Korean and Vietnam memorials
Kennedy’s belief that culture was a crucial weapon against communism made me ponder a hypothetical scenario. What if our country participated in a culture war instead of the cold war? There would be a few obvious advantages to this occurrence. First and foremost, there would be no threat of nuclear detonation. Paintings, sculptures, and music could not produce the destruction of human race. Another advantage would be the great enlightenment that would come out of such a competition. Some European countries, have scoffed at Americans lack of refinement in the area of the arts. We were one of the few developed democracies, until recently not to have a poet laureate. Communism, by nature, restricts the freedom of creativity and individuality. Therefore, a culture race would, at least in part, defeat communism. Whether or not this would work is questionable, but I digress from the reading.
I found an interesting irony with the Korean and Vietnam wars. I wonder if it is a conscience that we aren’t taught about the wars were didn’t win. It was frustrating to me in middle and high school that my history classes taught me nothing about these two conflicts even though they were important to American history. I also wonder if there is a correlation between the tombstones of fallen Korean War soldiers reading “Korean Conflict” and the fact that we never won this war. I’ve noticed also that tombstones of soldiers of fought in Vietnam read “Vietnam Conflict” rather than Vietnam War. I think that “conflict” is too light of word for what the Vietnam and Korean conflicts were, which were wars.
November 14th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
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November 14th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
I think the government should just give up and call it a war. They tried to downplay just how involved the United States was in it, but the fact remains that it was basically a war that we entered into.
November 14th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
Quite the contrary for me, there was quite a bit of time focused on the Vietnam conflict. However, the main difficulty with calling it a war is that that is inaccurate. Congress never officially declared Vietnam a war, so to this date, it stands as the Vietnam Conflict. While Korea was eventually declared a war, peace was never officially made.
November 15th, 2007 at 9:28 am
I also did not learn about the Korean or Vietnam wars in my high school. It just shows us how our country only likes to remember victories and always shys away from the mistakes it makes.
November 15th, 2007 at 10:07 am
We never went over the Korean or the Vietnam wars either. I think it’s ridiculous that they wouldn’t go over such an important part of our nation’s history just because we didn’t win the war.
November 15th, 2007 at 10:14 am
Now that I think about it, I do not remember learning about Korea or Vietnam in high school either. All the wars leading up to it were definately a huge part of history class, but after WWII not much was discussed. Maybe this is because they really are attempting to have them be “forgotten.”
December 5th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
I am glad that people are starting to recognized the lack of education about these wars.
I like your idea about a culture war. Great idea!
December 10th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
I am a veteran of what has been defined the “Cold War”, although I joined when the Korean Conflict was ongoing. I belong to various veterans groups, and have to continually correct those who say I was in the Korean War. I did go to Korea on the ship to which I was assigned, but the 38th parallel agreement had been reached and aside for a few getting shot at around the parameters, the war was over.
As I have mingled with a good many high school kids, having five of my own, I know they are not getting information on the Korean and Vietnam wars. Actually except for the interest in the Greatest Generation and D-Day Landing, the high school graduates would have little knowledge of WWII. I’m not sure this is because of the way they all ended or not, it’s just a fact now.
History forgotten. If you asked any graduate of high school why these wars were fought they would surely give you a number of reasons … all wrong.