This entry is a subentry of Veterans.
Over 6 million Americans served in the armed forces during the era of the Korean War (1950–53), but they represented a smaller cohort demographically than their counterparts in World War II and they failed to garner the same public attention and acclaim. An unpopular war with limited mobilization, the Korean conflict ended in a stalemate instead of total victory. In 1952, the U.S. Congress enacted a Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act providing Korean veterans with educational benefits similar to but less than those offered World War II veterans under the G.I. Bill.
Further tarnishing the image, a handful of American servicemen captured by the enemy renounced their U.S. citizenship and a small number of American prisoners of war who participated in anti‐U.S. propaganda were put on trial by the U.S. government after their exchange for collaborating with the enemy. Some political commentators voiced concerns that captured American soldiers had been “brainwashed” by their Communist captors and now posed a threat of internal infiltration. This theme would be reflected in a controversial 1962 film, The Manchurian Candidate.
By the 1970s, the Korean War became “the forgotten war,” but during the 1980s restored pride in the armed forces and the dedication of the national Vietnam Veterans Memorial (1982) sparked renewed interest among Korean War veterans and political leaders to build a similar national monument honoring those who served in Korea. Authorized by the U.S. Congress in 1986, built with private funds by the American Battle Monuments Commission, the Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C. in 1995.
[See also Memorials, War; Veterans Administration.]
Bibliography
- Richard Severo and Lewis Milford, The Wages of War: When America's Soldiers Came Home—From Valley Forge to Vietnam, 1989.
- Charles S. Young, Missing Action: POW Films, Brainwashing and the Korean War, 1954–1968,
Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television ,18 (1998), pp. 49–74
