Washington’s Playbook to Provoke North Korea came to our attention this morning in a comment on yesterday’s Views from the Edge post “Little Boys with Toys” from a highly respected historian.
Sometimes the COMMENTS move in directions that deserve wider attention. This is one of those times. Below are 1) the comment, 2) Views from the Edge’s reply, and 3) an invitation to weigh in on the discussion.
1) The COMMENT:
As much as I agree with thoughts just posted about Kim Jong Un I think they need to be tempered by an understanding of the origin of North Korea’s behavior. Imagine a country 1/2 the size of Minnesota, N. Korea, with its 30 million people. Could Mn. feed 30 mill. people in its northern half where ag land is limited by forests and rock as N. Korea has to try and do? Not likely.
Then we have to consider the fact that in 1945 Henry Cabot Lodge was the US diplomat that unilaterally made the 38th parallel the border for the US interest in decapitating the nation of Korea to prevent it from going communist. How would we feel if an outside force turned the US into 2 countries to weaken us a nation.
At the time N. Korea has just seen the US drop 2 atomic bombs a few hundred miles away on Japan. The US then proceeds to bomb every building in N. Korea during the Korean War. Literally the US made the decision to bomb N. Korea back into the stone age. Again this done to a country that is geographically half the size of Minnesota. Why do we wonder about the behavior of the leaders of a country that has been treated this way by us. Me thinks Washington “doth protest too loudly”.
If we as a nation were willing to do what we did to N. Korea 67 yrs. ago why would we think the present US bellicose attitude is anything more than propaganda to perpetuate the neutralization of N. Korea as a force that might interfere with our interest to dominate Southeast Asia.
An understanding of geo-strategic theory we inherited from the British after WW II is instructive in understanding the hidden history of N. Korea. It is necessary to read Halford MacKinder, the 1890s British father of geo- strategic theory, to understand the Pentagon’s morally bankrupt approach to N. Korea.
2) The REPLY
I couldn’t agree more with the geo-political analysis of the sordid history that has isolated this small nation. As the old saying goes, “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean there’s nobody out to get you.” They have many reasons to hate the U.S. A nation half the size of Minnesota with 30M people devastated by the Korean “Conflict” has ever reason to fear the most powerful nation on the face of the Earth. We (the U.S.A.) have not honored the terms of the treaties with N. Korea. They have no reason to trust.
The historian’s eye brings all of this front and center, and serves to remind us that we in the U.S. are constantly conditioned by propaganda and misinformation campaigns from the highest sources.
Even so, I can’t help but see the same father-son relationship in N. Korea that we saw in George Herbert Walker Bush and his son George W. who sought to finish (and outdo!) his father’s “manly” work. In both cases a sense of the numinous is shrunk to the size of the father and the nation that once worshiped him. Or…so I think 🙂
3) YOUR thoughts on the matter?
Views from the Edge 
So, how do we as a country clean up our mess, clean up after ourselves, and when will we quit thinking our ‘mess’ does not stink?
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Karin, That’s the BIG question, isn’t it? How do we ever escape this cycle of violence? How do we clean it up? It starts, as you suggest, by looking honestly at our own national history and international history of foreign intervention. For the domestic messes the Truth Commission in South Africa worked wonders. People took responsibility for the past. The admissions of guilt for horrendous crimes perpetrated under the shield of Apartheid moved both the offender and the victims toward healing and reconciliation. I wonder if Gary may have other historical evidence for such a thing happening in international relations.
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Gordon, the 1st thought that comes to mind is the present attempt at reconciliation concerning the Dakota War of 1862. In effect that war was an international event when we see reservations as the separate nations they are by treaty. Might the present attempt to understand our own history be a model for reconciling our bad history with N. Korea? As with the reservation system that we drew the borders for, we did the same for N. Korea and Vietnam. Strangely, the same process was at work as we drew the borders for North and South Dakota from a previously defined Dakota Territory 130 yrs. ago. This is all brainstorming but I think unless we can think about all these events as having common themes we will be unable to deal with present events in a constructive way versus just wielding our dangerous military power again and again.
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Gary, Yes. Drawing borders that serve the purposes of the powers that draw them is a way of dividing and conquering. The conqueror divides for its own self-interested purposes. The lines drawn in the Middle-East are another example of former colonial occupiers imposing national boundaries. So long as national sovereignty and national self-interest trump the mutual interests of the global community will there be a constructive way beyond the norm of military power. I hold little hope for this change in my life-time. But working toward that end is a life-time project on behalf of the seven generations who will come after ours.
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The historian’s point of view here reflects the feeling – I mean, genuine emotion – I had throughout my Asia/Pacific tour. A point of view reflected re Vietnam in Bab’s comment on my blog reporting on Cu Chi. monagustafsonaffinito.com
As any good therapist knows, understanding and explaining do not excuse current behavior, but they are essential in learning to avoid the same neurotic behavior in the future. Neurotic? Yes. Trying the same old thing and expecting different results.
So thanks for the historical clarity, and even for the awareness of the potential for personal and family psychology to affect the world. Of course, the Bushes had official power, but maybe the butterfly effect will help people like us exert our influence, as you do in your blog.
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Mona, your recent Asian/Pacific tour – especially what you’ve shared about Vietnam and the Cu Chi Tunnels – broadened the discussion, and your comment now broadens it further. Thank you. Butterflies need to stick together.
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