DOCSLIB.ORG

A Tale of Two Containments: the United States, Canada, and National Security During the Korean War, 1945-1951

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Tale of Two Containments: the United States, Canada, and National Security During the Korean War, 1945-1951 nm u Ottawa L'Umverbite eanadienne Canada's university FACULTE DES ETUDES SUPERIEURES nm FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND ET POSTOCTORALES u Ottawa POSDOCTORAL STUDIES L'Univt'isito i(incidic'iine Canada's university Tyler Turek AUTEUR DE LA THESE / AUTHOR OF THESIS M.A. (History) GRADE/DEGREE Department of History FACULTE, ECOLE, DEPARTEMENT / FACULTY, SCHOOL, DEPARTMENT A Tale of Two Containments: The United States, Canada, and National Security during the Korean War, 1945- 1951 TITRE DE LA THESE / TITLE OF THESIS Galen Perras DIRECTEUR (DIRECTRICE) DE LA THESE / THESIS SUPERVISOR CO-DIRECTEUR (CO-DIRECTRICE) DE LA THESE / THESIS CO-SUPERVISOR Heather Murray Serge Durflinger Gary W. Slater Le Doyen de la Faculte des etudes superieures et postdoctorales / Dean of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies A Tale of Two Containments: The United States, Canada, and National Security during the Korean War, 1945-1951 by Tyler John Turek Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the MA degree in History Department of History Faculty of Arts University of Ottawa © Tyler John Turek, Ottawa, Canada, 2010 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-73774-3 Our file Notre r6f6rence ISBN: 978-0-494-73774-3 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduce, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi eanadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1+1 Canada Table of Contents Table of Contents ii Acknowledgement iii Abstract iv List of Acronyms v Introduction 1 Chapter I: The Follies of Freedom: The U.S. and National Security before the Korean War 15 Chapter II: "Peace with Freedom": Canada and National Security before the Korean War 43 Chapter III: "Prompt Action is worth more than Perfect Action": The U.S. and Korean War 78 Chapter IV: Restrained Nationalism/Qualified Internationalism: Canada and the Korean War 117 Conclusion 158 Bibliography 163 iii Acknowledgements It is with great pleasure that I am able to thank the individuals who made this thesis a reality. First and foremost I would like to thank Dr. Galen Perras for his guidance, insight and assistance over the past two years. Without his keen eye, this study may have never seen the light of day. May his red pen finally get a well-deserved vacation. Naturally, all errors in the following pages are my own. I am truly indebted to the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, for its generous financial support which made the research for this thesis possible. In particular, I would like to thank Randy Sowell for his ability to locate any and all archival materials for me in a matter of minutes. He is a historian's dream. As well, the Faculty of Graduate Studies at the University of Ottawa deserves recognition for the funds it provided for research in the United States. I am forever grateful to Dr. Jeff Keshen and the superb administrative staff at the Department of History at the University of Ottawa, who have done their utmost to promote the student scholarship and make the lives of graduate students as easy as possible. A special thanks to Dr. Serge Durflinger and Dr. Heather Murray for their constructive criticism on an earlier draft of this thesis. To Manon, Suzanne and Francine: merci. My friends and family have been invaluable to me over the years. A special thanks to Emilie Pilon-David, whose intimate knowledge of Cold War historiography and the Department of External Affairs records at Library and Archives Canada was an inestimable asset. Thanks to Zack and Monty who functioned as welcome distractions during my many long days of writing. And last but not least, I would like to extend my love and gratitude to Kelly and Sandra Turek. I could not have asked for a more supportive family. iv Abstract Tyler John Turek Dr. Galen Perras University of Ottawa, 2010 In the first comparative study of Canadian and American foreign policy during the Korean War, this thesis argues that, while Canada and the U.S. shared some similar foreign policy goals and interpretations of the Soviet Union between 1945 and 1951, their national security policies were fundamentally distinct. In turn, these differing interpretations had a significant influence on each country's understanding of the Korean War. The United States believed that it had to uphold its international prestige by defending freedom everywhere in order to remain secure. Consequently, the Harry S. Truman administration pursued an aggressive campaign in Korea against the Soviet Union in order to safeguard its position as the leader of the free world. Conversely, Canada, which was preoccupied with its own sovereignty and content with a limited view of containment, had little interest in American objectives. Instead, Louis St. Laurent's government, influenced by past experiences with Great Power politics, sought to limit the excesses of the Truman administration in order to defend its autonomy. The consequence of this divergence forced officials in Ottawa and Washington to reconsider not only their national security strategies but also their relations with one another. List of Acronyms CDC - Cabinet Defence Committee CIA - Central Intelligence Agency DEA - Department of External Affairs DPRK - Democratic People's Republic of Korea JCS - United States Joint Chiefs of Staff JIC - Canadian Joint Intelligence Committee NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization NKPA - North Korean Peoples' Army PJBD - Permanent Joint Board on Defence PRC - People's Republic of China ROK - Republic of Korea UN - United Nations UNC - United Nations Command UNTCOK - United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea USSR - Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 1 Introduction On 10 April 1951, Lester B. Pearson, Canada's Secretary of State for External Affairs, told the Empire and Canadian Clubs in Toronto that "the days of relatively easy and automatic political relations with our neighbour are, I think, over."1 Pearson, of course, was referring to Canada's relations with the United States which had come to play a much larger part of Canadian foreign policy since World War II. Ottawa and Washington had cooperated extensively on defence and other international issues since the August 1940 Ogdensburg Agreement had effectively placed Canada under the umbrella of the U.S. military. But closer collaboration on national security did not always produce a consensus as the outbreak of the Korean War on 25 June 1950 exposed several fundamental cracks in the politics and priorities of President Harry S. Truman's Democratic administration (1945-1953) and the Liberal government of Louis St. Laurent (1948-1957). While applauding U.S. determination to resist aggression, St. Laurent's Cabinet balked at Truman's attempts to link Formosa's defence to the Korean conflict. Canadians complained that such actions did not fall within the United Nations (UN) mandate and were likely to provoke the Soviet Union's ally, the newly-formed People's Republic of China (PRC), which desired to bring Formosa under its control. Pearson was not ready to forsake U.S. leadership in the Cold War in 1951 and this episode now appears as little more than a historical footnote. Nevertheless, Pearson's remarks revealed that his support for Truman's foreign policy had become more reserved and that Canadians had become more cautious in offering support to American initiatives. Why did Pearson publically distance Canada from its closest ally? The Cold War, 1 Department of External Affairs, Statements and Speeches, "Canadian Foreign Policy in a Two-Power World," 10 April 1951, 51/14. 2 J.L. Granatstein, Canada's War: The Politics of the Mackenzie King Government, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1975), pp. 114-132 . 2 which began in 1945—1946, had produced two superpower blocs based on two ostensibly incompatible government systems. The liberal democratic coalition, centered on the United States, was a loose association of sovereign states in North America and Western Europe that considered its Communist bloc adversary, the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites, to constitute a direct military and political threat to its existence. The United States, Great Britain, Canada and the Soviet Union, of course, had been allies during World War II.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Truman, Congress and the Struggle for War and Peace In
    TRUMAN, CONGRESS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR WAR AND PEACE IN KOREA A Dissertation by LARRY WAYNE BLOMSTEDT Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2008 Major Subject: History TRUMAN, CONGRESS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR WAR AND PEACE IN KOREA A Dissertation by LARRY WAYNE BLOMSTEDT Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved by: Chair of Committee, Terry H. Anderson Committee Members, Jon R. Bond H. W. Brands John H. Lenihan David Vaught Head of Department, Walter L. Buenger May 2008 Major Subject: History iii ABSTRACT Truman, Congress and the Struggle for War and Peace in Korea. (May 2008) Larry Wayne Blomstedt, B.S., Texas State University; M.S., Texas A&M University-Kingsville Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Terry H. Anderson This dissertation analyzes the roles of the Harry Truman administration and Congress in directing American policy regarding the Korean conflict. Using evidence from primary sources such as Truman’s presidential papers, communications of White House staffers, and correspondence from State Department operatives and key congressional figures, this study suggests that the legislative branch had an important role in Korean policy. Congress sometimes affected the war by what it did and, at other times, by what it did not do. Several themes are addressed in this project. One is how Truman and the congressional Democrats failed each other during the war. The president did not dedicate adequate attention to congressional relations early in his term, and was slow to react to charges of corruption within his administration, weakening his party politically.
    [Show full text]
  • A Legal Study of the Korean War Howard S
    The University of Akron IdeaExchange@UAkron Akron Law Review Akron Law Journals July 2015 How It All Started - And How It Ended: A Legal Study of the Korean War Howard S. Levie Please take a moment to share how this work helps you through this survey. Your feedback will be important as we plan further development of our repository. Follow this and additional works at: http://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/akronlawreview Part of the Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, and the International Law Commons Recommended Citation Levie, Howard S. (2002) "How It All Started - And How It Ended: A Legal Study of the Korean War," Akron Law Review: Vol. 35 : Iss. 2 , Article 2. Available at: http://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/akronlawreview/vol35/iss2/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Akron Law Journals at IdeaExchange@UAkron, the institutional repository of The nivU ersity of Akron in Akron, Ohio, USA. It has been accepted for inclusion in Akron Law Review by an authorized administrator of IdeaExchange@UAkron. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Levie: A Legal Study of the Korean War LEVIE1.DOC 3/26/02 12:29 PM HOW IT ALL STARTED - AND HOW IT ENDED: A LEGAL STUDY OF THE KOREAN WAR Howard S. Levie A. World War II Before taking up the basic subject of the discussion which follows, it would appear appropriate to ascertain just what events led to the creation of two such disparate independent nations as the Republic of Korea (hereinafter referred to as South Korea) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (hereinafter referred to as North Korea) out of what had been a united territory for centuries, whether independent or as the possession of a more powerful neighbor, Japan — and the background of how the hostilities were initiated in Korea in June 1950.
    [Show full text]
  • The Partition of Korea After World War II This Page Intentionally Left Blank the PARTITION of KOREA AFTER WORLD WAR II
    The Partition of Korea after World War II This page intentionally left blank THE PARTITION OF KOREA AFTER WORLD WAR II A GLOBAL HISTORY Jongsoo Lee THE PARTITION OFKOREA AFTER WORLD WAR II © Jongsoo Lee, 2006. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2006 978-1-4039-6982-8 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published in 2006 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™ 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-53150-9 ISBN 978-1-4039-8301-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781403983015 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lee, Jongsoo. The partition of Korea after world war II : a global history / Jongsoo Lee. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Korea—History—Partition, 1945– 2. World War, 1939–1945— Diplomatic history—Soviet Union. 3. World War, 1939–1945— Diplomatic history—United States. 4. Korea—History—Allied occupation, 1945–1948. I. Title. DS917.43.L44 2006 951.904Ј1—dc22 2005054895 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
    [Show full text]
  • Marxism-Leninism in the History of North Korean Ideology, 1945-1989
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles From Soviet Origins to Chuch’e: Marxism-Leninism in the History of North Korean Ideology, 1945-1989 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Asian Languages and Cultures by Thomas Stock 2018 © Copyright by Thomas Stock 2018 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION From Soviet Origins to Chuch’e: Marxism-Leninism in the History of North Korean Ideology, 1945-1989 by Thomas Stock Doctor of Philosophy in Asian Languages and Cultures University of California, Los Angeles, 2018 Professor Namhee Lee, Chair Where lie the origins of North Korean ideology? When, why, and to what extent did North Korea eventually pursue a path of ideological independence from Soviet Marxism- Leninism? Scholars typically answer these interrelated questions by referencing Korea’s historical legacies, such as Chosŏn period Confucianism, colonial subjugation, and Kim Il Sung’s guerrilla experience. The result is a rather localized understanding of North Korean ideology and its development, according to which North Korean ideology was rooted in native soil and, on the basis of this indigenousness, inevitably developed in contradistinction to Marxism-Leninism. Drawing on Eastern European archival materials and North Korean theoretical journals, the present study challenges our conventional views about North Korean ideology. Throughout the Cold War, North Korea was possessed by a world spirit, a Marxist- Leninist world spirit. Marxism-Leninism was North Korean ideology’s Promethean clay. From ii adherence to Soviet ideological leadership in the 1940s and 50s, to declarations of ideological independence in the 1960s, to the emergence of chuch’e philosophy in the 1970s and 80s, North Korea never severed its ties with the Marxist-Leninist tradition.
    [Show full text]
  • North Korea Under Kim Il-Sung" (2015)
    Arcadia University ScholarWorks@Arcadia Senior Capstone Theses Undergraduate Research Spring 2015 Cult of Personality: North Korea under Kim Il- Sung Tyler Lutz Arcadia University, [email protected] Arcadia University has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits ouy . Your story matters. Thank you. Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.arcadia.edu/senior_theses Part of the History Commons, and the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Lutz, Tyler, "Cult of Personality: North Korea under Kim Il-Sung" (2015). Senior Capstone Theses. Paper 10. This Capstone is brought to you for free and open access by the Undergraduate Research at ScholarWorks@Arcadia. It has been accepted for inclusion in Senior Capstone Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@Arcadia. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Tyler Lutz History Senior Seminar Senior Thesis Paper Cult of Personality: North Korea under Kim Il-Sung Lutz 1 North Korea, The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or “The Hermit Kingdom” as it is occasionally referred to, is the most isolated country in the world today. Its people have lived under the dictatorial rule of the world’s only dynastic communist regime, that of the Kim family for over half a century. The country is highly militaristic, highly idealistic, and always appears to be on the edge of instigating a new conflict in the region. The country itself is relatively young, having only split from the South immediately following World War II. Up until that point, Korea had been a unified nation for over 1100 years. Their history was for the most part peaceful and stable, until the late 19 th century when increasing pressures from the West and the Japanese forced Korea to open up to the world.
    [Show full text]
  • Early Observer Missions
    THE EVOLUTION OF PEACEKEEPING: EARLY UN OBSERVER MISSIONS (1946-56) Dr. Walter Dorn 13 April 2011 EARLY MISSIONS: OVERVIEW Greek Border - Commission of Investigation: 1946 - Special Committee on the Balkans (UNSCOB): 1947 Indonesia - Consular Commission: 1947 - Good Offices Commission: 1947 - Commission for Indonesia: 1949 Korea - Temporary Commission on Korea (UNTCOK): 1947 - Commission on Korea (UNCOK): 1948 EARLY MISSIONS (CONT’D) Palestine - Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP): 1947 - Commission on Palestine (UNCP): 1947 - Truce Commission: 1948 - Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO): 1948 - Palestine Conciliation Commission (PCC): 1948 Kashmir - Commission in India and Pakistan (UNCIP): 1948 - Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP): 1948 - UN Representative: 1950 CASE: KOREA • Historically, caught between Larger Powers – Chinese tributary – Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) • Fight over Korea • Japanese “trusteeship” – Russo-Japanese War (1904-5) • Russians accept Japanese dominance in Korea – Japanese annexation/colonization (1910-45) • US/USSR accept Japanese surrender after WW II – Beginning of Korean division “Whales fight, shrimp crushed." – Korean sokdam (proverb) POST-WW II SITUATION • Temporary zones: – Soviet zone (North of 38th parallel) and – American zone (South) • Superpowers can’t agree on means of reunification • Issue passed to UN by US www.awm.gov.au UN CHRONOLOGY 1947 Nov 14 GA establishes UN Temporary Commission on Korea (UNTCOK) to facilitate a National Government, election observation and the withdrawal of Soviet & American forces 1948 May 10 UNTCOK observes elections in South Korea only (refused in North) as “expression of free will.” GA approves July Establishment of Republic of Korea (ROK) (claiming all of Korea) with Syngman Rhee as President ELECTIONS 1948 (S. KOREA) AWM P0716/113/003 Chongiu.
    [Show full text]
  • The Causes of the Korean War, 1950-1953
    The Causes of the Korean War, 1950-1953 Ohn Chang-Il Korea Military Academy ABSTRACT The causes of the Korean War (1950-1953) can be examined in two categories, ideological and political. Ideologically, the communist side, including the Soviet Union, China, and North Korea, desired to secure the Korean peninsula and incorporate it in a communist bloc. Politically, the Soviet Union considered the Korean peninsula in the light of Poland in Eastern Europe—as a springboard to attack Russia—and asserted that the Korean government should be “loyal” to the Soviet Union. Because of this policy and strategic posture, the Soviet military government in North Korea (1945-48) rejected any idea of establishing one Korean government under the guidance of the United Nations. The two Korean governments, instead of one, were thus established, one in South Korea under the blessing of the United Nations and the other in the north under the direction of the Soviet Union. Observing this Soviet posture on the Korean peninsula, North Korean leader Kim Il-sung asked for Soviet support to arm North Korean forces and Stalin fully supported Kim and secured newly-born Communist China’s support for the cause. Judging that it needed a buffer zone against the West and Soviet aid for nation building, the Chinese government readily accepted a role to aid North Korea, specifically, in case of full American intervention in the projected war. With full support from the Soviet Union and comradely assistance from China, Kim Il-sung attacked South Korea with forces that were better armed, equipped, and prepared than their counterparts in South Korea.
    [Show full text]
  • Humanity Interrogated: Empire, Nation, and the Political Subject in U.S. and UN-Controlled POW Camps of the Korean War, 1942-1960
    Humanity Interrogated: Empire, Nation, and the Political Subject in U.S. and UN-controlled POW Camps of the Korean War, 1942-1960 by Monica Kim A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (History) in The University of Michigan 2011 Doctoral Committee: Professor Penny M. Von Eschen, Chair Associate Professor Sarita See Associate Professor Scott Kurashige Associate Professor Henry Em, New York University Monica Kim 2011 For my parents Without whom, this never would have been written ii Acknowledgements It has been my incredible fortune that a vision shared also means a life shared. And much life has been shared in the fostering and development of this project, as it moved from idea to possibility to entirely unpredictable experiences in the field and in writing. My dissertation committee members have been involved with this project ever since the beginning. I am indebted not only to their commitment to and support of my ideas, but also to their own relationships with work, writing, and social justice. By their own examples, they have shown me how to ask the necessary, important questions to push my own scholarship constantly into a critical engagement with the world. Penny von Eschen has granted me perhaps one of the most important lessons in scholarship – to write history unflinchingly, with a clarity that comes from a deep commitment to articulating the everyday human struggles over power and history. A wise teacher and an invaluable friend, Penny has left an indelible imprint upon this work and my life, and I am excited about working together with her on projects beyond this dissertation.
    [Show full text]
  • BRIEF HISTORY of KOREA —A Bird's-Eyeview—
    BRIEF HISTORY OF KOREA —A Bird's-EyeView— Young Ick Lew with an afterword by Donald P. Gregg The Korea Society New York The Korea Society is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) organization with individual and corporate members that is dedicated solely to the promotion of greater awareness, understanding and cooperation between the people of the United States and Korea. In pursuit of its mission, the Society arranges programs that facilitate dis- cussion, exchanges and research on topics of vital interest to both countries in the areas of public policy, business, education, intercultural relations and the arts. Funding for these programs is derived from contributions, endowments, grants, membership dues and program fees. From its base in New York City, the Society serves audiences across the country through its own outreach efforts and by forging strategic alliances with counterpart organizations in other cities throughout the United States as well as in Korea. The Korea Society takes no institutional position on policy issues and has no affiliation with the U.S. government. All statements of fact and expressions of opinion contained in all its publications are the sole responsibility of the author or authors. For further information about The Korea Society, please write The Korea Society, 950 Third Avenue, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10022, or e-mail: [email protected]. Visit our website at www.koreasociety.org. Copyright © 2000 by Young Ick Lew and The Korea Society All rights reserved. Published 2000 ISBN 1-892887-00-7 Printed in the United States of America Every effort has been made to locate the copyright holders of all copyrighted materials and secure the necessary permission to reproduce them.
    [Show full text]
  • North Korea and the Theory of the Deformed Workers' State
    North Korea and the Theory of the Deformed Workers’ State: Definitions and First Principles of a Fourth International Theory Alzo David-West James P. Cannon, Peng Shuzi, Pierre Frank, Michel Pablo, Ernest Mandel, and Tim Wohlforth Abstract This essay examines the academically neglected theory of the deformed workers’ state in relation to the political character of the North Korean state. Developed by leaders of the Fourth International, the world party of socialism founded by exiled Russian Bolshevik revolutionary Leon Trotsky, the theory classifies the national states that arose under post- Second World War Soviet Army occupation as bureaucratic, hybrid, transitional formations that imitated the Soviet Stalinist system. The author reviews the origin of the theory, explores its political propositions and apparent correspondences in the North Korean case, and concludes with some hypotheses and suggestions for further research. Copyright © 2012 by Alzo David-West and Cultural Logic, ISSN 1097-3087 Alzo David-West 2 Introduction On the centenary of the birth of Kim Il Sung in 2012, North Korea entered a period officially designated as “opening the gate to a great prosperous and powerful socialist nation.” Coming after the post-Soviet rise of markets within a planned economy, the initiation of capitalist Special Economic Zones in the early 1990s and 2000s, market- oriented economic and currency reforms in 2002, and the dropping of “communism” from the 2009 revised constitution, the reference to present-day North Korea as a “socialist nation” is evidently more symbolic than substantial. Still, over sixty years after the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) on 9 September 1948, the political character of the North Korean state remains a more or less unresolved issue in North Korean studies.
    [Show full text]
  • The Social Grounds of Anticommunism in South Korea-Crisis of the Ruling Class and Anticommunist Reaction Dong-Choon Kim
    Kim Asian Journal of German and European Studies (2017) 2:7 Asian Journal of German DOI 10.1186/s40856-017-0018-1 and European Studies ORIGINAL ARTICLE Open Access The social grounds of anticommunism in South Korea-crisis of the ruling class and anticommunist reaction Dong-Choon Kim Correspondence: [email protected] SungKongHoe University, Seoul, Abstract South Korea I focused on how the domestic social grounds of anticommunism were interlinked with the external atmosphere like U.S. occupation, divided state-building and the Korean War. I especially emphasized the role of the Japanese collaborators in the post-colonial politics. Anticommunism as a political ideology surrendered to anticommunism as a rationale for the survival of class interests when historical task of overcoming colonialism was dominated by the Cold War atmosphere and full scale war. When North Korea’s threats came to reality by the outbreak of the Korean War, hysteric style of anticommunism came to dominate the other forms of anticommunism. The chronic occurrence of anticommunist hysteria may be explained by the political landscape. It was not just the result of U.S. occupation force’s policy, the international Cold War, but of the failure of de-colonization, by which former Japanese collaborators became the hegemonic groups among Korea’s anticommunists, left dark shadow on South Korea’s politics. Keywords: Anticommunism, Cold War, Japanese Collaborators, Liberalism, Korean War Prologue The Cold War is a chronic war-preparation system against the possible aggression of an enemy. Like other ordinary wars, the Cold War also had supposed the real threat of enemies both within and outside, it had dominated not only the external relations of a country, but also internal policing, systematic surveillance against the ‘designated internal enemies’.
    [Show full text]
  • Washington National Guard Pamphlet
    WASH ARNG PAM 870-1-7 WASH ANG PAM 210-1-7 WASHINGTON NATIONAL GUARD PAMPHLET THE OFFICIAL HISTORY OF THE WASHINGTON NATIONAL GUARD VOLUME 7 WASHINGTON NATIONAL GUARD IN POST WORLD WAR II HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DEPARTMENT STATE OF WASHINGTON OFFICE OF THE ADJUTANT GENERAL CAMP MURRAY, TACOMA, WASHINGTON 98430 - i - THIS VOLUME IS A TRUE COPY THE ORIGINAL DOCUMENT ROSTERS HEREIN HAVE BEEN REVISED BUT ONLY TO PUT EACH UNIT, IF POSSIBLE, WHOLLY ON A SINGLE PAGE AND TO ALPHABETIZE THE PERSONNEL THEREIN DIGITIZED VERSION CREATED BY WASHINGTON NATIONAL GUARD STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY - ii - INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME 7, HISTORY OF THE WASHINGTON NATIONAL GUARD BY MAJOR GENERAL HOWARD SAMUEL McGEE, THE ADJUTANT GENERAL Volume 7 of the History of the Washington National Guard covers the Washington National Guard in the Post World War II period, which includes the conflict in Korea. This conflict has been categorized as a "police action", not a war, therefore little has been published by the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army or by individuals. However, the material available to our historian is believed to be of such importance as to justify its publication in this volume of our official history. While Washington National Guard units did not actually serve in Korea during this "police action", our Air National Guard and certain artillery units were inducted into service to replace like regular air and army units withdrawn for service in Korea. However, many Washington men participated in the action as did the 2nd and 3rd Infantry Divisions, both of which had been stationed at Fort Lewis and other Washington military installations.
    [Show full text]