Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)

April 28, 2007

Chosin Few Reunion Speech

By Senator Jay Rockefeller

It is an honor and privilege to be here tonight with such a distinguished group of veterans and their families.

There are so many of you in this room with stories to share. And I could truly go on for hours about your humbling and inspiring service.

Tonight what I’d like to do is talk with you about a couple of things that are on my mind. I’ve been thinking about the war you fought on the Korean peninsula, in the context of the challenges we face in that region today, and the challenges facing all veterans of all wars today.

As some of you may know, I have a particular fondness for East Asia. I studied there and traveled there – and developed a deep understanding for and appreciation of its history and cultures.

In the last half of the 20^th Century, our nation has had a great influence on the socio-economic and political development of that region.

Nearly sixty years ago, you went to place few Americans had ever heard of to fight for a people most had never thought much about. The Korean War, sandwiched in history between World War II and Vietnam, is sometimes referred to as “The Forgotten War.” But the very existence of this group, the Chosin Few, proves that the Korean War, and the service men who fought in it, have not and will never, ever be forgotten.

Had you, the Chosin Few, and other Korean War veterans not risked your lives in the bitter fighting and frigid cold of the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in November-December of 1950 and in the many other battles of that crucial war, the world would quite likely be a very different place right now.

The Korean War was the first battle of the Cold War, and when the American-led forces in the south turned back the Chinese-led forces from the north, they – that is, you – created a beachhead for market-based constitutional democracy to take root in the South.

Fifty-seven years after you fought, North Korea and South Korea are still not at peace. The De-Militarized Zone that separates these two countries and divides the Korean people is a terrible manifestation of the ongoing military standoff in the last bastion of the Cold War.

But while there has yet to be political reconciliation between North and South, the history of the peninsula in the years since you fought there has already determined the future that the people of East Asia want to have.

There is nowhere in the world where the contrast between the benefits of constitutional government with a free market economy and the debilitating nature of autocracy are so stark as on the Korean peninsula. You and your fellow Korean War veterans provided that contrast, and the world has taken notice.

The world recognizes that South Korea, a country that in the 1950s was one of the poorest countries in the world, took the opportunity that you gave it and now has a thriving high-tech and manufacturing sector that makes its economy the 11th largest in the world.

The world recognizes that South Korea has hosted the Olympics and the World Cup in recent years. The world recognizes that South Korea has a vibrant democratic government.

In contrast, the world looks across the DMZ and sees that North Korea is one of the poorest countries in the world; that North Korea cannot feed its people without counterfeiting American dollars or engaging in illicit arms trade; that North Korea has a brutal authoritarian government that does not allow its people to be free.

Together with Japan, another country that with our assistance embraced constitutional market democracy following World War II, South Korea has been a steadfast regional ally of the United States and our values.

The peace and prosperity that these two allies of the United States have brought to their 175 million people have had a profound positive effect in the region – on smaller countries like Vietnam and Thailand, and even the largest country in the world, China.

History has shown the peoples of this region and the world that their future lies with political and economic freedoms based on the rule of law.

That is the example that you helped make possible, and it will be crucial in the coming years as America and our allies in East Asia seek to manage the peaceful rise of China as a great power and address difficult issues such as North Korea’s nuclear weapons development.

I don’t have all the answers – and I haven’t always been happy with our policies in the region. But I believe that thanks to your historical efforts, we have an opportunity to partner with strategic allies such as South Korea and Japan, and with important players like China, to eventually bring North Korea inline with the wishes of the community of law-abiding nations.

As a nation, we’ve always risen to meet the challenges abroad. We do so, because in every generation there are men, and now quite a few women, who are willing to don the uniform and boldly defend our shores and freedoms.

But, as all of you know so well, when these war-fighters return home and transition to that honored status of veteran, our nation all too often neglects their needs. That just makes me mad.

Most recently my anger, my frustration has been given a name – Building 18. It’s where returning veterans from Iraq were housed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

It’s a shabby, run-down, dilapidated building unbefitting the sacrifices of a war-fighter. It’s not right. But in a real sense, it is a physical metaphor for the problems we face when it comes to our veterans.

This nation treats veterans’ medical care, including long-term care, as a line-item in a budget to be squabbled over year in and year out. The Administration thinks nothing of asking older veterans, many on fixed incomes, to pay – what some deem “modest” but really aren’t – co-payments for life-saving medicine.

That’s not right. That’s not fair. That’s not worthy of your sacrifice. That’s why I have fought to block this proposal every year, and I will do it again this year.

I am determined to fix these issues for returning soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan, but let me assure you that it will not be at the expense of our VA care for our older veterans.

We have a moral obligation to support every veteran from every conflict and understand that each one is unique – during the Korean War, frostbite was the issue, today it sadly is TBI – Traumatic Brain Injury - and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

We in Congress have to get tougher – for you, and for every veteran who has bravely served this nation. I know that you’re committed to this cause as well – because your fight wasn’t just on the Korean peninsula; many of you have advocated for better treatment for our returning veterans for decades.

You’ve labored long and tirelessly to make sure that each generation of veterans get the recognition, care and treatment they deserve.

I join you in that fight.

And I thank you for your unwavering commitment to one another and to all our nation’s veterans -- and for the sacrifices you made nearly six decades ago that have contributed so much to American interests, and to the peace and prosperity of East Asia and the world.

May the leaders of the United States and the countries of the region honor your sacrifices now by continuing the work you started in the bitter cold winter of 1950.

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Chosin Few Reunion Speech

By Senator Jay Rockefeller