Friday is the 50th anniversary of the Inchon landings which, after D-Day at Normandy, were the greatest and perhaps riskiest amphibious assault in history. The invading communist north was routed, and Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the American mastermind of the United Nations-led operation, became a hero. It now is a mine countermeasures support ship. Rough seas are all Allen can think about when he looks back. Keeping history alive For the people of Inchon, the memory has not faded.
History is alive.
Giant spiderlike wharf cranes dominate the landscape of what used to be the mud flats and seawalls U.S. Marines had to climb. As for the future, the fact that a celebratory re-enactment of the landings recently was canceled is one of many signals that the hatreds that have divided the Korean peninsula for 50 years may finally be nearing an end. Two days later, an American-led U.N. naval fleet with bigger guns crept up the channel. The 33-foot tides, hidden guns and seawalls, and the danger of landing in an exposed harbor, made the operation seem suicidal. But that also meant Inchon's beaches would be lightly defended.