The Korea Herald : The Nation’s No.1 English Newspaper
However negligible the number of anti-American activists who want to remove the statue of Gen. Douglas MacArthur from Freedom Park in the Incheon Port might be, their action makes many – no, probably most – Koreans feel ashamed. And the joining of the infamous professor Kang Jung-koo in this group further increases public disdain for their horrendous call.
Professor Kang at Seoul’s Dongkuk University, who stirred a controversy by eulogizing the late North Korean leader Kim Il-sung on the guest book at his birthplace during his visit to Pyongyang in 2001, said in an article he contributed to an Internet newspaper that U.S. forces were responsible for the 4 million deaths during the Korean War and Gen. MacArthur should be condemned as their commander.
Kang argued that the Korean War, which he defined as a civil conflict started by Kim Il-sung for national unification, should have ended within a month if American forces did not intervene. He added that “the statue of Gen. MacArthur, the warmonger, should be thrown into the gutter of history.”
Looks like Bruce WIllis smoking a pepper shaker.
The decision to defend South Korea was made by Harry Truman, not Douglas MacArthur.
It seems like everyone in Korea under 40 has their head in the sand (or up their own ass). Some of them think Bush is more a threat to peace that Kim Jong Il. What’s worse: 4 million dead in a noble war for freedom, or 4 million dead from starving your own people?
I mean, in this case we can actually see how it otherwise would have been. How acquiecing to Kim Il Sung would have lead to repression, brainwashing, and starvation, and how South Korea has become one of the most dynamic and prosperous countries in the world.
How stupid can you be?
The heartbreaker was the 60 Minutes interview with the then commander of US forces in South Korea. Mike Wallace shows this battle-hardened general a video of the protesters telling the US to go home, and asks him “How does it feel to defend a country that doesn’t want you here.” [That we have stood behind for 50 years!] He nearly came to tears thinking about it and trying to give a diplomatic answer.
These activists make Michael Moore look reasonable.
Anyone with a reasonable knowledge of the conflict could at least understand this point of view. His aggressive push into the North did bring China into the conflict. Remember he was relieved by President Truman. Though it wasn’t official, it was for insubordination.
If you were one of the 4 million that dies, it doesn’t matter why you died. Only that you did. In most conflicts, the majority of casualties are civilian. The Korean Conflict was no different in the make-up of casualties. Most civilians, especially those like Korean peasants in 1951, are not political.
MacArthur was an egotistic General who won no battle that any other competent General could not have won. He would take the credit for other’s doing though. Many times he had ignored orders to do things HIS way, to the detriment of others.
For example, contrary to orders and the law, MacArthur, on his own authority, used his troops to physically and forcefully remove protesters from Washington. Their crime? They were WW I veterans that peacefully marched to Washington looking for help from President Herbert Hoover and the US Congress during the Great depression. Though illegal, they did set up a tent city in the public parks. They were, however, orderly and respectful. MacArthur’s crime? It was illegal to use US troops for a police action on US soil except in time of war.
In contrast, Dwight Eisenhower solely took the blame yet spread the victory among all his troops and staff. Eisenhower recognized that battles are won through planning by an entire staff, not by any one person. Once the battle starts, the top General will have little influence on the outcome, that being the realm of the field commanders. How much MacArthur put into the breakout at Inchon is now buried in the past, but most certainly it was the staffers that originated and planned the campaign.
Having said that, without a doubt, MacArthur was the General that led the United Nations force. He is the General that gets the glory for pushing back the invading North Koreans. And as Eisenhower is recognized for the Allied success in Western Europe, so too should MacArthur be recognized for the initial success in Korea.
The last sentence in the article reads: “Whether they like the American general or not the statue is part of history, a memorial of a war that saved tens of millions from sharing the misery which befell their brothers and sisters now in the North.”
And as the name of the park is Freedom Park, so too should MacArthur’s statue represent freedom. I also think the Professor is a jerk.
OHOHO! Americans are heroic protectors of the world now? Wake up and smell the bloddbath in Iraq folks and tell me how US meddling has changed the state of the world for the better.
South Korea and Germany both grumble about moving US troops out of their countries, not to mention the Japanese.
right on. i was just reading an article about this on a korean newspaper site. If those people love north korea they should move there for a few weeks and see how they like it…. of course they blame the north’s situation on us too. The corruption and oppression of the south korean government from the 50’s to the 80’s is worth protesting about and fighting over, but these people need to keep in mind that its a walk in the park compared to living in North Korea now or ever.
Professor Kang should be shipped back to his home land the north. Kim Il Sung stated from the 50’s to the 70’s that he would defeat the South not from a physical war but that he would defeat the south from with in by planting professors as Kang in key positions within Korean Universities poisoning the youth of the south by brainwashing them of the real truth and that is as soon as the US forces left South Korea the North would come down and kill all the leftist supporters along with all other civilians stripping the south of all it’s resources that the freedom fighters of the UN forces during the war along with the South Koreans who died to give them the freedom that all the people in the south enjoy till this day. I find it very hard to believe that the South Korean youth are so gullable to believe such nonsense at this Kang preaches a 3rd grader has more intelligence than he does and alot more common sense.
If the US ever left and teh north attacked teh University students would all be deficating in their own pants and they would be begging the US of A to come bail them out of the mess and when it was over they would blame the US for it happening.
Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it!
I know there are al lot of good youth in South Korea that know that all the countries of the world have to come together to fight for democracy against communists ways of thinking otherwise we will never truly have global peace as we all deeply desire.