"Crimes" of the Korean War

Bruce Cumings has come on the scene with a recent description of America’s dark involvement in the death of political prisoners during the Korean War. Having a lot of respect for Cumings' work on the Korean War, I don’t wish to make too much of a point of it, but I can’t help wondering if Cumings, who knows a great deal about other things, has no real concept of war.

So far I am not sure the information is all in about the Taejon massacre, or the No Gun Re shootings, or any of the other “crimes” of the Korean War. If they happened I am not surprised; sad, but not surprised. It seems to me that most incredible things about the emergence of these stories, and the American outrage about them, is the naiveté they expose.

What does American think it is doing when it sends it young men and women off to war? Why do we continue to play surprised that war is awful, awesome, cruel and mean, and cannot be fought cleanly and without hate and rancor. If we would stop talking about war as if it was an abstraction, and face up to its realities, maybe we could help prevent the situations in which such things happen.

Senior Fellow Paul M. Edwards

Rabbits in Korea

There are a lot of interesting stories from the Korean War and a good many of them have not been told. Some, admittedly, are less than documented.

Is anyone aware of Operation Rabbits, which is supposed to have been a part of the larger Operation Aviary? According to some sources this operation consisted of South Korean actresses who were willing to be parachuted into enemy territory. There they were supposed to become mistresses of high ranking enemy officers, and then relay the information back to the United Nations.

Great story, does anyone know of any documentation?

Senior Fellow Paul M. Edwards

Another Casualty

Yet another casualty of the Korean War! I am saddened by continued reports of people who decide to start a Korean War museum, make a lot of noise about it, bring in some money from those trying to honor the veterans, and then don’t produce. How many of them have we had now? They spring up everywhere from Hawaii to New Jersey.

The casualties in these never-producing efforts are the veterans they are supposed to honor, and the solid institutions that have been in business a long time doing what they can to keep the Korean War and its veterans in the foreground of American memory. The problem is that after these would-be museums are unable to get off the ground, or fail, or just plain disappear, it turns off the donors that would be willing to support a legitimate effort.

The Center for the Study of the Korean War has been in business since 1989, is affiliated with Graceland University, an institution of higher education that has been around since 1898, and collects documents, photographs, maps, etc. from Korean War veterans to be used by scholars, students, the History Channel and the like!

If you feel you can support someone that will use your contribution with honesty and integrity, please keep us in mind.

Senior Fellow, Paul M. Edwards

Back to the Blog

In the past there were blog posts from the Center's Senior Fellow, Dr. Paul M. Edwards, that I uploaded once a week. And then I stopped uploading them, so Dr. Edwards stopped writing them. But he and I have much to report about the Center and so I am restarting the process.

I had not tired of posting his comments (after all, I had the easier part of that arrangement), but I had gotten sidetracked and then never recovered.

It's important to the Center to communicate what we're thinking and what we're working on, so I am reintroducing the commentaries from Dr. Edwards, and adding my updates on the happenings at the Center. Please feel free to post replies or comments.

Gregg Edwards, Director