Robert Stump: “Mr. Speaker, June 25 will mark the 50th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War. It is called the forgotten war…”

“Mr. Speaker, June 25 will mark the 50th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War. It is called the forgotten war not because it was not important, but because it came between the most popular war, World War II, and the most controversial war, the war in Vietnam. It was the first real resistance to world communism. America at the mid-century point still yearned for peace. That was especially true for those of us who fought during World War II. But it was not to be. World War II had made America the undisputed champion of the free world. There was no other power capable of responding when North Korea launched an all-out predawn attack on the south hoping to unite the Korean peninsula under Communist rule. North Korea with the aid of the Soviet Union and Communist China thought conquest would be quick and easy. Mr. Speaker, they were wrong. The Korean War was as bitter and bloody as any war America ever fought. It taught us many lessons and still teaches us today. It taught a lesson to those who thought America would not accept the role of defender of the free world. Mr. Speaker, it is my hope by the time this year is over, neither the Korean War nor the men who fought in it will be forgotten any longer. It certainly will not be forgotten by the more than 50,000 families who lost loved ones in the Korean War.”