Let's use the political reason first of all, if we may. People often ask why it was necessary. I hate to give everybody a history lesson and waste your time, but I don't think many people here were around in 1936.
In 1936, Italy invaded Abyssinia—Ethiopia, as it is now. Abyssinia applied to the then-League of Nations, saying, “Help, help, help!” The League of Nations did nothing. The only concession they made was that Britain wouldn't let the Italians put troop ships through the Suez Canal.
What happened? You had Mussolini, you had Hitler, you had Tojo. These people were encouraged. They saw they could get away with this sort of thing, and they did, and eventually we had World War II.
Now look at 1950. The same thing happened. You had a bullying nation starting to throw its weight around, and South Korea appealed to the United Nations for help. This time they didn't sit back. They sent troops and medical people from 21 nations, who served in Korea to push the North Koreans out.
This was a time when there was a great deal of communist aggression: they were pushing into Europe; China was getting antsy. Who knows what might have happened if we hadn't stood firm and said enough is enough, and that's it? This is why I think the Korean War was important.
I don't look upon myself as a knight in shining armour and a saviour of democracy; nevertheless, it could have been.... That's one reason why it was different.
Secondly, as far as Canadians were concerned, it was different because of where we served. People have served in hot countries; people have served in cold countries. Korea had extremes of climate, massive rain storms; the climate was terrible, and the country itself was terrible. I heard an Australian say that if Australia were looking for the worst place in the world to send their troops to fight, Korea would have been it.
As an example of why we have ailments, the ground had been fertilized with human excrement for centuries. These are the places that our troops were digging into. You dug a hole in it and you lived in a hole there. Is it any wonder that Korea veterans are suffering? Of course, to counteract the effects of this, we had the ubiquitous DDT. I think the cure was probably worse than the problem.
This is why we felt this was important.
Thirdly, the first troops we sent to Korea.... We had very few troops left. We disbanded after World War II. All we had were three infantry battalions, nothing left to defend Canada. We had to rush out and recruit a special force from volunteers, and they did it in no time. The first troops to go to Korea were all volunteers. They did it in such a rush that amongst other people they enlisted a man with one leg, a 70-year-old, and heaven knows how many 14-year-old boys.
But they did it. They volunteered, and they got them out in a rush, in a matter of weeks. This is one of the things that makes it different.