Review of "Forgotten No More: The Korean War Veterans Memorial Story," by Carol M. Highsmith and Ted Landphair

Review of

Forgotten No More: The Korean War Veterans Memorial Story, by Carol M. Highsmith and Ted Landphair ISBN 9780962087734


Five out of five stars

The war that did most to defeat communism

 The Korean War was a war that did not affect the home front like World War II did. Other than the loss of young men, people in the United States were not asked to sacrifice to support the people fighting it. At the time, television was on track to become the universal form of entertainment that it is now. One of the most telling stories I have heard is when a fighting man returned from Korea, when he arrived home, his family members were more interested in watching the network show they loved than engaging in a true welcome home.

 Yet, over 50,000 Americans died in the Korean War with millions of people of other nationalities also losing their lives. It was the first war of the nuclear age, so the best that the United States could hope for was a return to the status quo and the avoidance of the use of nuclear weapons. Which is what was achieved.

 This book is a brief history of the Korean War along with the movement to create a memorial to the U. S. men and women that fought in it. There is mention of the brutal weather that the people endured on the Korean peninsula and how the Chinese used human wave tactics to wear down and overwhelm the UN forces.

 The Korean Veterans Memorial is a very moving structure, for the statues depict men in a war zone, wary, frightened, and determined. All characteristics that were needed through the dramatic action up and down the Korean peninsula. Rapid offenses followed by desperate retreats, often under appalling weather conditions.