The Korean number seems quite suspect to me also but I do not have any explanation off hand. I will say the the Korean memorial in downtown New York lists Korean casualties in the 50K range. Could this be casualties on both side? That might make sense. I was only talking about S. Korea. But you are right in the main, it was much worse that Vietnam if one considers how short the war was.
THe returning Vets were not treated uch better than the ones from Vietnam. It is called "the forgotten war" for good reason.
We lost over 54,000 Americans as a result of that war...to me, they are all casualties of war.
I do not doubt the S. Korean figures. When you consider that the capitol, a very densely populated city, was completely overrun and changed hands four or more times, with their soldiers fighting to hold it...it is not difficult to imagine. Look at how many men we lost in the 1860's when Americans fought Americans without the modern implements of war.
Having traveled to that part of the world and worked with and talked to many Koreans regarding the same...I do not doubt those numbers.
It was indeed a horrific war...and we as a people have not paid the homeage to those who fought there that we ought to have, and have therefore not really learned the lessons that they spilt their blood to teach us (IMHO).
What is so sad is that it did not have to end the way it did (or actually, the way it didn't). We had thoroughly beaten the N. Koreans and had it within our power to uterrly halt the Chinese...before they came across...and the planning was in place and ready to be implemented. But our President at the time made an international decision as opposed to an American decision. It costs us another 20,000+ American lives, the hard won victory, North Korea, a stable Asia...and it led to Vietnam and the ultimate build-up of Red China. I believe Red China would have fallen and gone back over to the Nationalists had we made that move. I have not forgotten, and find it almost impossible to forgive Truman to this day because I had uncles and in-laws who fought there, saw it all, and have passed the truth on to me.
Ah...but hindsight is 20-20 and we are in fact left with the conditions we now have. It is for us and the upcoming generations to wade through those conditions, as we are now doing.
Thanks for the reasoned and interesting dialog.