Americans Fought To Save South Korea: Are South Koreans Forgetting?

Lest we forget is an injunction as old as the Old Testament. So with history and memory in mind we can look at headlines — some bittersweet, others simply sour—from across the decades and see that they are connected, still.

On Sept. 16, 1950, this in The New York Times: “Dad’s Letter Tells Two Little Girls Why He Went to Korea — And Died.”

And this year, a header from the U.S. House Judiciary Committee: “New Report Exposes South Korea’s Discriminatory Attacks on American-owned Businesses.”

The news account from almost exactly 76 years ago recalls Private First Class John J. McCormick of Pennsylvania. “There are a lot of bad men in the world,” he wrote to his wife and young children as he deployed overseas to the Korean Peninsula. “So I have to help fight these men.” Then he added words that still bring a tear: “It might take a long while, and maybe Daddy will have to go and help God up in Heaven.”

On Aug. 10, McCormick was killed in action.

Now, the 2026 headline speaks to a real-time concern: South Korea’s political campaign against U.S. companies. At a conference in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 17, Matt Mowers, head of the US-Asia Fair Market Alliance, rated countries on their trade practices: “South Korea was the second worst” — ahead of only the People’s Republic of China.

Mowers mentioned two American firms on the receiving end — Meta and Coupang — and yet Trump administration trade officials at the same conference indicated that South Korea’s anti-American regulation is widespread, even systemic.

One wonders how the Americans who fought to save South Korea in the Korean War — in the three years of heavy fighting, 1.8 million served, and 36,574 died — would feel about this.

In fact, on the same day, back in 1950, when newspaper readers learned about the gallant McCormick, they learned about the great American military operation that liberated the capital city of Seoul.

Three months earlier, North Korea had attacked South Korea, overrunning almost all of the country. Staring down strong domestic criticism, President Harry Truman committed U.S. forces to save the country.

The American breakthrough came on September 15, 1950, Operation Chromite, when 40,000 U.S. troops staged a daring amphibious landing at Inchon, outflanking the North Koreans. In the words of the eminent military historian Sir Max Hastings, “Inchon remains a monument to ‘can do,’ to improvisation and risk-taking on a magnificent scale, above all to the spirit of Douglas MacArthur,” the American five-star in command.

Yet then the war worsened, as military units from China joined the North Koreans. In all, Beijing committed some three million men to the fight — the fight to subjugate South Korea under communist tyranny. At last, in 1953, came an armistice. But it was not a peace treaty, merely a cessation of combat.

Ever since, the U.S. has maintained a substantial garrison in South Korea — currently, more than 28,000 GIs. According to the Center for International Policy, the annual cost of this commitment is nearly $6 billion.

In fact, the armistice notwithstanding, American blood has still been spilled. The North Koreans have shot down U.S. Air Force planes, seized Navy ships, and murdered Army soldiers. Indeed, over the past eight decades, American fatalities at the hands of North Korean forces have totalled almost 100.  And China, of course, is North Korea’s main patron.

That’s why it’s puzzling to see South Korea turn away from the U.S. and toward China.  The point here is not that South Korea owes everything to the U.S. — although there’s surely an eternal debt — it’s that North Korea and China pose a continuing military threat to South Korea.

Which explains why Seoul wishes to keep American forces in country.  Yet at the same time, the current government wants it both ways: to be pro-China on business issues, and yet pro-American on military matters, defined as keeping U.S. troops and treasure on South Korean soil, with Uncle Sam taking the risk and footing the bill.

This is not a sustainable arrangement.

According to opinion research from Mowers’ trade group, 78% of Americans want U.S. policymakers to protect our businesses overseas. “This data sends an unmistakable message,” Mowers says. “Americans expect a level playing field, and they expect our government to defend it.”

The Korean conflict has been called the forgotten war.  But we should remember it by honoring all the Americans who served and sacrificed.  And we can do still more: We can safeguard the economic well-being of their descendants by telling South Korea we want fairness for the U.S.

James P. Pinkerton is a columnist, and author. He worked in the White House domestic policy offices of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and in the 1980, 1984, 1988 and 1992 presidential campaigns.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.