Charles Rangel: “Let me thank the gentlewoman for making this possible, Colonel Bill Webb, of the Korean Memorial Foundation, and, of…”

“Let me thank the gentlewoman for making this possible, Colonel Bill Webb, of the Korean Memorial Foundation, and, of course, my buddies and colleagues, Congressmen Johnson and Conyers. Why this is so important to me is not for those who are living, but for the memories of our colleagues who died overseas and whose family have very little to explain as to why they were there. I really think that this Congress and Congresses before us have lost all of the meaning of having the power and the only power to support the declaration of war. When I went overseas in 1950, I hadn't the slightest idea as to why I was going. Quite frankly, I didn't even know where Korea was. But because of my age and having been in combat, I have received more accolades from the grateful people from the country of South Korea than I deserve. But I know that they are thanking the United States and the United Nations for saving them from coming under communism. I could not possibly have any bad feelings. Indeed, it is a great sense of honor that I could have played some small part in preserving democracy in South Korea, albeit as a volunteer to the Army, but certainly not a volunteer to go into combat. But the truth of the matter is that we shouldn't have young men and women being placed in harm's way in any situation without men and women and their families knowing that they did this because the security of our great Republic was threatened.…”