Elections held at the 38th parallel. The republic of korea, a sovereign democratic nation was born. His president. In may 1950, the citizens of this young republican went to the polls again to exercise their democratic rights. To choose their government under their democratic constitution. Even as the citizens of the korean republic voted in free elections, the north korean communist leaders were boasting of their intention to unify the country by force. And this was their target, a partly mountainous but peninsula and the 20 million peaceloving citizens of the republic of korea. The attack by the north korean communist came suddenly and without warning. The heroic Republican Army faced superior forces with all the advantages of deception and surprised, rally to the defensive of the public. Improvising quickly to react to the unprovoked aggression. Against a prepared enemy armed with modern tanks, planes and guns, the republican troops were ill equipped to meet the onslaught. Back in the United States, an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council is called. Ambassador chang of the republic of korea heres secretary general say, the present situation is a serious one and is a threat to international peace. The Security Council is in my opinion the confident oregon to deal with it. I consider it the clear duty of the Security Council to take steps necessary to reestablish peace in that area. A vote on the United States demand that north korean salt their aggression is carried nine to nothing with the soviet union absent. Back in korea, the saddest victims of the treacherous aggression by the communist north korean puppets are women and children. This is not new. These tragic and bewildered refugees are always the first fruit of want an aggression. Charles handily is joining us from naples florida. Hes out with a new book, ghost flames, life and death in a hidden war. Korea 1950 to 1953. We thank you very much for being with us here on cspan and on cspan threes American History tv. Thank you, very good to be with you. The historical significance of the korean war, as we said often being viewed as the forgotten war, what is it 70 years later . Well i think we can see it simply in the tension that still exists on the Korean Peninsula within the Nuclear Crisis. But you mentioned it was sometimes called the forgotten war and thats partly because it was an indecisive conflict in a far off place. It came just five years after the good war or the great war, world war ii. Then it was eventually overshadowed by the vietnam war. But when we look back, you can see this was a watershed moment in the 20th century history because it militarized the cold war and communist and capitalist worlds. It also was the first undeclared war of the United States in its history and of course that is all we have had since. It remains the last conflict between great powers, in this case america and china and with soviet help on the chinese north korean side. And it really made permanently militarized the United States within just a few years. The Defense Budget quadrupled in the early fifties. In that sense, the pentagon never looked back after that. We can see today, as i have said, in the Nuclear Crisis that this is really rooted in that war. Because the United States threatened in various ways, openly and secretly through back channels, to use nuclear weapons. I guess the North Koreans and against the chinese. As a result, obviously china realized that in needed its own deterrence and went to work on it and by 1964, the chinese had a nuclear weapon. Now we can see the North Koreans as well, you suffered such tremendous devastation during the korean war, they now have their own Nuclear Arsenal which they consider a deterrent against another devastating conflict with the u. S. We should point out also that we have a line set aside for those of you who are veterans to the korean war. Are you seeing the underlying issue in the conflict seven years ago was the cold war tensions that resulted in the war . Yes. Of course. At the end of world war ii, korea, which was a japanese colony, was divided by the soviet occupation and American Occupation forces in the north and south. Consequently, they each followed divergent paths. Communist and capitalist. And then, although in december 45, washington and moscow reached but was called the moscow agreement to reunify the koreas within five years. Their bickering and hostility between those two great powers doomed that to failure by 1948, the whole idea had been dropped and the two, south and north, declared themselves independent nations. So yes, we can find the root of the korean war very directly in this hostility between soviet union and United States. Your upcoming book, ghost flames, life and death in a hidden war, looking at korea 1950 to 1953, you really try to personalize those who were on the front lines including citizens in the war. Walk us through what you learned. What i learned was even more than i already knew and i had been working on this as a journalist for many years. I learned even more about the complete devastation of two societies which suffered such tremendous bombardment. My characters, the featured individuals, these are real people of course with real experiences but i call them characters, my characters witness much of the horror of the war, some of the worst of it. From the atrocities to the horror of bombardment in north korea in particular. So this is a way, i thought, to bring home to the reader the real meaning of anymore and this war in particular which is so neglected it seems. So i have characters ranging from a little northern refugee girl and, a ten year old girl, who opens the book with her awakening to the start of the war. On to various soldiers and civilians, even american nun who runs a clinic for refugees in south korea for the war. Up to the top general, matthew ridgeway, who ended up fairly early on as overall commander on the American South korean side. And the chinese general who is the overall cant commander from 1950 onward on the chinese north korean side. I follow the their experiences during the war and threw them we get a good big picture, overview, of the strategy and the conduct of the war. In the meantime, many of my ordinary people are going through these battles are fleeing as refugees. They are under strengthening from american airplanes and such. Our guest has won the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting with the associated press. He is joining us from naples florida. Before we get to the first calls, what specific event led to the initial conflict . Of course, there was an invasion on june 25 1950 of, i believe, it was seven north korean divisions coming across the 38th parallel. But there had been skirmishing along the 38th parallel, the separation line, for a couple of years before that. Some of them pretty serious. When the war broke out on june 25 of that morning, a rainy morning in korea, many people in the south thought we hope this is just another skirmish. It turned out to be a full scale invasion and actually, on the northern side, north cranes were told that south korea had attacked. This fiction that is still maintained by the North Koreans officially and their museums and such, but it was a surprise attack and there was a failure on the south korean and american side, and intelligence failure, do not detect these movements of troops across the north of the 38th parallel in preparation for an invasion. The North Koreans had very cleverly staged a socalled maneuver which was actually a hoax. It was not a practice movements but rather a full scale invasion maneuver. Lets get to phone calls. Bo is joining us from sylvester georgia. Good morning and welcome to the conversation. Thank you. I had a relative that served on, during the battle of busan which is the longest battle enable history with an opposing force. They called it a Police Action even though it was undeclared. The second question i have is the armistice ended the fighting on the peninsula in 1953 but there has been no formal treaty. Too many of the North Koreans, the war has never been forgotten even though we have forgotten the war itself and a lot of American History. Thank you. Thank you, two very important points. Yes of course as i call it it is a war on hold. There has been no peace treaty. There was to be a political settlement. This was called for within the original armistice agreement in july of 1953. A call that there be a political conference that would reunify both koreas. But the hostilities were just so great that by 1954, the meetings took place in geneva and did not go very far. I think they lasted two or three months and finally the United States walked out because of the disagreements over who would oversee elections and such. The United States proposed that the United Nations oversee the elections but of course the United Nations was considered by the north as a belligerent in the war. The Security Council having adopted resolutions urging countries to provide aid to south korea in other words. They took sides in the war. And that was something the North Koreans just could not abide and they proposed, they in the soviets proposed, and the chinese proposed, a neutral a commission of neutral nations that the americans rejected and so it ended in failure. So now we continue to have a war on hold with no peace treaty. No war and no peace. Im sorry, the first question related to. . That it is a war that has never been basically there has not been a ceasefire or formal agreement between the u. S. And north korea. The color brought on the undeclared aspect of the Police Action. This is interesting. As a journalist i see this happen so often, that was raised into question by journalist to president truman. Would you considered a Police Action and truman said yes. But this was not his formulation initially and this was very early on when there was some thought in washington at least, that the entry of the United States forces would end it pretty quickly and become a peacekeeping operation. But that did not prove to be true. As we see it went on for three years at tremendous cost. You may have mentioned steve the casualty toll for the americans which is over 36,000 dead. Well the total debt for the others involved was just tremendous. It is believed that between 200 and 400,000 south korean troops and the same number of north korean troops were killed. And even more chinese were killed in that war, approximately a half million. But the real toll was on the civilians in north and south korea. It is believed that probably 1 million civilians on each side were killed during that war. Its one, i think it is still considered the war with the most costly casualty toll of any that america has fought. The proportion of the total death toll. We are looking back at the start of the korean war in 1950, 70 years ago here on cspan and cspan 3 American History tv. Sam is up from michigan. Thank you for waiting good morning. I, i got so mad toward the end of it that i had to quit reading it because it seemed to me that the Truman Administration was just clicking its tongue and shaking its head watching mccarthys crazy behavior over there. Why didnt anyone do anything about that over there . Thank you sam. To his point, maybe a broader question as well, the key players involved in this conflict. Charles hanley . Yes. Im sorry youre asking the key players . He mentioned general mcarthur, i was going to mention him but some of the other key figures in the conflict. Yes. On mcarthur, his behavior really came to the fore during the war itself and not leading up to it. During the war, general mcarthur was the overall commander in the far east and so he was the one who ordered troops in after getting the ok from truman. He had a very hard time, just to quickly summarize the early back and forth of the war, the north korean invasion pushed the south korean army and the few american troops there into the southeastern quadrant of south korea which became known as the busan barometer and defensive line. Then later, in september 1950, mcarthur landed a huge Amphibious Force west of seoul and that effectively cut off the North Koreans in the south from their resupply. At the same time, the American South Korean Forces broke out from there busan perimeter and drove north Korean Forces north. The North Koreans were break weekend at that point. Then mcarthur sent his forces across the 38th parallel capturing pyongyang and all the way on to the chinese border. The directives from the joint chiefs of staff in washington where that you should not send american troops to the chinese border because they will consider that a threat. But he disobeyed that and the whole un command moved towards the border and that is when the chinese intervened. Of course that was disastrous for the americans. At the same time, mcarthur made a strategic error in splitting his forces up the east coast and west coast of north korea and so the chinese could pick off the split force more easily. Their attacks were a great surprise to arthur and his generals and they went into, essentially, a headlong retreat all the way back to seoul. The real thing that got to president truman about mcarthur was that he was speaking out for, geostrategic clean, not just militarily, but he kept on pushing for a wider war against china. Attacking chinese bases, attacking china itself, and even mustering troops from taiwan. My character, general ridgeway from my book, he could see early on that mcarthur was making a great strategic mistake on the ground in north korea. And also, he understood when he was told he was taking over from mcarthur that mcarthur had been fired. Ridgeway was already in korea, but he would leave korea and go to tokyo as far east commander. Ridgeway knew that mccarthys ideas were mistaken and the American People would not stand for another global war, this time against communism. Truman simply became too impatient with mcarthurs insubordination and speaking out publicly on geopolitical matters and so was fired. We welcome our cspan Radio Audience as well as those listening on sirius xm. Our guest is Charles Hanley, a Pulitzer Prizewinning writer and reporter. His new book called ghost flames, covering the korean war. Bob is from arlington texas. Good morning. Hello. My brother got killed over there in 1952. What bothers me the most is the fact that most people over here these days dont know that china was the biggest part of why we lost that war and we still disrespected. The second thing is on memorial day, everyone over here says happy memorial day. Well it isnt very happy for me i will tell you that. The second thing is that guys like Colin Kapernick really disrespect the flag. Thats the lowest point. We have to respect the honor of the people who died. That is what memorial day is all about. But you get a guy like Colin Kapernick or all these other celebrities and whatever, this is our flag and they disrespected it and i would love to disrespect one of their relatives in the same way. Bob tell us about your brother. What happened . He wanted to get drafted and he was ready to come home. A sniper got him he was in the Regimental Combat Team and was behind the lions but they had those snipers over there picking people off right and left. He had been promised to be able to come home and had already served his time. They kept promoting him. They did not know how to manage the piece. Everyone was just waiting for the next move. How old was he when he passed away . 22. Bob thank you for the call and thank you for sharing your story. Im very sorry to hear about your loss and obviously it state with you all your life. Youre mentioning of china as i noted earlier, there were possibly as many as 600,000 chinese soldiers lost in that war. They were the deciding factor in that war. They saved north korea. The chinese take that war is a great victory first of all because they saved north korea. And they have a very they play close attention to the history of that particular war. In fact, one of my characters as i mentioned was the overall commander of the chinese forces. Soon after he entered the war zone and set up headquarters, he had eldest son on his staff as a russian translator. Soon after the chinese army entered north korea, the headquarters was attacked and the general had just left his cabin and for some reason, his son had returned to the cabin for something and american warplanes came in and nape almond and area of the headquarters and killed him. So maos son, is very big in north korea and honored on their memorial day so to speak. So the connection between china and north korea is quite close historically. They have their animosities but the Chinese People and north Korean People recognize that their relationship is deep and long. Our guest is joining us from naples florida and our next guest is also from florida. Bill good morning. Good morning to you. It is a privilege to talk to mr. Hanley. My question has to parts sort of. How did north and south korea originally become separated . As two distinct countries . The second part is, how or do you think that north korea in terms of what drives him today, is not sort of self preservation but the desire to unify the peninsula . Thank you. First on the division between north and south korea along the 38th parallel Charles Hanley . Yes. As i noted earlier there was an agreement between the United States and the soviet union to unify the peninsula after the occupied separate zones during the second world war. But the discussion felt apart after a few years. That is because of their growing animosity over some other matters, particularly in europe. So they simply went ahead in fostering the separation of governments. In 1948, the republic of korea was declared in seoul. And then later in 48, the democratic peoples republic of korea was declared in the north. In terms of reunification, i cannot say the Korean People are not proud of their culture and history in unity. In 1950, this is the first time korea had been separated. They had been united for about 1000 years before the war. So i think in their heart of hearts, all koreans would love to see reunification but i know in the south there arent misgivings because of the great burden the south would have to undertake if there were to be reunification in supporting a very impoverished north korea and very politically troubled north korea. As far as the north korean attitude, they consider themselves the legitimate government of all of korea. The people have been propagandist along those lines all their lives and so i think they believe it is their rightful place to be reunified and the rulers of korea. The Korean War Legacy Foundation putting together a series of conversations with those who were on the front lines of the battle between 1950 and 1953. Among them, alan clark. Here is part of his story. First off so is the field uniform. It has the hood on the back that can zip off or button off. Its very thick. The other one is a godsend that we had it. Its an overcoat. It has an insert which is for. It is london fog. Everyone had one of these and everyone wore them. You slept in them, you wore them and you are lucky to have one. In addition to that, we had a will scarf which was wonderful because you could put it around your face in the really cold wind. You could put it under your helmet and just have your eyes out and that was wonderful. The one place where the wind was blowing like crazy and we were out near the bridge. We were communicating with headquarters. As i stood there with the wind blowing, it was 42 degrees below zero at that time, and the wind was blowing like crazy. If i faced the wind any length of time i could not close my eyes. That is alan clark reflecting on what he remembers in the war in korea 70 years ago. Back to phone calls. Al is joining us from ithaca new york. Good morning. Good morning. Thanks for the program and your guest. I have two questions. One is if he could, even though the book begins in 1950, if he could deal a little more with the history of the korean resistance to the Japanese Occupation that started in 1905. Also, the establishment of the government in the south. From what i understand, the Korean Independence Movement was declared a capital or a party very early in september 1945. The u. S. Sort of instituted or made the government come into existence. Thank you for your research and interest. Ill thank you. To his first point, he goes back to the start of the century. History is very interesting of course steve as you know and in 1905 there was a settlement of the russian japanese war in which teddy roosevelt, the american president played a media role. As part of those agreements, there was a secret agreement between the United States and japan in which the United States would acknowledge a japanese suzerainty over the entire Korean Peninsula. In exchange, the japanese would not interfere with the american role in the philippines. And the japanese very quickly turned this into a colonial situation. They declared that they basically annexed korea and declared it a colony which is part of japan. They even tried to impose and did impose the japanese language and required fall jet koreans to take japanese names and it became a hated colonial power over korea. The caller is correct that there was some resistance, armed resistance, but it never did amount to much. In 1919 there was a fairly peaceful protest that broke down. But they were crushed quite brutally by the japanese. The resistance gravitated towards manchuria and the Russian Far East where there were many ethnic koreans in the region. North korea itself and manchuria china and the Russian Far East. They were eventually organized as a guerrilla force, either fighting with the Chinese Communists against the japanese and chinese nationalists or, and this is where kim ilsung got his training as part of a russian trained gorilla unit in the soviet far east. It was infiltrating japanese controlled manchuria and carrying out sabotage and such. This is where kim ilsung grew into the communist military strongman that he became. And so, this also then established a dichotomy between people in the south. Caller is right that the people in the south tried to conform create a career wide Independence Movement and even a structure for government. But the American Occupation force simply eliminated that and in fact there was a Korean Workers Party in the south, a communist party, that was outlawed and made illegal by general hodge. So there is a bigger history than simply what happened in 45 with the division by the soviets and americans. The roots run much deeper than that. Steve, i mentioned the subtitle to my book which is life and death in a hidden war. This is really a key part of what i tried to present and that is the hidden aspects of the korean war. Many of which did not come to light for a half century. This involves mass political executions in the south. It had several aspects to it but the worst of it all did not come out until after the year 2000 really. Between 2005 and 2010, a truth and Reconciliation Commission in south korea did some very deep investigations into what happened between 1950. What happened was that the southern government had jailed tens and tens of thousands of leftist as Political Prisoners. When the war broke out and north korea invaded, the military police and civilian police simply took these people out into outlying areas and had them dig their own mass graves and then executed them by the thousands and thousands. One of my characters, one of my featured individuals, is a british journalist, a british communist journalist from the london daily worker. He was the first outsider to happen upon, traveling with the north korean army deeper into south korea, he was led to these mass graves and reported on the killing of thousands of Political Prisoners by the southern government. In fact, he reported that american officers were present and u. S. Army trucks were used and u. S. Army drivers. His report in the daily worker was then denounced as an atrocity fabrication by the u. S. Embassy in london. No western reporter ever followed up on this. It was not until the year 2000, it turned out that the u. S. Army officers at the scene of this one massacre, and there were many all over south korea, had taken photographs and sent them back to the pentagon and they were classified secret and kept that wait for a half century until a researcher finally had them declassified. That report turned out to be true. There are other hidden aspects of the war that my book goes into because some of my characters actually witnessed or were caught up in these atrocities. One is a woman, a young mother who lost her two children who were killed by the american troops in late july of 1950. We followed her through that ordeal. She was badly wounded and then through the rest of the war, as she tries she is haunted, actually her whole life, but she and her husband have to fend for themselves throughout the war. Her husband filed a request to find out who killed the refugees. There were orders that turned up at the National Archives where the u. S. Air force for example, refugees that were approaching the state lines. The commander of the First Cavalry Division told the troops that refugees were quote fair game. He ordered his troops to shoot all refugees coming across the river which was the defensive line of the perimeter. So there were mass killings of refugees and civilians, not just by bombardment but by Ground Forces and by hair straight thing. My character, the northern refugee insole. The little girl sees the first People Killed in the war by an american aircraft. Randomly straffing salons along a road insole. The book i hope will bring home in very real terms the very human dimension of the war. The people the radar gets to know will bring them home i think better than ever to american readers the true horrors of the korean war. Charles hanley let me jump in. We have a lot of callers who want to chat with you. Who was the president of the republic of korea . He was a well educated christian korean born in north korea. Very early on during the japanese colonial era agitated for decades for queen independence from japan. He was at the conference at the end of world war one. Agitating for korean independence. But of course, the japanese were alleys allies in that war, allies of the western power in world war one. And so he got nowhere with that and then in subsequent years, he lobbied in washington for korean independence in all through world war ii and then, when the two koreas were divided into two nations, he had become known to the washington establishment. The cia and particular, wanted him installed to be president of the new south korea. So general mcarthur flew them over. He was very unfair choice, and turned out very ruthless leader. And became very unpopular with the people that had to work with him. The politicians there. Its interesting, that there was an election just before the invasion that put the opposition in power and the national assembly. The invasion we maintained a lot of popular people because of his insistence on unification. Late in the war, as the americans beginning in 1951. The americans were negotiating for an armistice between the chinese in the koreans. There are so furious about the impending are misses that they began pulling stance. That tried to sabotage. For example putting freeing thousands of north korean prisoners who declared they want to stay in the south. Which infuriated the northerners and the chinese. So he was a very difficult person for the americans to deal with. But in the end, he had to acquiesce. These the coauthor of the book the bridge and no gunnery, a hidden nightmare from the korean war. He is a veteran of the war, herman is joining us from baltimore. Thank you for waiting. Good morning, im 89 years old. I was in korea for the last three months of the war. I was in the core and the Radio Operator about ten miles behind the line. One of the things i remember was and also a station right alongside the highway. All day long, fresh troops were being trucked north. Question i wasnt close enough to the line to be shot at but i could see the flashes in the sky and here the rumble of the artillery. My first question is, what was the relationship between north and south korea before the invasion. And you did just talk about the dictatorship, what role did he play and maybe having the invasion get started . A herman could you stay on the line and get a response i want to follow up with you could you be with us for a moment or two . Herman please down the line. Its very interesting. One of my characters is the north korean general. It was the operations chief in the north korean army. I followed him we followed him the reader follows him through the war. He learned later on the war of the genesis he learned an old comrade of his whats happened to be a russian interpreter. He went to moscow and proposed to joseph stall and of course was the sponsor with the Chinese Communist north korea and others. He wanted to invade and reunify. Stalin was extremely cautious about that. The American Army was still the Occupation Army was still in korea. The thing about him, he was very eager to invade the north. What if we just let him do that the whole world indicated he would support. General you my character, after that went back to pierre yang, he raised this issue of invasion again. Then the American Army pulled out of south korea, in addition with Chinese Communist. In october 49. So the conditions on the ground were changing. In addition the union discovered its own common problem. So at that point in april of 50, stall and give the go ahead for the invasion. It turns out that in june, two weeks or ten days before the invasion, john foster dulles, a special envoy of president truman was in korea. Assessing the situation. Even then, he was begging him to allow him to invade north korea. As i said earlier the Truman Administration was very cautious of starting a war with the soviet union. So even at that stage, as i said earlier, they were skirmishing along the border. Half of which which had to be blamed on the they were fighting each other for a couple of years. Before skillet even occurred. Theyre going back and forth up the peninsula. The final two years, were plenty of bloody crunch warfare. Im not surprised that stolen went north in the ambulances coming south. Even that late in the war. In fact the chinese launched a gigantic offensive as punishment, for the things he was doing. Just three months before the end of the war. The goal during those days to get an inch more territory. So theyre patrolling and small packs, and sniping. And casualties continue day by day. Herman let me get back to you are still with us . Yes. You are 19 years old at the time. What was going through your mind, as you left the u. S. Travel to korea, and became part of this conflict. What were you thinking personally . Well i was in college another. I was at the university of north carolina. After my junior year i dropped out. And i had no choice either to be drafted, or in last in the army. They said a i would not have to go to korea. So i enlisted for three years, and i ended up there anyways. It was totally non political. I was 19 years old or whatever. I just had to do it i had to do that was it. I never thought about the war in particular. Herman thanks for calling from baltimore maryland. Veteran of the korean war. Lets go to jay next who is joining us from michigan. Good morning jim morning. My question is in 1968 i was stationed in japan with the North Koreans sees the uss. I met my wife of 51 years who was born in north korea in 1949. Over the years, ive concluded that she would not have been in south korea have general mcarthur a disobeyed orders, inaudible were losing you. If you could comment on the number of refugees are able to get out of north korea as a result of mcarthurs disobedience. Thank you and hes making reference his own wife who we met in 1968. Your response . Im sorry steve and catch all of that. You mention that pay song is a very interesting and sad situation. He actually in the end, the demarcation line ended up in north korea. And pinned some is the old capital of the old korea. You may know theres an Industrial Park here in south korean industries. Refugee story is one of the great tragedies of the story. Its estimated 10 million koreans were separated from their immediate family members. Featured individual and my characters of many examples of this. What a young medical student from north korea draft, by the north once the war broke out. His grandmother hidden away. But then eventually, its all the back and forth over the territory of north korea, he gets evacuated to south korea by sea. When he left the north, the chinese entered. Deep into north korea, including past his hometown. And he thought korea will not be unified. That he returned from is hospital, and sees the south korean army. He has the military policeman whats going on. He said this is just a tactical retreat for three days. He his mother, better leave because id be drafted. Ill be back in three days. Go example. He never says mother in. This is in the late 19 fifties. A unless he survived the south korean army, and encountered some harry singh experiences. He went to medical school in the south and never and went to california and became a cardiologist. And was finally able to return to north korea in the 19 eighties. Biden is motherhood. There are so many stories of families, lower separated for the rest of their lives. This is another little known and little explored area of this tragic war. Chronicled in the upcoming new book called ghost flames. Life and death in a hidden war. Curry at 1950 to 1953. Another key figure and all of this. Can you explain . She was a mother in central south korea. She and fellow villagers were chased by american troops in their village as the americans were retreating. This is in july of 1950. They moved down the road and encountered troops of the seventh cavalry regiment who made them leave the road and walk on the Railroad Tracks that paralleled the road. Very quickly, american warplanes came along and bond this Refugee Group of several hundred people. Many were killed in this attack. Many fled underneath a concrete railroad bridge, a tunnel situation. The dud in troops of the seventh cavalry regiment proceeded to machine gun these people. This massacre was not confirmed until half a century later in 1999. She lost her two children. Her twoyearold girl was killed fairly immediately in the tunnel. And then, the next night she tried to escape with her fouryearold boy. While making her way slowly through the brush, the sun rose at dawn and an american soldier shot at them point blank. He could clearly see it was a mother and child. He killed the boy and badly wounded her. Then in one of these absurd in consistencies of war, the americans then took her away to an Army Hospital and treated her and she recuperated. She had been separated from her husband who had left earlier and got farther south. It took weeks before they could reunite and try to make a new life back in their home village. Let me jump in with a final point because we only have about one minute left. There was another individual involved in the war of course. It resulted in the integration of the forces and james sharp reflecting on what he remembers from the conflict. I have a photograph of that. I looked at it and i am the only African American in my platoon. That would have been about 120 people. 120 . I was the only African American. And then when we had arrived in fox Company Second battalion, summit marines seventh marines, we had five. Two of whom were killed. At one time we spent 83 days online which was an exceptional amount of time to be on line. While you are on line you are defending the trench line but you are also out on patrol every night. You cross your own barbed wire and mine fields into the open area in front of your line in order to protect it. From the Korean War Legacy Foundation and again joining us from naples florida is Charles Hanley. Bottom line, with only a half minute left, what is the legacy of that conflict . It clearly is the simple fact that the 38th parallel on the Korean Peninsula is probably the most tense and explosive piece of geography on the globe. Still. And we have a Nuclear North Korea at this point as a result of that war and their need to establish a deterrent. We have an American Occupation force, an American Allied force in the south as well and its simply remains a tinderbox. Also, it changed the United States into a permanently militarized nation. We fought many wars after that, the first undeclared war establishing a precedent for everything that followed. Its still, there is still no peace, it is still at war technically on the peninsula. So it really was a watershed moment for American History and global history. Charles hanley is a Pulitzer Prizewinning reporter for the associated press. His book ghost flames, life and death in a hidden war. Korea 1950 to 1953. Thanks for joining us here on cspan washington journal and history tv. American history tv. Up next on American History tv, a news reel from the u. S. Information agency on north koreas invasion of south korea on june 25th 1950 and the response from the United Nations. This is korea, a nation divided at the end of world war ii at the