truly the Forgotten War

went to the library yesterday, and wasn't too interested in the many WW2 books, so I decided to check out books on the Chosin battle in Korea [ it being frigid recently ] and of course there were only 3 books on the Korean War, where my father fought [still alive, and running around ] ..the Vietnam section had many more books than the KW........why is this?? many reasons?? of course, WW2 was grander/a true winner/much more people involved/etc....Vietnam was a 'TV' war....wasn't the Vietnam war more televised/reported on?? by the way, I got the book The Last Stand of Fox Company<>was 1 of 3, so I got lucky...

 

There are many good books concerning the Korean War. Maybe your library has just chosen to focus on other conflicts. You might check some other sources. A personal favorite of mine is Clay Blair's "The Forgotten War". You might also see if you can score a copy of the movie "Pork Chop Hill". It will give you a realistic look at what the guys on the ground had to put up with.

 

Same over here. Most people under 50 have never even heard of the war.

 

actually, all the libraries in my area [ the ones I've been to-about 10 total ] all the same ...at least 1/20 the number of KWar books v WW2 books ..movie with Greg Peck?? yes, I like it, and I've read the book same title, it I recall correctly....thanks for the reply

 

yes, history is not a fun subject for the majority, I think...by the way, there is a Scott over here in the US on a TV show every night...he is very enjoyable/entertaining/funny/etc...where did Scotland get its name?

 

I think that that the legacy of the Korean War suffered the misfortune of occurring a mere 5 years after the end of what was unquestionably the biggest conflict in history. The world was still trying to recover from that when this "police action" started in a forgotten corner of the planet. I've spoken to several veterans of the war and many have told me how discouraging it was to come home and find that many civilians didn't know that much about it and didn't really care. They had more important things to deal with in their own lives, like recovering from the "big" war.
Always considered myself a bit of a military history fanatic, but until I was stationed there in the late-1960's I had kind of ignored the conflict in Korea. Had always focused on WWII and then Vietnam was my generation's war so naturally it was more relevant to me than a "police action" that took place 15 years before.

 

where did Scotland get its name?

It's derived from the Roman name for the Gaels, Scoti. Used to be thought that the Scoti tribe from Ulster invaded after the Romans left and displaced the native Picts etc, but there's no evidence for this.

 

yes, super small compared to WW2.....and now that you mention it, they did call it a police action, not a war....good point..so, that also made it 'less important'....

 

I wonder if there will ever be a one Korea again. There's something telling me that it wont happen because of a lot of political and social issues, but it has still got me thinking.

 

There's MASH...war in the back blocks of Hollywood! Not a good info source to be sure, but there were regular insights...Jamie Farr, the man dressed as a a woman, the only actor to actually be in the war...it's a pity more isn't written, it was different...with more than its fair share of stories...

 

good question..did anyone ever think there would be one Germany?

 

even though my father was there , I still read WW2 80% of the time

 

Bronk,I meant the stories were there, not that they have been published...

 

If you think Korea is underdocumented try finding a good book on Chinese civil war that happened just before, and that was very closely linked to the Korean War as without Mao's victory the KW could never have happened as it did (and prossibly wouldn't have happened at all) . That is a subject that always got me curious but is pretty hard to find information about. There were no US ground troops there, and very few western journalists, but it's really a black hole in our knowledge.

 

so many unknown wars....yes, as big as China is, you would think there would be more news...but, if the US didn't get involved in the KW or Vietnam, I doubt you would've ever heard of them......I thought there were some US marines over there during the civil war....?now that you mention it, I was in the USMC, and we learned the USMC history, but I don't recall the operation in the CCwar being spoken of, much, if at all...I'm going to research that...much thanks....

 

Bronk, the French were in Vietnam (Indo-China) years before the Americans, simply because it was one of their colonies and they tried to pick up where they left off after the Japanese occupation. Trouble was, the indigeous peoples had seen the white man wasn't invincible and weren't about to go back to the good old days.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Indochina#First_Indochina_War

 

yes, I've read that many times--what is so '''amazing''' is, I have books all over the house and ''lose'' them sometimes...just yesterday, I just happen to see my book "Migs Over NVietnam", [under some debris ] so I started reading the intro, which of course tells about Vietnam's troubles from the start to US involvement....you bring up another interesting topic to me <>US involvement in NK, THEN, not much later, in Vietnam...

 

Read up on the domino effect...

 

but there was no domino effect, was there?

 

There was the beginnings of it yes...and I have to agree with it too, given the nature of the region...I'm sure not every country would have been 'converted', allot had to do with simply being recognised as a sovereign nation....the USSR was willing to recognise them, the U.S. was not...