Why is it called the Forgotten War?

[ggrandwill]

Hi IMF, I would like to know why is the Korean War so forgotten and underrepresented in modern culture?

Now I'm a fan of the Chinese culture and philosophy, and I thought the fact that nobody wants to remember the Korean War is because the Chinese and the Koreans would outfight the UN because of all the Stratagems and all the Divination.

I mean, the 36 stratagems were only published in 1959; not knowing the way the enemy thinks, the non-native combatants would probably fall into the same traps again and again.

Then, Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller's famous quote

"All right, they're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us...they can't get away this time"

showed me that with all the stratagems, the Marine Corps were probably ready to fight, while the other side was probably more ready to stratagemize.

Now this is an International Military Forum and no nation is meant to be offended or complimented by this post.

This is in no way a serious document, just a post that was inspired somehow.

 

[George]

Here in the US the Korean War was not very intrusive in everyone's life compared to WWII.

 

[rattler]

We in Spain call the "Sidi Ifni" war the forgotten war, as nobody ever talks about it (it came a bit back to fame for the discussions at its 50th anniversary in 2007 about the consequences it had for the Western Sahara).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ifni_War

FWIW,

Rattler

 

[MontyB]

I think it is primarily because it was sandwiched between two much larger wars (WW2 and Vietnam) and it had no real outcome, they fought for 3 years and then settled where it started.

 

[LeEnfield]

The US lost almost as many soldiers in Korea as they did in Vietnam. Korea was a nasty bloody war which is mainly over looked by history and only a cease fire was signed. It is reckoned that China lost over a million men in this conflict and as it came soon after WW2 people were used to getting those telegrams from the War Dept; informing them of their loss.

 

[MikeP]

There are 8000 MIAs from Korea and 2500 from RVN.

I think being fought to a stalemate was a factor, but it was a pretty big deal to anyone involved.

Also it never really ended, there was a cessation of aggression by both sides.

The commies tended to tweak that a bit.

 

[Hutchie]

Wouldn't have been a stalemate if Truman hadn't pulled McArthur out. We had the power to lay down a napalm fence at the Yalu river. He understood the best way to stop 1 million Chinese charging at you was to light em up. As soon as McArthur left, the politicians took over, same as Vietnam. BTW, what did the north actually win? It's now one of the worst places on earth.