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Sunday, July 30, 1995     Page: 8B

Cold War victory makes Korean War impact clear
   
For the Union, the early years of the Civil War brought one setback after
another. Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville — the battlefield defeats
came in quick and depressing successionBut the North still won the war.
    Last week President Clinton helped dedicate a monument to the veterans of
the Korean War. For 40 years, that war has sat in limbo in the national
consciousness. Was it a victory? A stalemate? A defeat? No one could say for
sure.
   
Now we can.
   
The Korean War was the opening battle in a much longer and more global
conflict. And thanks in part to the doggedness of our Korean troops, the
United States ultimately won a decisive victory in that conflict, the Cold
War.
   
Containment worked. Communism — its expansion halted by the United States
— collapsed in the Soviet Union, and with it fell the Soviet Union itself.
Today Russia, China, even Vietnam are yielding to the power of the
capitalistic free market. Political freedoms cannot be far behind.
   
And of course South Korea remains not only free, but a model of successful
industrial development for third-world nations around the globe.
   
Yes, the recognition came late for the Korean vets. That may be because
their fellow Americans only recently appreciated the impact of the vets’
achievements.
   
The vets served notice that the United States would fight the communists’
spread. Unable to grow, choked on its own contradictions, Marxism eventually
keeled over and died.
   
No American who served in Korea died in vain, we now know. And 40 years
later, as the magnitude of our Cold War victory settles in, a grateful nation
— confused no more — finally can offer a sincere, “Thanks.”