IN PERSON- Ceasefire: Korea

This program will be delivered via Zoom and will be streamed to our Kingsley Room. If you want to watch the program from home, register here.

June 25, 1950, the North Korean People's Army crashed over the 38th parallel to unify the Korean peninsula by military conquest.  Hence the Korean War.  The United States will join a host of UN nations so as to throw back the NKPA ,and in an example of overreach, unite the peninsula under the banner of South Korean President Syngman Rhee, a U.S. client.  This will bring in Communist China, as warned about by George Kennan.  A conflict that could have been concluded by November-December 1950, will drag on for than three years, most of that time the opposing armies will become mired in the logjam of trench warfare like World War I France.  The war will be a slugfest between Western technology and Asiatic flesh a blood.  But the shooting will terminate with a ceasefire, July 27, 1953.  No peace treaty will follow, leaving an open-ended conflict which from time to time over the years has seen border incursions, artillery exchanges, sniping and even outright fighting.  What is a tinderbox along the 38th parallel is still with us today, which includes the potential of a nuclear exchange as North Korea arms itself with nuclear weaponry. 

Join us in remembrance of the 70th anniversary of the ceasefire and learn more about the Korean War and its impact in history.

Mark Albertson is the historical research editor for the Army Aviation magazine, and the historian for the Army Aviation Association of America. He has taught classes on military history at Norwalk Community College as well as the Lifetime Learners Institute. Albertson has authored several books on military history.

Like all Southbury Public Library programs, this event is free to attend and open to anyone regardless of town of residency. Registration is required. This program is sponsored by the Friends of the Southbury Public Library. For more information about this program, please email Rebecca at rrandall@biblio.org or call the reference desk at 203-262-0626 ext 130.