Arkansas in the Forgotten War: The Korean War Remembered
Wire Section, 936th Field Artillery Battalion, Arkansas National Guard unit© Butler Center
As an extension of our successful Korean War project, the Butler Center hosted its first conference on the Korean War on Saturday, May 22. "Arkansas in the Forgotten War: The Korean War Remembered" was a one-day conference that featured five sessions highlighting various aspects of the war.
The keynote speaker was Dr. James I. Matray, Professor of History at California State University, Chico. Dr. Matray's numerous publications on the Korean War include Korea Divided: The 38th Parallel and the Demilitarized Zone and The Reluctant Crusade: American Foreign Policy in Korea, 1941-1950. He is editor of East Asia and the United States: An Encyclopedia of Relations Since 1784, Historical Dictionary of the Korean War, and Korea and the Cold War: Division, Destruction, and Disarmament. Matray is currently working on a book about the Battles of Pork Chop Hill. His presentation at the conference will focus on the hill fighting that characterized the later phases of the war.
In addition to the keynote speaker, Dr. Roger Pauly from the University of Central Arkansas provided a general overview of the war and its historical context. He was followed by Steve Rucker, Director of the Arkansas National Guard Museum, who discussed the many contributions of the Arkansas National Guard to the war effort. The afternoon sessions featured a panel discussion of local Arkansas Korean War veterans as well as the premiere of a video documentary about the service of Arkansans in the Korean War.
Conference Images
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