Editorial: Words from 1953 ring true today

Friday, July 25, 2003 | 5 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION: July 27, 2003

It was 50 years ago today that Army generals representing the United Nations Command led by the United States, and leaders representing North Korean and Chinese forces, signed the "temporary" armistice that brought combat to a halt in the Korean War.

The war began June 25, 1950, when 70,000 troops from communist North Korea, bolstered by Russian-made tanks, invaded democratic South Korea. President Harry Truman ordered the United States into the war two days later to lead a 22-country United Nations force committed to the defense of South Korea.

After World War II, Korea was divided into two countries, with communism dominating in the north and democracy flowering in the south. By invading the south, North Korea was testing the backbone of the United States and the United Nations. So close after the end of World War II, were we truly resolved to stopping the spread of communism? Or would we wilt at the prospect of another war? History holds the answer to that question, an answer that came at great sacrifice. The United States committed more than a million troops to the war. Our toll was heavy: 54,246 dead (including 33,629 killed in action and 4,700 killed in captivity), 103,284 wounded, 8,177 missing in action.

The armistice signed on July 27, 1953, was intended as a temporary agreement, one that would halt the fighting while a peace treaty was worked out. No treaty was ever signed, however. For 50 years the armistice is all that has prevented a resumption of full-scale combat (although there have been numerous deadly skirmishes), and thousands of U.S. troops remain in South Korea. While the interceding years have seen the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of Soviet communism and improved relations with China, the old communism vs. democracy tension remains with North Korea. Looking past that tension we see a flourishing South Korea and an impoverished North Korea, which even today, with its claimed nuclear capability, still remains a threat to world peace.

With the lives of South Koreans so improved, and with the lives of so many other people around the world depending on the presence of U.S. troops, it's important to remember President Dwight Eisenhower's words the day the armistice was signed: "With special feelings of sorrow and of solemn gratitude, we think of those who were called upon to lay down their lives in that far-off land to prove once again that only courage and sacrifice can keep freedom alive upon the earth."