Police Action - Appropriate Use of The Term

Appropriate Use of The Term

Use of the term does not appear to have gained currency outside of the limited arena of justification of military action: for example, the U.S. Navy refers to the Korean conflict as the Korean War, and when they refer to police action, they surround the term in scare quotes.

Similarly, a plaque at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial refers to the Vietnam conflict as a war, not a police action.

Use of the term police action is intended to imply either a claim of formal sovereignty or of authority to intervene militarily at a nation's own discretion.

Veterans often display a high degree of disdain for the term "police action," as it somehow implies that their sacrifices were not legitimate and perhaps also that they are not even veterans of a true "war".