, on behalf of a
    grateful nation: Fifty years ago you helped make the world that we know
    today possible. You proved to all humanity just how good our Nation can
    be at its best. You showed us, through your example, that freedom is not
    free, but it can be maintained. Today your fellow Americans say: We
    remember, and we are very grateful.
        God bless you, and God bless America.

    [[Page 1267]]

     Note:  The President spoke at 4:47 p.m. at the Korean War Memorial in
    West Potomac Park. In his remarks, he referred to Gen. Richard B. Myers,
    USAF, Commander, U.S. Space Command; Hong Koo Lee, South Korean
    Ambassador to the United States; Chaplain John N. Craven, USN (Ret.);
    Chaplain Samuel Sobel, USN (Ret.); former Senator John Glenn; and
    General Secretary Kim Chong-il of North Korea.