ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Britain's role in the Korean War before asking how and why it came to be forgotten within British national memory. It explores the post-war experience of British Korean War veterans and their relationship with the state before highlighting how the British Korea Veterans Association offered veterans a new opportunity to reclaim agency and exert an unusual level of influence over the post-conflict memory of Korea. It provides through three interpretive lenses: forgetting, state power and cultural exchange. South Korea's modernization and integration into the global economy elicited a specific response from veterans and a commitment to cultural exchange. Korea's forgotten status remains the most frequently repeated fact about the Korean War in contemporary Britain. Preston-Bell recalled how "we came back forgotten war soldiers". Korean War servicemen had included regulars but also volunteers for the Korean campaign and conscripted national servicemen.
