Becuase Everything Else Sucks

This Week in Capitalism: June 27th 1950

By Manila Ryce
Published Sunday, July 2nd, 2006, 5:14 pm
Filed under: This Week in Capitalism

Now what would capitalism be without some good old fashioned imperialism? June 27th marks the day President Harry Truman announced that US forces would be sent into South Korea, along with military aid to French imperialists in Vietnam. After World War II America started building its international empire by “protecting” countries from the spread of communism. Korea was the first victim of this new American ideology, represented by the Truman Doctrine.

North Korea and South Korea were caught in the middle of a tug-of-war between Russia and America respectively. America supported an extremely repressive ruler in the South, Syngman Rhee. Rhee was an anti-communist who ran the South Korean government in an authoritarian manner. He supported the torture of suspected communists and ordered several massacres against leftist uprisings. In the midst of McCarthyism the US supported Rhee, giving him everything he needed to continue his dictatorship. The leader of the North, Kim Il Sung, sought to unify Korea. Not surprisingly, Kim had the support of many South Koreans. He was seen as fiercely independent, distancing himself from the Soviet bureaucracy and fighting capitalist imperialism. Independent of Russian influence, Kim launched an attack on South Korea on June 25th, occupying most of its territory under communist rule.

In the beginning months of the war US troops were successful in pushing back the North Koreans. As Chinese troops entered into the war in October, the Americans found their goals increasingly difficult to accomplish. In May 1951, the communists were eventually pushed back to the 38th parallel, where the battle stayed until the end of the war. Syngman Rhee was not happy with this decision, as he desired to now take North Korea under his rule with US forces.

As in Vietnam, the Korean War was known for its atrocities. Eyewitness accounts from Korean survivors, US military veterans, and unclassified documents reveal that thousands upon thousands of civilians were massacred during the war. Relentless bombing campaigns destroyed all major North Korean cities, dams, and dikes. Napalm, saturation bombing, and scorched earth policies were also commonly used. It is now known that about one third of North Koreas population was killed off during the war. This is nothing short of genocide.

A ceasefire took effect on July 27th 1953, after which a Military Demarcation Line was created along the 38th parallel. A DMZ exists for two kilometers on either side of the line. In the 1970’s a wall, dwarfing the Berlin Wall, was constructed along the 150 mile border complete with razor wire and gun towers. 10,000,000 Korean families have been permanently divided ever since. To date, no peace treaty has ever been signed, meaning that America is still officially at war with North Korea.

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