By: Alyssa Hong

Seventy years ago, the Korean War came to an end with a cease-fire rather than a victory or peace agreement. Veterans commemorated the occasion Thursday at the Korean Conflict Memorial in Washington, D.C., with some even joining campaigners calling for an official end to the conflict.

However, they continue to disapprove with how the United States views what has been dubbed “the Forgotten War.”

“We don’t call it the Forgotten War; we call it the Forgotten Victory,” Col. Warren Wiedhahn, a retired U.S. Marine, said. “We saved South Korea from becoming a communist country.”

Although it might not have been obvious at the time, Wiedhahn claimed that it is now. North Korea is an impoverished, ruthless dictatorship, while South Korea is democratic, values human rights, and has one of the strongest economies in the world.

Wiedhahn only wished that more of the Korean peninsula had been held by the United Nations army, which was commanded by the US, before the cease-fire. The UN forces eventually succeeded in pushing North Korean forces to the Chinese border before being forced back south.

“Now don’t get me wrong. The [cease-fire] was welcomed because that meant that the Marines and soldiers were not getting killed anymore. But to me, to us who had fought in the beginning, it was kind of an anti-climactic,” Wiedhahn said.

Wiedhahn, who is 94 years old, is the leader of the Chosin Few, a group of veterans who fought in the frigid 17-day struggle at Chosin Reservoir against the Chinese forces.