Things They DON'T Teach You About The Korean War

Ever heard of the Korean War? It's like this forgotten chapter in the history books, but let me tell you, it's one heck of a story.
From 1950 to 1953, things got real hot as both sides of the Iron Curtain duked it out over control of the Korean peninsula.
Sure, it doesn't get as much spotlight as World War II or Vietnam, but trust me, it's packed with some seriously overlooked facts that'll blow your mind….

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Credit:
Show Created by Daniel Turner (B.A. (Hons) in History, University College London)
Script:
Narrator:

Chris Kane

[corymorimacori]

MacArthur: Nuke em!
Truman: No!
MacArthur: NUKE EM!
Truman: NO!
MacArthur: AH COME ON!
Truman: You’re fired

[MTTT]

In the German speaking world, the Korean war is surprisingly not as forgotten as it might have been in the US, as far as I can tell. This may be to the fact that the outbreak of hostilities on the Korean peninsula showed people in the divided Germany, especially West-Germany, how quickly things could escalate, so this hastened the rearmament of the only recently reestablished armed forces in West-Germany.

[diamond-dog-]

I’m stationed in Korea rn, and had my first winter here. And oh boy was it FREEZING every morning for pt

[Ididitlikethis]

If you ever feel like your job is worthless, just remember North Korea has a Prime Minister.

[Jumbocombo]

My grandfather was a Chosin Reservoir survivor. I was still young when he passed so we unfortunately never got to talk about it. But its a big reason i love history so much

[machinegunjackmcgurn]

My neighbor is a 92 year old Korean war combat vet. He was at Inchon etc...

[jiyuhong]

fun fact: till after the war North Korea classifed Seoul as its capital, and ironically, the students of the north still learn that they have 2 capitals Seoul & Pyeongyang

[The_Defiant_One]

All I know is Grandpa used to "stack them 10 high"...

[indianajones]

There’s also the “2nd Korean War” DMZ conflict from 1966-1969

[Nicky]

I work at a senior home, and I have a friend named Eddie who actually fought in both the Vietnam and Korean War. Dude is a real class act with a great sense of humor. I'm glad I got to meet him and to hear the stories he told.

[xlnektu]

The fact that surprise me the most was that Luxembourg sent 85 soldiers to the Korean War. 🇱🇺🤝🇰🇷

[travisreed]

"A Tale Of Two Koreas, " would be a great name for a book about the Korean War and it's aftermath.

[loganbrown]

I am proud to say that to me The Korean War will never be forgotten, my late grandfather whom I was very close was a US Army veteran who was drafted for the war (He got very lucky, the cease fire was called the night before he was scheduled to deploy to Korea), he served from 1953 - 1958, achieving the rank of SFC. I proudly own his Army uniforms, and in trying to piece them back together learned a good bit about The Korean War in the process (And how insanely rare anything pertaining to the uniforms are. I was also fortunate enough to attend an assembly with some of the surviving members of the Borinqueneers (The 65th Infantry Regiment) who served in Korea during my Junior year of High School and learned about the largest court martial in US military history.

[bradesproduction]

My great great grandfather served in the Korean war. Despite never getting to meet him i still love him to this day

[Spongebrain]

A few years ago I was assigned a family research project in a college class which was about connecting a family member to a moment in history. In the process I discovered a 3x great uncle whom I previously didn't know existed and who fought in the Korean War.

He was captured in the first few months of the fighting and spent the entire duration in a Chinese POW camp in North Korea. He also was forced to participate in the 1952 Inter-Camp POW Olympics which I didn't know of prior to my research. It was essentially the still living POWs partaking in crude olympic games to demonstrate that they were being treated fairly and were having fun. My uncle participated with the boxing events.

After the war he returned home but only lived a few years later after having died from a lung infection that he contracted while being a POW. My grandpa who was only a kid at the time remembers his uncle being solemn and refused to speak of his experience.

[frankrizzo]

I remember my Dad telling me stories of the weather over there being so cold some of the guys were losing their toes from frost bite. They would turn black and fall off. He said it was around 40-50 below zero at times.

[neofulcrum]

My school barely taught me anything about the Korean and Vietnam War. Just that it basically happened and who the sides were. The former was more of a footnote

[Year]

I had two friends who fought in the Korean War as pilots. Thank you for covering it.

[carronade]

Here is something interesting. 100 years prior to the Korean War was the Crimean War, which went from 1850 to 1853.

[randyeller]

One of my high school teachers was a Korean War vet. He said a lot of what he experienced was still considered top secret information so he couldn’t say much but he did give us the impression that it would be a long time before the bigger picture would be revealed.