Buffalo, NY - Some local veterans have been closely watching the developments in Korea because they served in the war back in the early 1950's. And some of them are concerned about the planned summit meeting.
Carl Marranca served aboard the USS Missouri as it shelled targets during the Korean War and he has this opinion of leadership in North Korea, "They cannot be trusted."
That's a common opinion regarding North Korean leadership among the dozen or so surviving members of the Western New York chapter of the Korean War Veterans Association at their monthly meeting. They have a combat and time tested viewpoint from the early 1950's as they battled the invading North Koreans and Chinese. They eventually pushed them back until the 1953 agreement that created the uneasy truce requiring a presence of 30,000 US troops as a so-called trip-wire.
Now with talk of a potential summit Marranca added, "We don't believe this. We feel that we're gonna have to be careful. This guy gets radical, then he calms down, the he gets radical...then he wants to do this...no...you can''t trust people like that."
And they cite the dictator leadership of the North with past issues like food distribution and economic deprivation.
Dick Miller, who served as a Marine in Korea, said, "I just can't believe that after such a long period of time with such a strictness with their public and their supplying of food to them and everything that they're gonna change overnight."
Some have since visited to see growth in the South like Kenneth Fentner, who served in the Army,
"The bridges were there. The roads are good. They're building condos by the mile down there."
Even through the decades, there is strong pride in what they did to save South Korea. And now despite their lingering concerns Miller said, "I hope the resolve is still there...so that everybody benefits. Including the North Korean population who has suffered tremendously."
Some veterans are frustrated to see the Korean War labeled as the forgotten war, especially since 37,000 US troops were killed there. Their pride stems from the fact that U.S. units were sometimes understrength and poorly equipped. They were thrown in to stop invading North Koreans and Chinese in brutally frigid weather. But they endured and fought on against sometimes terrible odds.