The Forgotten War.
Oh, gee, thanks -- a present? For me?
My birthday was last month, but that's okay.
I'm used to things I do being forgotten.
So I won't hold a grudge. For long.
Back in the fifties, I fought in the Korean War.
The what-huh war?
Yeah. Exactly.
History remembers World War II from a decade earlier, of course...
...and we recall the Vietnam War of the following decade...
because it's always easy to dwell on one's mistakes...
...but the Korean War, waged between 1950 and 1953, we call The Forgotten War.
Tough to imagine anyone could forget an entire war.
I mean... we put up sticky notes and everything.
Most likely, the reason the Korean War has vanished so much into oblivion
is that both its beginning and ending are a little... foggy.
Many people don't believe it was necessary for us to have even gotten involved over there...
...that it was just a knee-jerk reaction to Cold War hysteria.
Oh, not you... don't be so sensitive.
The war was fought along the 38th parallel.
You can find it on a globe, but it's not like there was an actual line drawn in the
sand where the battles were fought.
Although that certainly would have made it easier to see who was on your side and who wasn't.
That line divides North and South Korea.
It's sort of Korea's "Mason-Dixon" line.
But without all the roadside fruit stands.
The Soviet Union was backing North Korea and providing them with oodles of weaponry.
We couldn't let the reds win, so we fought in support of South Korea...
...helping to defend them against the Northern aggressors.
With all the deep-seated hostility, everyone was afraid that
the Korean War would trigger World War III.
And we'd already had enough major world wars to last us a while, thank you very much.
Fortunately, North and South Korea signed armistice agreements...
...in which they agreed to at least pause their fighting.
Even if they both felt they still had some unfinished business.
Too bad Chuck Norris wasn't a soldier around then to write a decisive finish to things.
Unfortunately... nothing was really resolved.
To this day, there's a "cease-fire" between North and South Korea, even though
they're still technically at war.
Kind of like when you and your brother declare a "cease-fire" in the back seat on the
way to grandma's house...
...even while you are both desperately trying to give the other an atomic wedgie.
I'll say this for the war though. The ceasefire between the two sides may have calmed everybody down.
The fear of a global war diminished somewhat...
...and people thought, "Hey... maybe communists aren't trying to take over the world."
Which helped some of us sleep at night.
That whole area is still in limbo though.
There remains a demilitarized zone around the 38th parallel...
...and the country is still divided into North and South Korea.
And they both forgot my birthday.
So... I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same.