The Agenda with Steve Paikin (Audio) - Forgotten War: Korea

Episode Date: October 18, 2024

On June 25th, 1950, communist North Korea invaded the South. It was the first major military action of the Cold War and one of the first significant tests for the newly formed United Nations. The conflict claimed the lives of more than 2.5 million people and cemented the great power rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. Yet, the Korean War is largely a forgotten chapter of history. The inaugural episode of Forgotten War, narrated by Steve Paikin, explores this history through the eyes of someone who lived it: Canadian Korean War veteran Romeo Daley. He fought for over a year in Korea with Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and was one of the first Canadians sent to a M.A.S.H. unit after being injured by an exploding grenade. This TVO series was made in partnership with Canada Company.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

War is not what you see on TV. It's not the games you play. You play the games, your hero gets killed, he comes back in another game. You get killed, you don't come back. This is Romeo Daly. In 1950, at the age of 18, he volunteered to fight in the Korean War with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. All wars, the people that suffer the most are the kids and the women. When I first landed in Korea, I had never seen anything like this. People next to no clothing, no food, begging.

We were having a luncheon and there was three kids along the fence. There was one there, he would stay there every day with his hand out. And one of us would give him a can of maybe spaghetti and meatballs or beans or whatever, and he'd take it and run. He went to an area where there was about 12 other kids and with a rock he was trying to break it open and when he

did he would pass it along to all the other kids to eat. That's when we realized that we've got to do something to do whatever we could to help these people. In 1945, Korea was split into two along the 38th parallel between the United States and the Soviet Union. On June 25, 1950, shortly after Soviet and American troops withdrew, communist North Korea invaded the South. Within months, United Nations troops were squeezed into a small area in the southeast. It was the first military action of the Cold War. The UN then counterattacked, pushing North Korean forces back into their own territory. But this prompted China to intervene and UN troops were

forced to retreat in disarray back beyond the 38th parallel. When Daley arrived in the summer of 1951, the war had reached a bloody stalemate with both sides dug in near the pre-war border. Korea was a lot like the First World War, and so far it was basically all trench warfare. Mostly defending ourselves compared to the Second World War where we were the aggressors. In Korea, we were the defenders,

defenders of the Republic of Korea. Soon after arriving, Daley and his men were a part of Operation Pepperpot. His company was instructed to clear and take Hill 156. Initially, they encountered little resistance, but that didn't last for long. With the Bren gun, I had two men filling the magazines. The Chinese were coming so fast and so thick. The only way to describe it is, did you ever kick an anthill? And you see how fast the come out. That's the way they came.

Five Canadian soldiers were killed and 21 wounded. Daley and his men, after completing their mission, withdrew early in the afternoon under the cover of a smokescreen. Fear of fear was not there. It was, you do what you have to do. Although peace talks began that summer and stretched into the autumn, intense fighting continued in the hilly terrain near the 38th parallel. And the danger to Daly and his company didn't just come from the enemy.

And we were coming back through Royal Canadian Regiment lines. And we were getting pretty close to their line when our sergeant said, stop, we're in the middle of a minefield. So we all stopped. We got our radioman contacted the RCR. They sent an engineer down.

His name was Roy Reed, sergeant engineer. He come down and he had laid the minefield. He knew where every mine was. And he walked each one of us out one by one. You step here, you step there. You step here, you step there. Took us out. Now, to add to the story, when I came home from Korea

and I was working on Canada customs, we had a package that had suspected explosives in it. So we called Niagara Regional Police. Niagara Regional Policeman came down, did what he had to do. He looked at me, I looked at him. He asked me my name. He didn't know who I was, but I knew who he was. And he says, Roy Reed, Sergeant with the Niagara Region Police Explosives Division.

I said, Romeo Daly, Princess Patricia's. You walked me out of a minefield. He got the military medal for what he did, and we renewed our friendship until he died in 2002. We renewed our friendship until he died in 2002. While out in no man's land, Daly and his men ran into a Chinese patrol. They engaged and fired, pushing them back. But an enemy soldier was able to get close.

We had just come back from a patrol and we were lining up and the Chinese were countering. They out patrolled us really, because we would have maybe 12 men out and they would have 30 or 40. And they all had machine guns. They had a gun called a burp gun that could shoot 70 rounds a minute. We had a 303 that shot one. A hand grenade exploded in my forefront and it took my right ear just about off.

Hit me in the forehead here and hit me down here, here. Daley was put into a helicopter and rushed to a hospital. Took me to a place in Wee Jambu. They kept me there for about three days. Sewed my ear back on, patched me all up, did a little plastic surgery. And the one doctor says, you look pretty good, Johnny. We were Johnny, Johnny Canucks. You look pretty good, Johnny. We were Johnny, Johnny Canuck saying. You look pretty good, Johnny, he says. They won't see them scars for about 60, 70, maybe 80 years.

And that's about it when they're starting to come out. Most American soldiers in Korea were drafted. The American nurses at MASH were dumbfounded when they learned Daley, like every other Canadian in the war, had volunteered. Well, crazy Canuck, you volunteered for this? You deserve every damn thing you get. Yeah, but I gave a lot too. I like to think I gave more than what I got.

On July 27, 1953, the military commanders from the United Nations, North Korea, and China signed an armistice agreement. Why didn't they sign a peace treaty? I don't know. I can't answer it. I don't know why. But when I heard that the fighting had stopped, I just put my hands together and said thank you to whoever. Thank you. After serving more than a year in Korea, mostly as a teenager, Daly came home. When I came home, got on a train in B.C., went to Toronto where my mother lived. When I got to Union Station in Toronto and I got off the train, hit the platform, there was my mother. No

military, nothing. The Canadian government did not treat us well. We wanted a volunteer medal for Korea. Canadian government says no. We said you've got thousands of volunteer medals in Ottawa from the Second World War. Can't give them to you. Why not? That'll insult the second World War soldiers. Even in the legions, shoulder to shoulder,

with fellow veterans, including many from World War II, Daley says his war was not taken seriously. 1992, they came out with a Canadian Volunteer Service Medal for Korea, and that's the second one there. I got it in the mail. We all got it in the mail. I fought for years to get a pension.

Now, I came back from Korea in 1952. I got out in 1957. In 2007, they finally gave me a pension. It's an absolute insult. There is, however, one government daily does feel appreciation from. South Korea's. I was absolutely honored when I went back in 1980. The one dinner that they sponsored for us, King and Queen couldn't have been any better.

The Korean War, technically, has never ended. The armistice has held for the last 71 years. Today, North and South Korea are separated by a 250-kilometer-long, 4-kilometer-wide demilitarized zone, roughly following the pre-war border. If I was capable and able, I would do it again. I knew what I had to do and I did it. Today, South Korea is ranked 19th in the world by the UN's Human Development Index, ahead of countries such as France, Japan, and the United States.

If the communists had taken Korea, look at your map and your proximity, where would we be today? Almost 27,000 Canadians served in Korea during the war. 516 died. More than any other conflict in Canadian history except for the First and Second World Wars. It was not a forgotten war. It's a forgotten victory. I had a hand in changing history. Although I like to say I'm just a dumb farm boy, what do I know? But you know what we say on the farm, don't kick the mule, he'll kick you back.