The Korean War seems to have become a footnote in modern history, overshadowed by its large-scale predecessor World War II and its more infamous dark successor Vietnam. Well, up to 3 million people died in this "footnote", so you have to wonder how it got swept under the rug of modern culture. Granted, this obviously isn't the case in the Koreas themselves, but outside of that it's rather obscure.
My guesses for why are the following:
But those are my guesses. Any other reason why this has been swept under the rug?
My guesses for why are the following:
- As mentioned, the fact that it was so soon after the global scale World War II meant it would play second fiddle in relevance. And that its successor was Vietnam, a dark hour in American history, put memories of Korea on the backburner.
- The war as we know it lasted just over three years, but much of action within it was just over one year. After the initial push by North Korea to the edge and almost taking the South, the American-led counterattack pushed the North Koreans back up to China, where the Chinese then sent their entire army to overwhelm the UN forces back to the original border. Essentially, the remaining 2/3's of the war had been border conflicts and sporadic attacks. Tellingly, the vast majority of casualties were in the first year, rather than the next two. With that, there's no grand conclusion. On that note...
- It ended in what was basically a stalemate. No epic final battle of any kind, just ending one day on a boring old ceasefire. Nothing was accomplished in the war by the end. As such, it's hard to paint it as a triumph like WWII, or a tragedy like Vietnam. It just came and went.
But those are my guesses. Any other reason why this has been swept under the rug?