The UN’s Role In Korea

This is Part 2 of a series on the United Nations

I, as everyone who served in Korea (1950-54), have a United Nations Ribbon and Medal. Korea marked the first time the U.S. went to arms to attempt to halt Communist Military expansion. This war marked the beginning of a U.S. military juggernaut which consumed half of the federal budget in “peacetime years” and established parts of our military presence which was ultimately seen in the farthest reaches of the world - no UN control.

President Truman subsumed the “UN Command” and a few nations gave token, but valuable military assistance, with Great Britain (their Navy) doing the most, then Canada, Turkey and Greece, etc.

But! We had no “UN” troops per Se, no flag, no UN insignia. No UN control or advice, no office. It (Korea) was a U.S. effort all the way.

Fighting Communism, the U.S. made the gigantic military effort (among the anti-Communist General McArthur forces), then paid the great price for that war with U.S. dead and wounded, and paid the monetary costs of that war.

The Korean people suffered incredible losses and destruction. It was an appalling war!
The U.S. and ROK military action (war) against the Communists was not completely victorious. It ended with a stabilized position on or near the 38th parallel. The stopping of the war was accomplished by the overwhelming military and economic power of the United States. The UN did nothing notable; the North Korean and the Chinese military forces were beaten suffering astronomical losses.

Some of the written objectives of the UN are high-minded, humanitarian, far reaching, seemingly honest and desirable. The desire to have a unifying force which has peace and freedom woven into the fabric of each member nation’s government, would be admirable (if not miraculous.)

In my opinion, subjectively speaking, the member nation’s would have to act (convert) and be in agreement with my philosophy of freedom and humanitarianism as practiced by the U.S. in order for those nations to be acceptable and worthy partners.
I do not desire UN control on any part of our nation, land, sea or air. No UN controls of any kind on our natural resources, parks, industry, fishing, culture, way-of-life. No type of military control anywhere under UN mandate. No UN insignia, no UN flag at the vanguard of our armed forces. No foreign countries acting under UN sanctions could exercise control in the name of the UN in our realm.