Special to WorldTribune.com

“FREEDOM IS NOT FREE” is the inscription on the Korean War Memorial in Washington, D.C.

The Korean War started June 25, 1950. Communist North Korea invaded South Korea, killing thousands. [The war has not ended. An armistice was signed on July 27, 1953.]

Outnumbered South Korean and American troops, as part of a U.N. police action, fought courageously against the Communist Chinese and North Korean troops, who were supplied with arms and MIG fighters from the Soviet Union.

Five-star Gen. Douglas MacArthur was Supreme U.N. Commander, leading the United Nations Command from 1950 to 1951. MacArthur made a daring landing of troops at Inchon, deep behind North Korean lines, and recaptured the city of Seoul.

With temperatures sometimes forty degrees below zero, and Washington politicians limiting the use of air power against the Communists, there were nearly 140,000 American casualties:

• in the defense of the Pusan Perimeter and Taego;
• in the landing at Inchon and the freeing of Seoul;
• in the capture of Pyongyang;
• in the Yalu River where nearly a million Communist Chinese soldiers invaded;
• in the Battles of Changjin Reservoir, Old Baldy, White Horse Mountain, Heartbreak Ridge, Pork Chop Hill, T-Bone Hill, and Siberia Hill.

Harry S. Truman compared Communism and Democracy in his Inaugural Address, January 20, 1949:

“We believe that all men are created equal because they are created in the image of God. From this faith we will not be moved … Communism is based on the belief that man is so weak and inadequate that he is unable to govern himself, and therefore requires the rule of strong masters. …

“These differences between Communism and Democracy do not concern the United States alone. People everywhere are coming to realize that what is involved is material well-being, human dignity, and the right to believe in and worship God. …

Fighting in Korea was halted July 27, 1953, with the signing of an armistice at Panmunjom.

On December 24, 1953, Dwight Eisenhower stated at the lighting of the National Christmas Tree:

“The world still stands divided in two antagonistic parts. Prayer places freedom and communism in opposition one to the other. The Communist can find no reserve of strength in prayer because his doctrine of materialism and statism denies the dignity of man and consequently the existence of God. But in America … religious faith is the foundation of free government, so is prayer an indispensable part of that faith … The founders of this, our country, came first to these shores in search of freedom … to live … beyond the yoke of tyranny.”

• AmericanMinute.com

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