My husband, Barry, served in Korea in the 1950s. My friend and former writing student, Ron Hill, is our guest writer today at Writers Circle around the Table. He was present the day this war ended and tells us some history we might not know.
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| Pvt. Ron Hill |
We mark the 67th Anniversary of the end of hostilities on the Korean Peninsula as all parties sat down at Panmunjom to sign the formal truce documents. I recall the day as if it were today; I was there!!
Headlines around the world were banner-sized, announcing the years of fighting. The example shown here is just one example that can be found online or any news archive.
Armistice Agreement for the Restoration of the South Korean State (1953)
The Korean War, which began on June 25, 1950, when the North Koreans invaded South Korea, officially ended on July 27, 1953. At 10 a.m., in Panmunjom, scarcely acknowledging each other, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. William K. Harrison, Jr., senior delegate, United Nations Command Delegation; North Korean Gen. Nam Il, senior delegate, Delegation of the Korean People's Army and the Chinese People's Volunteers, signed 18 official copies of the tri-language Korean Armistice Agreement.
It was the end of the longest negotiated armistice in history: 158 meetings spread over two years and 17 days. That evening at 10 p.m. the truce went into effect. The Korean Armistice Agreement is somewhat exceptional in that it is purely a military document—no nation is a signatory to the agreement.
Specifically the Armistice Agreement:
1. suspended open hostilities
2. withdrew all military forces and equipment from a 4,000-meter-wide zone, establishing the Demilitarized Zone as a buffer between the forces;
3. prevented both sides from entering the air, ground, or sea areas under control of the other;
4. arranged release and repatriation of prisoners of war and displaced persons; and
5. established the Military Armistice Commission (MAC) and other agencies to discuss any violations and to ensure adherence to the truce terms.
The armistice, while it stopped hostilities, was not a permanent peace treaty between nations.
President Eisenhower, who was keenly aware of the 1.8 million American men and women who had served in Korea and the 36,576 Americans who had died there, played a key role in bringing about a cease-fire. In announcing the agreement to the American people in a television address shortly after the signing, he said, in part,
“Soldiers, sailors and airmen of sixteen different countries have stood as partners beside us throughout these long and bitter months. In this struggle we have seen the United Nations meet the challenge of aggression—not with pathetic words of protest, but with deeds of decisive purpose. And so at long last the carnage of war is to cease and the negotiation of the conference table is to begin……We hope that all nations may come to see the wisdom of composing differences in this fashion before, rather than after, there is resort to brutal and futile battle.”
“Now as we strive to bring about that wisdom, there is, in this moment of sober satisfaction, one thought that must discipline our emotions and steady our resolution. It is this: We have won an armistice on a single battleground—not peace in the world. We may not now relax our guard nor cease our quest”
Ron Hill received his formal education at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in Washington, DC. He and his wife Shirley are current members of the Chattahoochee United Methodist Church, Helen, GA. Ron enlisted in the United States Army in 1952 and is a veteran of three wars: the Korean War, Vietnam War and Desert Storm. He retired December 31, 1973 from the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Military Operations, Headquarters, Department of the United States Army, the Pentagon, Washington, DC.
