Quote for the Day

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Continuing the We Didn't Start the Fire roll call . . . 

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray

South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, Television,

North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Rosenbergs, H-Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom

Brando, The King And I, and The Catcher In The Rye

Eisenhower, Vaccine, England's got a new queen

Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye

Today: Panmunjom

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Song reference:

A village in Korea on the de facto border between North and South Korea. Peace talks were carried out at Panmunjom between 1951 and 1953, with the armistice finally being signed there in 1953.

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Quote:

Some quotes about Panmunjom from M*A*S*H:

“Attention. Here's a bulletin from the truce talks at Panmunjon: after six weeks of negotiation, the U.N. and North Korea have agreed that flagpoles in the peace compound are to be thirty-two feet, six and one quarter inches high. World leaders hail this agreement as an important step toward lasting peace.”

    - PA announcement

“Come on, join hands. Everybody join hands and say, 'Howdy!' Come on. It's just one little word. You mean you can't even get together on one little word? What's the matter here? I don't understand. You know what to do why can't you just do it? People are dying out there! You've got to stop it! You can't wait anymore! You can't!”

    - Captain Hawkeye Pierce, invading the peace talks at Panmunjom and addressing the delegates

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Trivia:

The Korean War armistice talks lasted over a year, the signing taking place on 27 July 1953 at Panmunjom.

The main problem was that a large number of North Korean prisoners did not want to return to North Korea. These included South Koreans that had been captured and force into service, who hoped to return to the Republic of Korea (South Korea), and a large number of Chinese soldiers who preferred to not return to China but instead move to Taiwan. The United States refused to force any citizens to repatriate against their will, while the Korean People’s Army and Chinese People’s Volunteer Army didn’t want to give up such a large number of prisoners. Both sides eventually agreed to the Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission, that allowed countries a limited time to attempt to convince their citizens to return. After a series of back and forth negotiations on specifics, the Armistice was signed on July 27, 1953.

The 1953 Armistice border remains today.

Kim Il Sung (grandfather of present North Korean leader Kim Jong-un) signs the Korean War armistice agreement on July 27, 1953