Home » Politics & Society » Cold War » The Korean War on Videotape: A Review

The Korean War on Videotape: A Review

© Dane Mitchell Donato

Of particular interest to me, as I served as an infantryman in the US Army of the 1980s, is the story of the American and UN grunts, the guys who carried the brunt of the fighting on those long, tall, dusty ridges that make up the Korean Peninsula. The North American F-86 Saber (the first US jet fighter), MIG Alley and the B-29 bomber campaigns are also personal favorites of mine, and the tapes don’t let you down here, with some pretty amazing air combat footage sprinkled throughout the various tapes.

What did it all mean? In the end, what purpose did the Korean War serve? That is a question that leads to many more questions, but very few concrete answers. Korea is, as much as anything, the first hot conflict between the ideologies of communism and capitalism. It was a war that tested the resolve of the newly formed United Nations, and it was a conflict that sent so many of the veterans of World War Two into battle again, but this time, with goals and ideals that were not nearly as clear-cut (even if they became that way after the shooting stopped) as they were in WWII.

In any case, the Korean War shaped the Cold War landscape in ways that are just now being understood, and “Korean, The Forgotten War, 1950 -- 1953” is a good place to get your feet wet. To me, it’s so important that we not forget the sacrifices and valor of the veterans of those terrible three years. The 38th Parallel still exists, as does the DMZ, the Demilitarized Zone that still bisects North and South Korea like an ugly wound.

That the DMZ is still around tells me that the Cold War might not be quite over yet. Understanding the Korean War is, in my opinion, not a bad idea at all.