# Korean Conflict becomes Korean War

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/korean-conflict-becomes-korean-war/235059>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 18, 2004, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/korean-conflict-becomes-korean-war/235059 "2004-03-18T18:41:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/korean-conflict-becomes-korean-war/235059/1 "2004-03-18T18:41:19Z")

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For decades, the United States government referred to the Korean War as the “Korean Conflict”, because the U.S. Congress never made a constitutional declaration of war on Korea, participating instead as part of a United Nations operation.

Now I see, with the 50th anniversary of that war past, that the [U.S. government](http://korea50.army.mil/) refers to the event as the “Korean War”. What changed? Sure, logic tells us that it was always a war in the military sense. But how was the political hurdle and constitutional issue jumped?

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/korean-conflict-becomes-korean-war/235059/2 "2004-03-18T19:32:42Z")

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Everyone used to call it the Korean War. There’s no reason the US can’t call it that. You don’t need any official declaration of war to call it one (e.g. Gulf War, Vietnam War).

If the government now is calling it “War,” it’s probably because they’re bowing to popular nomeclature.

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/korean-conflict-becomes-korean-war/235059/3 "2004-03-18T19:53:39Z")

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There’s also the fact that engaging in a major military conflict without a formal declaration of war is no longer particularly controversial. The Korean War was the first war of this type.