The Korean War: A Forgotten Conflict?
Warfare
History Hit
4.5 • 943 Ratings
🗓️ 1 July 2022
⏱️ 39 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Millions dead. A higher proportion of civilian casualties than in World War Two. America, Britain, Russia & China all involved in a conflict that—technically—remains active to this day. So why is the Korean War of 1950-53 nicknamed The Forgotten War?
In this first episode of Warfare’s miniseries on the Korean War, James is joined by Dr Ian Johnson onboard the HMS Belfast—one of six Royal Navy vessels that provided fire support in the summer of 1950—to find out why the mighty British ship was there in the first place.
Helping to prevent further North Korean incursions in the peninsula, the Belfast played a vital role in the Korean War—with its famed six inch guns succeeding in slowing down enemy advancements. So why was there a war in Korea? And which individuals defined this most overlooked of wars?
Produced by Elena Guthrie and Sophie Gee. Edited by Annie Coloe.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone. Today I am on HMS Belfast in the center of London. This has to be one of the first true summer days and the sky is perfectly blue. |
| 0:11.0 | I'm on the ship in, well middle of the Thames river that runs through the |
| 0:15.4 | center of London and behind me I've got that iconic tower bridge and in front |
| 0:21.0 | of me I've got London Bridge with a Union Jack flying off it. |
| 0:24.4 | So I don't think you could be in anywhere that's kind of more British really. |
| 0:29.1 | Well there's a London bus going by right now at that red iconic figure so I suppose that really tops it. I'm |
| 0:35.5 | here today to film a new TV series for the History Hit YouTube channel and to kick off |
| 0:41.6 | our new special month dedicated to the Korean War. |
| 0:45.0 | And the amazing thing as we'll learn about HMS Belfast is that it was one of the first |
| 0:51.0 | responders to that crisis that occurred as the North Korean military pushed |
| 0:56.4 | over the parallel and down into South Korea. |
| 1:01.1 | To take us through this initial part of the history and to really give us some background to the conflict, we have my old friend and an old friend of this podcast, Dr Ian Johnson from Notre Dame University in the United States. Now Ian is writing a brand new book on |
| 1:15.4 | the Korean War, the UN response to the conflict, and General Ridgeway who will |
| 1:20.1 | hear lots and lots about. So it is great to be able to do this in person on |
| 1:25.3 | HHS Belfast, forgive any knocks and noises that go on in the background, but it |
| 1:30.6 | really is just great to be back in person doing these sort of things. |
| 1:34.0 | I know you're going to love it, enjoy it. |
| 1:36.0 | Drop us a five-star review on Apple Podcast Spotify, wherever you get your podcast, it really helps us to keep |
| 1:40.9 | doing this and bringing you fantastic histories that we really really do love. |
| 1:46.0 | So here is Dr Ian Johnson on the Korean War. |
| 1:49.4 | Enjoy. Yeah. Ian, welcome to the warfare podcast. How you doing? |
| 2:07.0 | Terrific, it's great to be in person for this session. |
... |
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