The Marmot’s Hole

So said Lee Tae-sik, the South Korean ambassador in Washington, when Rep. Henry Hyde was awarded South Korea’s highest civilian honor, the Order of Diplomatic Service Merit Gwanghwa Medal, last year.

Rep. Hyde passed away Thursday at the age of 83.

Americans will probably remember Hyde for his pro-life politics and his spearheading of the Clinton impeachment, but in Korea, he is remembered as one of America’s most prominent “pro-Korean” statesmen, a man who took a keen interest in Korean affairs his entire life.

Frankly, I disagreed — sometimes quite strongly — with some of Hyde’s more recent commentary on Korea — see here, here and here. Nevertheless, the man clearly cared about Korea, and his concern was appreciated even by those whom he spent his last years bashing — it was the Roh administration, after all, that marked his retirement from Congress by awarding him the Gwanghwa Medal. His interest in Korea was so great, in fact, that he spent his last day as a Congressman chairing a House International Relations Committee hearing on “United States-Republic of Korea Alliance: An Alliance at Risk?” As my tribute to Hyde, I’ll reprint here the “meat” from his opening address from that hearing:

There are few alliances that have stood the test of time through such a series of major transitions as that of the United States and the Republic of Korea. Born of blood ties of shared conflict, matured in a tense period in the Cold War, having transited through the birth of democracy in South Korea, further forged in Vietnam and Iraq.

The alliance now faces new challenges. Seoul’s concern for its downtrodden brethren in the North and for maintaining the peace on the Korean Peninsula must be balanced with Washington’s heartfelt concerns over Pyongyang’s egregious human rights abuses, and, in a post-September 11th environment, overproliferation of weapons of mass destruction by a dictatorial state.

I am by nature an optimist, and my recent visit to Seoul, in addition to a meeting this month with the South Korean President in Washington, lead me to believe that the differences we face are just bumps in the road on the path to a more mature equitable alliance.

The Congress can certainly take concrete steps to enhance this alliance. These will include ratification of a free trade agreement with Seoul, once it is negotiated, which promotes both free and fair trade. In addition, Members can urge the Departments of Homeland Security and State to include South Korea in the Visa Waiver Program as soon as it meets all of the legal requirements.

While accentuating the positive, we must remember that significant challenges exist in the alliance and they cannot be papered over. A recent article published by the Council on Foreign Relations, entitled the “Fragile U.S.-South Korea Alliance” underscores this.

Some of the issues to be addressed today involve basic nuts-and-bolts matters; the resolution of these, however, will be key to the resiliency of this alliance. The first involves the relocation of United States Forces-Korea out of Seoul and a reduction of America’s highly visible footprint in South Korea.

I received a very encouraging letter in this regard from the Governor of Kyunggi Province, which will play host to new the USFK headquarters. The Governor pledged his full cooperation and support in this endeavor. Observers of the alliance, however, are fully aware that the target relocation date of the end of 2007 cannot be realistically met and that there are burden-sharing issues that have not yet been adequately addressed.

The second issue involves the provision of a training range for our Air Force pilots stationed in Korea. They have had to travel as far away as Thailand for training, due to the lack of provision for an adequate range in South Korea. I am happy to report that President Roh assured our congressional delegation last month that this problem would be satisfactorily addressed. Recent South Korea news reports indicate that the training issue is now resolved. I hope our witnesses can confirm this.

A third issue involves operational control of South Korean forces in wartime. As I stated during my visit to Seoul, I have concluded that enough time has passed for Seoul to be up to speed in terms of providing for its own defense. I support a transfer of wartime operational control of the forces of the Republic of Korea to their own command at the earliest possible moment. The American people welcome Seoul’s expressed desire to take charge of its own defense in wartime.

President Harry Truman certainly never suspected that over half a century after the Inchon landing, Americans would still be playing the leading role in the defense of South Korea. After more than half a century of preparation under an American command, the South Korean military is ready to leave the nest and fly high into the heavens. As I mention Inchon, where I laid a wreath this summer, I note that the September 15th anniversary of that heroic landing has just passed, and I hope we can recall favorably those who fell to preserve South Korean sovereignty.

A fourth alliance issue involves the environmental cleanup of bases previously occupied by American forces. This issue has been underscored in the South Korean public’s mind by Seoul film makers. They produced a film called The Host, which was this summer’s South Korean blockbuster, drawing over 13 million viewers from a population of 50 million, in a loose take-off of the traditional monster movie, Creature from the Black Lagoon. The plot involves a hideous monster who emerges from the Han River to run amok in Seoul, devouring women and children, but this time the creature is painted with the stars and stripes. The source of its incarnation is given as pollutants poured into the river by the United States military.

Artistic freedom is a wonderful thing. In promoting our alliances in the Second World War, however, Hollywood film makers understood it was vital to present our allies—Great Britain and free China—as the good guys, and the German Nazis and the Imperial Japanese as the bad. This very basic premise seems to have been lost by those in Seoul who seek a quick profit by stirring up blatant anti-American feelings.

I have now come to the heart of the matter: An alliance must be based on two peoples’ shared interest, of course. More importantly, however, the two peoples must share good feelings toward each other. Without that, an alliance is just an empty piece of paper. As I noted last month when I visited General MacArthur’s statue in Inchon, I am well aware that there are those in South Korea today who take a different view of this battle site and this monument. I ask the people of South Korea to recall what the statue of General MacArthur symbolizes. It stands for more than just one man, great though he was. It stands for fidelity. In times of war and in times of peace, the American people have stood with you. In times of tension and in times of calm, in times of want and in times of plenty, fidelity is the key to an enduring alliance.

Most of the Korean papers ran pieces on Hyde’s passing — the JoongAng Ilbo’s headline, “‘A Mature, Equitable Alliance’: Hyde Passes Away (literally, Goes to the Sky, or Heaven) with Love for the Korea-US Alliance,” was quite touching. The Munhwa Ilbo even ran an editorial on Hyde. Being warmly remembered is his criticism of the Koizumi administration’s alleged historical distortions, his support for the “comfort women,” and — in the conservative dailies, anyway — his condemnation of anti-Americanism in Korea (including his “suggestion” that, if the Koreans didn’t want it, the MacArthur statue in Incheon be sent to the United States).

Hyde was part of a literally dying breed — men who remember the Korean War and whose attachment to Korea is deeply emotional. For them, the Korea-US alliance is truly an alliance “forged in blood,” and Korea both “sacred ground” and “Freedom’s Frontier.” Korea has such men, too — those whose belief in the United States derives from the experience of the Korean War and American assistance in Korea’s postwar reconstruction. Like their American counterparts, they are gradually dying off.

Hyde will be sorely missed. Make no mistake about that. But at the same time, the ascendancy of a new generation of leaders in Washington and Seoul — leaders whose views of one another aren’t constrained by deeply emotional attachments born of the Korean War — should be welcomed… even if it people taking over the reins are equally constrained by attachments and hangups born of the Cold War. At least it’s a step closer to the day when Korea and the United States can start formulating policies vis-a-vis one another free of irrational emotional baggage from an era that ended long ago.