Back in the very early days of my writing career, I wrote a book called Crimson Sky: The Air Battle for Korea 1950-53. The Korean War is one of the most understudied and underappreciated episodes in American history. The veterans from that era deserved better, but I think after the truce was signed in 1953, everyone just wanted to forget the whole thing.
Well, dealing with North Korea has been a constant thorn in every administration's side since that first summer Ike was in office. No amount of diplomacy has curbed the erratic and sometimes bizarre behavior of North Korea's rogue regime. Now, we face a new crisis on the peninsula.
The North Koreans recently detonated their second nuclear. They followed that underground test with a show-of-force launch of short range missiles in a separate exercise.
The South Koreans then announced they were going to start stopping merchant vessels suspected of carrying illegal nuclear technology flowing from North Korea to other regimes. The North Koreans believe this is the first step toward a naval blockade, so as of today, they renounced the 1953 truce.
Does this mean a technical state of war now exists between the UN forces involved in 1950-53 and North Korea? I'm not a lawyer so I have no idea. But, the war has never been officially ended by a peace treaty. Now, the 28,000+ American troops, along with the South Korean military, has moved to a condition two alert status as North Korea is intimating that a nuclear war could be started with one "accidental skirmish."
The last time we faced North Korea (and its Chinese ally), the United Nations forces suffered 118,515 men killed in action, and over 300,000 wounded or captured. In that total were 33,629 Americans killed, 103,284 wounded, and 10,218 captured.
Let's hope that calmer heads prevail this time.
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