Talk:Korean War

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this article lacks a NPOV, needs a tag saying so

This article reads like it was written by some US general. It is not impartial. It clearly has a bias against communism and the North Koreans. Please remove the lock on this article so it can be improved, and add a NPOV box to the top. Some specific problems:

In the second and third sentence of the article, a claim is made that there were negotiations for an all-Korea election, with the clearly slanted view that such negotiations were brought by the US and "ended" by the communists. This is very, very far from the truth; the June 25th border crossing of the North Korean Army did not "end" the negotiations for an election, as separate elections had already taken place, against the wishes of the communists and most of the Korean people (who, by the way, had very little to choose from between Syngman Rhee's rightist extremism and the other right-wing options, since the US occupiers had outlawed all socialist parties). The article should reflect this. The source given as support for the mistaken claim in the article is actually the US military's official version of events! If it were primary documentation from that era, this would be fine material to start with, but this is a revised, propagandistic look back at the war which is buried in its own assumptions about the war's righteousness.

Later, the claim that the americans proposed elections and the soviets simply "opposed" the idea really needs to be expanded upon. The one source cited is not sufficient, since it too is written as by a US official. Adding in the fact that the US manipulated which parties could or could not exist would make the article more NPOV, as it is relevant information which cannot be ignored.

There are examples such as these throughout the article. Much work still needs to be done before this article can be considered NPOV.

The glaring lack of Bruce Cumings' The Origins of the Korean War in the Further Reading section is also quite inexplicable. Was the presence of this book removed by someone who could not handle the facts? The listing of further reading needs to include this book, as it is considered THE authoritative work on the origins of this war. 142.104.143.199 (talk) 02:56, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Bruce Cumings' "The Origins of the Korean War" is "considered THE authoritative work on the origins of this war"? Considered by whom? When? Where? Also, there seems to be an underlying assumption that US official histories are ipso facto unreliable. But, can this claim be corroborated by reliable published sources? Kraken7 (talk) 15:37, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

If half or more of the citations were from official North Korean agencies, wouldn't you cry foul? The US is no more objective in how it sees the conflict than NK is.

24.69.66.116 (talk) 05:37, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

are you communist? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.85.9.189 (talk) 17:30, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

would that matter? are you a capitalist? would that matter? 24.69.66.116 (talk) 05:37, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

nope im communist

I think the first guy has a point. There's lots of little POV problems. Just one example: it says the conflict is also known as "the forgotten war". Really? It certainly isn't forgotten here in Asia, nor in New Zealand and Australia, who sent troops there. The reference goes through to a US military website. In other words, it's known as "the forgotten war" in the U.S., and the U.S. person who wrote that part of the article just assumed that everybody who's gonna read this article is a U.S. citizen. Little things like this are annoying. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.240.61.2 (talk) 06:09, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

I've just noticed another POV problem, which is that North Korean and Chinese forces are repeatedly refered to as "Communist" forces. For example, one of the captions mentions a "North Korean Communist tank". I think it's POV to apply a political tag like this, especially since the U.N. forces are never referred to as "Capitalist". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.240.61.2 (talk) 23:43, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

See the section on films about the Korean War: "North Korea has made many films about the war, mostly by the government supporting forceful, armed reunification of the North and South of Korea. These have been highly propagandized to portray potential war crimes by American or South Korean soldiers while glorifying members of the North Korean military as well as North Korean ideals." This shows such clear, unadulterated bias. How is this sort of thing accepted by the wiki community? To become fair, the same sort of commentary needs to be added to the discussion of Western films about the war, which do also glorify their soldiers, accentuate the other side's atrocities and their own ideals. Or, this commentary should be removed. Either or. I'll also mention that the two citations for the above lines do not in any way relate to or support it. In fact, I'll just go ahead and remove these lines, as it seems to be unquestionably justifiable (biased POV + false citations = good target for editing). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.69.66.116 (talk) 09:21, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Like in nearly all articles dealing with communism, there are many cases in this article where all communist entities are given the prefix "communist", "state-run", "Stalinist", etc. This is a technique whereby these unnecessary descriptors are used whenever doing so will create a negative connotation, or will create a bias in the readers' mind. Example: in the POWs section, a paragraph describing North Korea's claims begins with, "The state controlled KCNA claims...". In this case, it is not necessary to say 'state controlled', and such tags are always used stategically to discredit all claims by the North Koreans. A more neutral way would be to just state, "The KCNA claims...". Any reader would understand that the competing claims of the US government and the KCNA represent obviously biased sources. The other option is to add adjectives onto all nouns, communist or otherwise, such as 'for-profit' (As in, "according to the for-profit sensationalistic Western media"), 'capitalist' ("The capitalist US government claims..."), etc etc. Unless someone can argue differently, I'll go ahead with such changes. 24.69.66.116 (talk)

Please make no changes without first forming a consensus of editors on this talkpage. Skinny87 (talk) 21:32, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

However, nobody responded. How long is one to wait before making changes? It seems to be unopposed. Hence, according to wiki policy, the choice to make the changes is the editor's. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.69.66.116 (talk) 22:57, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Be bold. You aren't obliged to get some kind of consensus if there's a clear problem with an article. Skinny87, you need to explain yourself if you want the article frozen in its current state. ManicParroT (talk) 09:49, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

"The glaring lack of Bruce Cumings' The Origins of the Korean War in the Further Reading section is also quite inexplicable. Was the presence of this book removed by someone who could not handle the facts? The listing of further reading needs to include this book, as it is considered THE authoritative work on the origins of this war."

The opinion of Bruce Cummings does not represent the historical consensus on the Korean War. Cummings is a revisionist, whose conclusions are not referenced or respected. Historical consensus is formed through debate and eventual agreement within the scholarly community. This debate has been occurring for over 50 years. There are plenty of historians who disagree with the mainstream view. However, this article should seek to represent that mainstream view, rather than the opinions of a few outliers. ---- Bosoxrock88 27 July 2009

I totally disagree. An encyclopedia is not a reflection of a "mainstream" opinion, is indeed a source of historical facts, and, if needed (this is clearly a case), both political, religious, ethnical, etc. positions... History is never objective (the only way to achieve that is let a computer write it), so is mandatory to reflect the thoughts and feels of both sides... 190.133.214.208 (talk) 22:56, 12 August 2009 (UTC)pjaguilar

Incorrect Display of the Philippine Flag

Please revise the "Korean War Infobox" the Philippine Flag is displayed incorrectly. It is inverted, I'm a Filipino, my forefathers fought for the Koreans and it its a sign of disrespect and blasphemy.
Yes, the Philippine flag may be inverted if The Philippines is under attack and has declared war Executive Order No. 321 of the Late president Elpidio Quirino The Philippine army in the Korean War is under the ensign of the Philippine Army which will not invert the flag unless Manila, the capital is under attack or has been declared by President Elpidio Quirino then. The United Nations will carry the Philippine soldiers under it's flag signifying that The Philippines is with the UN and is not involved in the fight. JoshuaCruzPhilippines 13:00, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for the latest revision, I rest my case. --JoshuaCruzPhilippines (talk) 15:01, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

Can we remove the dead soldier pictures? Give the dead people the last respect.

There is no intent to demonstrate disrespect to either of the soldiers pictured in the article. An article about 'war' is about something that is not nice. Images showing the effect of war can bring home the seriousness of war. A single PVA soldier on the side of the road is not intended to glorify the results of war, but to show the seriousness of conflict. An image of an "executed" prisoner is intended to demonstrate the atrocities of war. I have lost soldiers. I say keep the images in the article. Meyerj (talk) 12:57, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

---

I agree, or perhaps edit the photo and blurr the soldier's name and all identifying badge or tags JoshuaCruzPhilippines 13:05, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

A Comment

(moved from top of page. Xyl 54 (talk) 14:10, 18 August 2009 (UTC))
This article needs to be renamed. It was never a war. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 161.253.147.34 (talk) 18:36, 10 August 2009 (UTC)

Another comment

(moved from top of page. Xyl 54 (talk) 14:13, 18 August 2009 (UTC))
Under "Japanese Imperial Rule", in the fifth paragraph, Anthony Eden is referred to as "PM", in reference to discussions between Eden and Roosevelt in 1943. Eden wasn't PM in 1943. I think he was Foreign Secretary. I don't know if whoever added this meant Winston Churchill, or Anthony Eden, or I'd change it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.208.124.130 (talk) 09:12, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

What's with the use of italics all over this article?

I mean, seriously? Was this article written by, like, some Valley girl? 195.59.168.254 (talk) 10:20, 18 August 2009 (UTC)