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US Out of Korea

By VVAW

On August 18 a large force of US soldiers and Korean laborers was sent into the demilitarized zone at Panmunjom between north and south Korea. They carried steel pikes and axes and moved to trim a tree that was blocking an observation post sighting into the northern zone, knowing from past experience this would provoke an incident. Soldiers from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) intervened. A fight broke out, with DPRK soldiers grabbing some of the tools from the US detail. In the struggle that followed two US army officers were killed and five DPRK soldiers injured.

The US ruling class went wile, calling the two officers' death "brutal murder." Three aircraft squadrons and the USS Midway task force were dispatched to Korea. On August 20, under orders from President Ford, 300 soldiers were sent into the DMZ, backed up by 26 helicopter gunships, numerous jet fighters and three B-52's, all to cut down the tree.

The massive display of force was designed to show that US imperialism is still rough and ready to use its military might to defend its interests. It was a direct provocation to the people of Korea and a Threat of war. But while President Ford and a presidential hopeful Carter went on TV to beat the drums of condemn the DPRK and Ted Kennedy chimed in, a lot of people wanted to know what was really going on, first things first. The question was best put by the mother of one of the slain US officers: "What are American troops doing in Korea anyway?"

The US had its troops in Korea since the end of World War II. The story is familiar: a country divided, with the US occupying the southern half; elections sabotaged by the US became their man, Syngman Rhee, had been a Japanese puppet and would have lost big; then a war to stop the Korean people from unifying their nation and kicking out the foreign occupiers--the US.

Since the war the two Koreas have been forced to develop separately. In the north the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is a socialist country where the workers and peasants rule. In the south the US has created, sponsored and propped us a brutal dictatorship, the so-called Republic of Korea (ROK). The ROK regime is a haven for US imperialist investment where Korean workers are offered for exploitation for 25 cents a day and masses wander the streets unemployed. These sweatshops churn out finished textile goods, final electronic assemblies, where enormous profits are reaped from intensive work at starvation wages. This is what American troops are doing in South Korea, keeping a firm grip on a US neo-colony.

To win public support for the stationing of 45,000 GIs in Korea, the US rulers try to portray the DPRK as warmongers, threatening the "freedom" of the people of the south--really the freedom of the big US corporations to reap billions of dollars from the sweat of Korean workers. To pull off this charade the US has constantly made provocations against the territory of the northern zone. The famous "Pueblo incident" is a case in point, where a US intelligence gathering ship intruded into the territorial waters of the north, daring the DPRK to take action. A year ago, President Ford continued in the same vein, specifically threatening nuclear weapons in the event of another Korean war.

On August 5, nearly two weeks before the tree-trimming incident, the DPRK released a statement condemning an upswing in provocations by the US "with the intention of aggravating tension in Korea." The US had been shipping large quantities of up-to-date military equipment and supplies in the ROK and moving fresh ammunition up to the DMZ. The ROK regime imposed a "war-time system" in South Korea.

On August 8 the US had gone out to trim the tree but DPRK soldiers prevented them peacefully by blocking their work with a truck. When the US returned to the DMZ on August 18, it was a calculated move; they knew the DPRK didn't want the tree to be messed with--it blocked observation into their zone--and they knew there was likely to be trouble. But the US imperialist didn't give a damn for the men they sent into the DMZ. They were cannon fodder. If they tree got cut down, fine. If there was an incident, okay. It would just "prove" the need for US imperialism to occupy Korea.

The pattern today is all too familiar: send some soldiers to fight for an unjust cause. Then when some get killed, use that as an excuse to escalate and send still more troops to protect our boys. Unfortunately for them, too many people still remember Vietnam. As VVAW said in a statement which was given out all over the country, "Vietnam Vets got used really used, and we know it. The rich in this country sent us off to protect their oil refineries, rubber plantations, and businesses in Vietnam and then threw us aside like trash when we came home. Will we do it again? Hell no!"

The ruling class is playing with fire by beating war drums over Korea--in more then one. If they do launch another war of aggression, they will surely be met by widespread and powerful opposition in Korea, around the world, and here at home.