georgephillip
Diamond Member
Here's something else that's been forgotten about our Korean War, if it ever entered our official History at all: (Correct answer is highlighted)What did we "win?"That's just it, we won even though the convoluted LBJ rules almost guaranteed that we would lose. How many Vietnamese died as a result of Cronkite's lies that caused the US to abandon the struggle just when it seemed we would win it?
After the "War to End All Wars" Smedley Butler, a retired USMC general, wrote a warning about the clouds he saw gathering in Europe and the cost of our "victory" in WWI:
"The World War, rather our brief participation in it, has cost the United States some
$52,000,000,000. Figure it out. That means $400 to every American man, woman, and child.
And we havent paid the debt yet.
"We are paying it, our children will pay it, and our
childrens children probably still will be paying the cost of that war."
The generation that fought and died in Vietnam paid off the debts to investment bankers generated by Butler's war.
We are "winning" our childrens' slavery.
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.pdf
Butler was living proof that good generals don't necessarily make good political analysts. The funny thing is that the media ran away from Truman's war in Korea and called it the "forgotten war". They couldn't criticize it even though it was badly run because both Truman and MacArthur were icons. Because of the aging (possibly mentally defective) general's ego the war that should have ended in victory in less than a year dragged on for three years and ended in an embarrassing truce that was dictated by the NK. We are still living with that legacy. Bill Clinton's DOD decided that the number of American Troops who died during the conflict was too high (55,000) so they revised it down to around 35,000 to 38,000. Unlike every other conflict in history the defense dept decided to include only combat deaths and throw out accidents and other deaths.
"In August 1945 defeated Japanese forces formally turned over authority in Korea to the broad-based Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence, led by Lyuh Woon-hyung, which in September proclaimed the Korean People’s Republic (KPR). When U.S. forces under Gen. Reed Hodge arrived in Inchon to accept the Japanese surrender, they
a. ordered all Japanese officials to remain in their posts, refused to recognize Lyuh as national leader, and soon banned all public reference to the KPR
b. recognized Lyuh as the legitimate head of state
c. negotiated with Lyuh to facilitate swift attainment of independence of a united Korea"
To this day, Lyuh is still revered as a political leader on both sides of the 38th parallel.
Had the Koreans and Vietnamese been allowed to determine their own fates at the polls after WWII, neither the Korean nor Vietnam wars would have been necessary.
A Pop Quiz on Korea » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names