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Carter Hounded by Kwangju Massacre
villagevoice.com ^
| 10/11/02
| Nick Mamatas
Posted on 10/12/2002 5:08:40 PM PDT by paltz
Former president Jimmy Carter’s selection October 11 as winner of the Nobel Peace Prize after several previous nominations “must be interpreted as a criticism of the present U.S. administration,” according to Nobel committee chair Gunnar Berge. He added, “They should be sticking more to principles of mediation and international cooperation.”
Sounds like good advice for Carter himself, circa 1980. Somehow, the former president had managed to smile and wave his way into elder-statesman status, while his role in the massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators in the Korean city of Kwangju has been all but forgotten.
In May 1980, Kwangju birthed massive student protests against the South Korean military government of Chun Doo Hwan, who'd come to power through a coup. Many other cities had seen such protests, but the students and later citizens of Kwangju had taken them a step further. They not only rallied in the face of truncheons and CS gas, but braved bullets and bayonets. May 18 and 19 saw initial massacres, followed by intense resistance. Protesters plundered armories and police boxes and drove the government’s troops out of the city.
As detailed in Kwangju Diary (UCLA Asian Pacific, 1999), a text that I co-translated with Kap Su Seol and that was based on Jae-Eui Lee’s bestselling first-hand account, the city of Kwangju then began reorganizing its own economy and social life in the crucible of an armed uprising and general strike. Fuel and arms were rationed democratically, half-trained militias defended the city while townspeople prepared communal meals for hundreds in city parks, and nearby factories were plundered for vehicles and material to help spread the revolution.
Even the most radical of the student leaders thought the United States would intervene on their behalf, against the coup. After the fiasco of the Iranian revolution, Jimmy Carter wouldn’t dare side against an honest, grassroots movement for democracy. He would mediate, wouldn’t he?
Carter was watching, and the Iranian experience was on his mind. But as Chun Doo Hwan’s paratroopers circled the city of Kwangju and tested its perimeters, a meeting of high-level Carter administration officials, including Warren Christopher and Richard Holbrooke, gave the nod to the coup government to wipe out the rebels. Carter’s national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski summed it up: “In the short term, support—in the longer term, pressure for political evolution.”
As for the Kwangju situation, high-level cables granted to journalist Tim Shorrock in 1996 after Freedom of Information requests show that the officials “counseled moderation, but have not ruled out the use of force, should the Koreans need to employ it to restore order.” And force was used, in the form of a ferocious battle to take back the city. Perhaps as many as 2000 civilians were killed on May 26 and 27, though Chun Doo Hwan claimed there were only 144 civilian casualties. Disagreeing with official numbers (Western journalists in the city saw as many corpses stored in a single gymnasium) was cause for arrest.
As for Carter, a May 1980 report claimed that his administration was shocked at the coup government’s brutality and had no knowledge of the deployment of Special Warfare Command units to Kwangju, two claims refuted categorically by Shorrock’s investigation. In addition to records showing White House assent to Chun Doo Hwan's offensive, Shorrock also unearthed a number of Defense Intelligence Agency cables recording the movement of Special Warfare troops toward the city.
The Kwangju Uprising sparked South Korea’s democratic movement, which eventually brought about civilian rule in the late 1980s. It has been called the most important event in the history of South Korea. However, except for a few small-press books—in 1999, when Kwangju Diary was released, it was the only book in print on the uprising—the legacy of Kwangju has been ignored in the United States.
History obscured means history forever altered. Carter’s hands may hold the Nobel Peace Prize, but they’re also stained with the blood of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators.
TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
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At least the Marxist Village Voice is being intellectually honest about this guy...unlike the DU'ers'
1
posted on
10/12/2002 5:08:40 PM PDT
by
paltz
To: paltz
2
posted on
10/12/2002 5:14:28 PM PDT
by
backhoe
To: paltz
Carter lost the Panama Canal, lost Iran, loved Coucesciu (sp) of Rumania, the Sandanistas, Fidel, destroyed our economy, destroyed our military...........
3
posted on
10/12/2002 5:24:46 PM PDT
by
OldFriend
To: OldFriend
And how could I have forgotten......he cancelled the Olympics following the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.
4
posted on
10/12/2002 5:28:10 PM PDT
by
OldFriend
To: OldFriend
Who brokered the peace agreement between the Egyptians and the Israelis? Was that Carter's, Ford's or Nixon's?
5
posted on
10/12/2002 5:34:25 PM PDT
by
Sawdring
To: paltz
The Peace Prize committee insulted Carter, by saying they were giving him the prize in order to get at Bush. This tainting of Carter's prize will be remembered by historians.
Carter should have shared the prize years ago, when Begin and Sadat got it.
If I were Carter, I would turn down the award as insulting to me, to my country and to my president.
6
posted on
10/12/2002 5:35:39 PM PDT
by
syriacus
To: paltz
Bump.
7
posted on
10/12/2002 5:39:56 PM PDT
by
Rocko
To: paltz
I have a feeling that had the Kwanju rebellion succeeded the whole peninsula would be under the control of the North Koreans right now.
8
posted on
10/12/2002 5:44:05 PM PDT
by
John H K
To: syriacus
If I were Carter, I would turn down the award as insulting to me, to my country and to my president. Yeah but like the lawyer in Doctor Detroit, he can't be insulted.
To: paltz
No one likes to see a "massacre," but a few hundred dead is preferable to seeing South Korea go under to North Korea, which was a real threat.
It's probably one of the few things Carter did right. Brzezinski had the right idea: security and survival of the country first, Democracy later.
10
posted on
10/12/2002 6:02:58 PM PDT
by
Cicero
To: Sawdring
Carter.......interestingly enough because he made it clear later that he despised Begin......
Sadat was murdered as a result of the agreement and Mubarak has maintained his distance from all things Israeli since.
Murbarak has enabled Iraq to subvert the embargo and allows his country to be the pipeline for goods going in and out of Iraq.
To: John H K
I have a feeling that had the Kwanju rebellion succeeded the whole peninsula would be under the control of the North Koreans right now. Please Explain your thinking...
12
posted on
10/12/2002 7:15:19 PM PDT
by
Jalapeno
To: Cicero
bump with the same question for you in #12. Was the uprising Communist related? Or was N. K. just the most willing to support such an exercise?
13
posted on
10/12/2002 7:17:54 PM PDT
by
Jalapeno
To: paltz
At least the Marxist Village Voice is being intellectually honest about this guy...unlike the DU'ers' YEs, I am pleasantly surprised.
THanks for the post.
14
posted on
10/12/2002 7:22:11 PM PDT
by
TopQuark
To: paltz
I don't care much for Jimmah, but blaming him for that massacre is a bit of a stretch. When I was in ROK (admittedly 10 yrs later), we were under curfew several times due to student protests. The old-timer Koreans, some of them war veterans, were mostly very grateful to the US for saving their freedom. One of them I worked with had the same attitude toward student protesters as I'm sure WW II veterans must have had toward Nam war protesters. He told me "BS! They THINK they know everything!" He was quite agitated when he told me that.
15
posted on
10/12/2002 7:29:50 PM PDT
by
FlyVet
To: paltz
Carter Hounded by Kwangju MassacreAw, lighten up, Jimmy - you're being waaaay too hard on yourself. It's not like you gave away the Panama Canal or something, is it?
To: MarineDad
Wasn't the Panama Canal going to have to be turned over to the locals and Jimmy did it before the 99 years or so was up? I recall that it was quite a big stink
To: thetruckster
What I was asking then: as why not leased it again?
To: razorback-bert
Ummm
then IS why not leased it again?
To: paltz
This Village Voice writer is very foolish to blame carter for what happened at Kwangju. The Koreans had a conflict. Carter wasn't there. Look at this example of how silly the liberals are in wanting to blame america for just about everything.
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