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Anchor: The Korean War never really ended. A cease fire is in effect but a formal peace treaty was never signed. The 38th Parallel remains a well guarded No Man's Land separating the two still belligerent nations of North and South Korea. So what did we accomplish there?

André Dequoy: South Korea was saved from communism. We were happy about that.

Antoine Côté: I went back in 1983 for a revisit and I couldn't believe how beautiful Korea is. After 30 years how the war had ended and it just let the vegetation grow all back up, the trees, and the city of Seoul itself is a more modern city than Regina, tell you the truth. All new buildings and the traffic of cars, trucks, buses, and skyscrapers. They did a terrific job in rebuilding.
(Footage of modern Korea. Car driving on a bridge. Tree branches waving slowly in the wind in front of an apartment building. Heavy traffic downtown)

Albert Hugh MacBride: Looking at the country today, yes we succeeded. But we didn't win, but we succeeded in what they wanted done. They wanted it stopped at the 38th I guess and that's where we stopped.

Roger Larocque: The war ended, but as you know—we never signed a peace treaty. It still continues.

Jean-Paul Savary: Between you and me, war doesn't solve anything. Korea is the perfect example of that. More than 500 of our guys were killed and it's still separated in two. So let young people get that into their heads: war solves nothing.

Paul-Émile Pomerleau: They're still afraid of North Korea. And one day, they'll attack again. They are too poor and the others are too rich.

Gérard Dauray: But if the North Koreans see that South Koreans are doing well and that it's a nice place... maybe they'll want to change too.

Albert Hugh MacBride: Well, I was just at a businessman's function here, the Korean association of businessmen function and they treated me like a king. This makes you feel, these people just, the Korean people just, the older ones not the younger ones, they come up and thank you and they bow and it makes you feel, it makes you feel good.

Antoine Côté: They were very thankful of the support that they got from the United Nations, the Canadian army and everything like that.

Ray Nickerson: To this day they're still appreciative. Like, Canadians go back for a revisit, they can't do enough for you.

Albert Hugh MacBride: I wanted to put flowers on Gordie Waldner's grave in Busan and the wife and I went out to leave to buy some. We finally got across to this guy and he drove his car to this place and he gave us the flowers for nothing and we got back. This is the way they treat you. Forever thankfully. So that makes you feel that it was worthwhile.


Did you know ...

The armistice is signed at Panmunjeon on July 27, 1953.

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