Library of Congress seeks oral histories from Korean War veterans

August 10th, 2023

Visitors look at the names of foreign soldiers who died during the Korean War at the Korea War Memorial Museum in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, July 25, 2023. The truce that stopped the bloodshed in the Korean War turns 70 years old on Thursday, July 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

This year marks the 70^th anniversary of the end of the Korean War, and the Library of Congress is looking for help from the public in collecting everything from photos to oral histories of what is called “The Forgotten War.”

Nearly 6 million U.S. servicemembers served in the three-year war, and it is estimated that more than 1 million are still with us today.

Travis Bickford is program coordinator of the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress, and he joined “All Things Considered” to talk about the importance of the project.

He said that Korean War veterans are unique in that many of them also served in World War II.

Bickford said that they are in search of letters, diaries, photographs and oral histories to preserve firsthand accounts of the Korean War.

Christopher Alston contributed to this report.