I know the title is more than a little sensationalist but, that was the title of the article. I am doing some research into the Americans who defected to North Korea and came across this article. I thought that many of you would like to see what was being printed in the days following the start of the Korean War - this article is from a Californian newspaper dated June 28, 1950, but it was copied and widely published. The author was a press correspondent in Korea, named James E. Roper.
I am just going to paste the entire article here and (with my apologies to the Marmot) will let the “great one” arrange the format as he desires. I think that there is a good deal of truth to this article. I added some notes where I thought fitting.
Some American officials concede that the United States failed to sell democracy to numbers of South Koreans.
The reasons for the early sweeps by the communist invaders against only token resistance are varied. But one factor, it is believed here, is that democracy in South Korea never did “take” effectively.
There have been plenty of warnings. Last fall, the crew of a South Korean ship mutinied and took the vessel and two Americans to communist North Korea. Crews on other ships also have defected.
[my note] The ship that he is talking about was the American merchant ship “Kimball R. Smith” that was transporting salt to Kunsan. On September 22, 1949, the crew of 50+ Korean sailors mutinied and turned the ship and the two Americans—Captain Alfred T. Metcher and his first engineer, Albert Willis, over to the North Koreans. These men were held in captivity for 81 days and when they were returned to the Americans at the border {U.S. did not recognize the border or North Korea} they were described as “not being physically mistreated” but were emaciated—Captain Metcher had lost nearly 80 pounds or about one pound per day.
As recently as May 26, South Korean authorities arrested high army officers on charges of being communist sympathizers. [My note---over two hundred suspected communist sympathizers were arrested---several were military officers and at least one was a candidate for the upcoming election]
Month after month, small numbers of South Korean soldiers “went north” to join the reds. Reliability of all the South Korean army was open to question. [Many papers also ran an article in another column that spoke of the South Korean soldiers very highly, i.e., as being some of the most fierce in Asia but poorly equipped.]
Guerrilla bands harassed police in the south.
The United States used in South Korea the most intensive propaganda campaign it has tried anywhere. Motion pictures, posters, and lecturers reached every South Korean. Airplanes dropped news leaflets in remote areas.
The United States manned the Seoul radio station and wrote speeches for Koreans to read. It gave the South Koreans radio sets to they could listen. Then it gave away batteries to run the sets. The sets could receive only the American station. [my note---This sounds very much like what we hear taking place in North Korea---a radio that can only pick up the party-approved station]
But when the station tried to put on a sidewalk interview program, more than half the people interviewed showed suspicions about the Americans.
The Korean manager of an American billet, spent two years talking to American officers—and they conceded privately that he thought the communist were right.
These two incidents I observed in 1948:
Americans attribute some of the Korean attitude to the Japanese who occupied Korea for 40 years before losing the last war.
The Japanese abused and exploited the Koreans. When the Americans moved in, much of the hatred for the Japanese was transferred to the Americans. Any foreigner was considered bad.
In the north, the Russians, kept more in the background. In the south, Americans in flashy uniforms appeared everywhere. The people of Seoul were aware that the American ruled.
Many South Koreans, or course, accept democracy. This is particularly true of the Koreans, who have been converted to Christianity. The United States will depend on these Christians to undermine communism.
12 Comments
And they sure did undermine communism… with flame-throwers from what I understand.
Wouldn’t it be strange if the Korean War was staged by North and South Korea to pull us into the peninsula because we were building Japan too strong and the Koreans became jealous? We’ve been stuck here like fools ever since, under the subterfuge of defending democracy from Communism, when in reality we’ve been defending Corea and China from Japan. Wouldn’t that be strange?
This is just the kind of story Baduk would love to riff on…he’d go on and on about the “commies,” and how he told us so all along. Where is he these days? He doesn’t seem to have commented here in a while.
This week’s events remind us that not enough Korean communists were killed off.
Genocide is frowned upon nowadays.
Heh heh
Slim.
And not enough of the living Commies in South Korea are choosing to live in their spiritual homeland. There’s nothing to stop them going north now except the fact that they know they’re full of shit. Heck imagine having to do an actual day’s work instead of fraternizing and bitching outside the US embassy.
“Many South Koreans, or course, accept democracy. This is particularly true of the Koreans, who have been converted to Christianity. The United States will depend on these Christians to undermine communism.”
this is too funny. it’s a good thing that we have those holy rollers to count on to convert people to christians. what better way to convert a country than to start deep down in their religious beliefs.
Am I wrong to to believe Robert Neff’s sole quooting of English language sources is reflective of his lack of comprehension of the native language of the subject he is trying to represent? Or is he playing some kind of post-modernist game?
Either way, who gives a fuck what some parachuting journalist wrote back then?
There’s one other possible explanation for the use of English-language sources, and that is a desire to make one’s research open to a wider audience — not only the analysis, but also the sources are available for review.
The American defectors to Korea issue is interesting….I think there have been 6 since the 1960s. How is the research going? Jenkins is probably the only viable source of info…..at least outside North Korea.
“who gives a f**k what some parachuting journalist wrote back then?”
News reports on 911 and during Katrina showed what historians have known all along: journalists get it wrong most of the time. Look in the back of any book on the Korean War, WWI or WWII and rarely (if ever) will a newspaper or magazine be cited.
Not to say such journalist accounts as this are not interesting, but they say more about the US than Korea in most cases.