Ridgway and the Korean War

The University of Pittsburgh’s  Matthew B. Ridgway Center for International Security Studies will hold a symposium on “Ridgway and the Korean War,” at the University of Pittsburgh on April 3, 2009. This symposium will focus on Ridgway as both a man and as a leading military leader of the US, during a defining moment in the Cold War. According to Donald M. Goldstein, Professor & Interim Director of the Ridgway Center, and Dr. Dennis Hart, Associate Director of the Asian Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh, "the legacy of Ridgway and the Korea War and their effects on Koreans and US relations with the world remain with us today and this important symposium will provide valuable insights and understanding of the man, the war, and the world they helped to create."

Presentations will be followed by a question and answer session, and later by a public panel discussion on the Korean War. Audiences for the presentation and panel will include academics, students, veterans, and other members of the general community. Representatives from the Center for the Study of the Korean War will be in attendance and presenting.

Gregg Edwards Director

Two Books on PTSD

Recently two books have appeared on the market with the same title, and which address the same issue.  Both are called "Haunted By Combat."  While both are interesting, it is the second, Haunted by Combat: Understanding PTSD in War Veterans Including Women, Reservists, and Those Coming Back from Iraq, by Daryl S. Paulsen and Stanley Krippner, and published by Praeger Security International (2007) that may be most worth reading. 

In it the author traces the effect of post traumatic stress through several wars and comes to the conclusion that while they bear a great deal in common, there are also some very distinct and interesting differences from war to war.  Bringing it up to date, he comments on the fact that there appear to be a larger percentage of head wounds in Iraq, probably due to the advances in body armor, and that this requires that more psychological aid be available.

Check the catalog of Greenwood Press at http://www.greenwood.com/catalog/C9187.aspx, or Praeger Security International at http://www.greenwood.com/psi/

Senior Fellow Paul M. Edwards

Rakkasan Friends

Recently, Graceland University’s Center for the Study of the Korean War was honored by The Ripcord Chapter of the 187th Airborne Rakkasans, and the Mid-America Chapter of the 82nd Airborne Division, with a plaque and a contribution to be used for flag replacement.

The plaque honors the Airborne Ranger Companies that served in Korea, and also any Paratroopers from other Airborne Divisions that served in the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team.

The recognition is due to Rakkasan and friend David Deatherage, Independence native and Korean War veteran, who visits the Center regularly and has been responsible for carrying the name of the Center to area and national associates of the Rakkasans and the Airborne. He took a copy of our informational DVD to the national gathering of Airborne in North Carolina last summer, and regularly advertises the Center in his emailed newsletter and communication-chain.

Thanks to these supporters, and especially to Dave!

Gregg Edwards Director

The Remembered War?

The Remembered War? Not quite yet.

I read an interesting note recently, in which the author stated that because of the publication of David Halberstam’s The Coldest Winter, the Korean War is no longer forgotten.

I am very happy that this fine author took the time and had the interest to write about a phase of this awesome war, but I doubt if it is going to make a lot of difference to America’s memory of those events. True, the last decade has seen some excellent works on the war, but the literature is still criminally small.

If you want to understand what I mean, the next time you are in a bookstore go to the history section.  See if you can find a Korean War section.  If there is one it is most likely located somewhere between World War II and the Vietnam War, and usually displays books from those two events rather than the Korean War.  Even the Spanish American war has more material available.

I think it will be some time before the events of the Korean War are no longer forgotten.

Senior Fellow Paul M. Edwards

Revising a Resource

A resource book on the Korean War, by the Center’s founder and Senior Fellow, Paul M. Edwards, and published by Scarecrow Press in 2003, is being revised. Scarecrow contacted Paul last week about revising The Korean War, A Historical Dictionary. This is significant for several reasons: one is that it means there is academic interest in updating the dictionary, which would indicate as well that there is new material since 2003, related to the Korean War.

Another reason for significance is that this volume, number 23 in Scarecrow’s "Historical Dictionaries of War, Revolution, and Civil Unrest” is being utilized enough that the desire for a revision is there. The book is a hardback library edition and is in libraries in academic and military institutions around the country. Paul has agreed to do the revision.

Gregg Edwards Director

Speaking of the Korean War...

Well, maybe it is not the same as being forgotten, but it seems that the Korean War is more and more a footnote to the sane and silly, referenced for no particular reason.

I subscribe to the Google News Alert which, most days, indicates half a dozen or so places where the war is mentioned. There are interesting and useful references, but some alerts may help make my point, such as these three from not too long ago: one was an account of Adam Bloom’s involvement in an experiment in a “black box”, one a plea for conservative leadership: “Where have all the leaders gone”, and the third an attack on the Korean Music Awards.

Senior Fellow Paul M. Edwards

Research and Inquiry

We were contacted last week by Dr. Jeon Hyun Soo, a professor at Kyungpook University in Daegu, South Korea, who is interested in doing some research at the Center. He will also be spending time at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Museum & Library here in Independence, and the National Archives in Kansas City.

Dr. Soo, who received his doctorate (Contemporary History of North Korea) from the Institute of Asian & African States, Moscow State University, is former Senior Research Officer of the Korean National Archives & Records Service. He is the author of Korean War, 1950-1953, Documents & Materials (Seoul: National Institute of Korean History, 2006, in English), The Contemporary History of North Korea (Seoul: Graduate School of North Korea, Kyungnam University, 2004, in Korean), and The Socioeconomic Reformation in North Korea under Soviet Military Administration (Moscow: Institute of Asian & African States Press, 1997, in Russian.)

Dr. Soo is a visiting scholar in the US this year. Needless to say, we are very excited about the opportunity to meet with and talk to Dr. Soo.

An inquiry came in from Florida, from the daughter of a Korean War veteran, asking for “reliable resources to recommend veteran focused trips to South Korea and the DMZ.”

Another inquiry asked about a US Army defector during the Korean War.

Another inquiry asked about for a good source on General Almond.

These are the kinds of inquiries that come in on a regular basis, averaging 1,000 per year, sometimes by phone but mostly by email.

We are happy to be of help.

Gregg Edwards Director