Thousands killed by US's Korean ally

[Ichingcarpenter]

Source: AP

DAEJEON, South Korea - Grave by mass grave, South Korea is unearthing the skeletons and buried truths of a cold-blooded slaughter from early in the Korean War, when this nation's U.S.-backed regime killed untold thousands of leftists and hapless peasants in a summer of terror in 1950.



With U.S. military officers sometimes present, and as North Korean invaders pushed down the peninsula, the southern army and police emptied South Korean prisons, lined up detainees and shot them in the head, dumping the bodies into hastily dug trenches. Others were thrown into abandoned mines or into the sea. Women and children were among those killed. Many victims never faced charges or trial.

The mass executions — intended to keep possible southern leftists from reinforcing the northerners — were carried out over mere weeks and were largely hidden from history for a half-century. They were "the most tragic and brutal chapter of the Korean War," said historian Kim Dong-choon, a member of a 2-year-old government commission investigating the killings.

Hundreds of sets of remains have been uncovered so far, but researchers say they are only a tiny fraction of the deaths. The commission estimates at least 100,000 people were executed, in a South Korean population of 20 million.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080518/ap_on_re_as/korea_mass_executions

[matt007]

1. President Park and others were little more than U.S. propped up

Strong men. South Korea didnt have anything resembling a democracy until the late 80's/ early 90's.

[balantz]

2. In the early eighties I worked with a man who was an American soldier in the Korean War.

The things he mentioned now and then taking part in, the massacres, had devastated him. He was a ruined person.

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. I profess my ignorance on this aspect of the War.

I heard rumors but I think the Typhoon two years ago in Korea
started to reveal the real dirty secrets. I never thought the numbers
were this high.

[balantz]

4. I can't imagine the horror.

I imagine that if those soldiers were not raised under such patriotic nationalism, and having had to live uo to the heroic status of WWII, they might have spoken out more and perhaps helped to change how things are done by our "government". But I'm afraid the public would not have accepted it. There was probably a lot of supression of information by the government. I really don't know, I'm just making guesses here as I am not really that knowledgable in this.

[Turbineguy]

5. Dealing with "communism"

distorted our thinking. By then it was well known that Stalin was running a slaughterhouse. Being murdered in your bed by the commies was not an idle fear.

[Judi Lynn]

6. It took enough time, didn't it, for this story to reach us? Thank you, Ichingcarpenter,

for posting it, as it's most certainly our business, since these acts were carried out with US involvement, using US taxpayers' own money.

From the accompanying Yahoo slideshow:



This photograph by the U.S. Army, provided by the U.S. National Archives in College Park, Md., on Monday, May 5, 2008, is one of a series of declassified images depicting the summary execution of South Korean political prisoners by the South Korean military and police at Daejeon, South Korea, over several days in July 1950. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Korea is investigating this and similar mass killings in South Korea in 1950-51. A chief investigator estimates up to 7,000 were killed at Daejeon, and tens of thousands elsewhere.
(AP Photo/National Archives, U.S. Army)

[Ichingcarpenter]

7. Its on the front page of the Huffington Post now

Some U.S. officers _ and U.S. diplomats _ were among others who reported on the killings. But their classified reports were kept secret for decades.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/18/mass-killings-in-south-ko_n_102322.html

[ohio2007]

8. I'm glad China's ally never committed atrocities...oh wait....

/sarc

[drm604]

11. What's your point?

Of course they committed atrocities. Does that somehow make it OK that US allies also did while our government apparently looked the other way? Do you believe that the two things balance out somehow?

[pegleg]

27. Atrocities were most definitely committed by both sides, and that's

the story that needs to be told. Otherwise you get a very distorted view - which isn't uncommon here on DU.

[drm604]

28. The other side has been told.

This side has been ignored till now.

[ohio2007]

29. North Korean atrocities continue TODAY. Whats your point?

What the Japanese did in China during WW II make it OK for 'your dear leader' Kim Jong Ill to starve millions of his loyal minions today ?

I see the mods had sense to move this "LBN" out of sight due to a bullshit opinion of some stupid ass article written by a moron

[drm604]

32. Huh?

Where did I call Kim Jong Ill a "dear leader"? Where I say that it was okay for him to starve millions of people today? Where did I say that North Korean atrocities don't continue today? Where did I in any way try to excuse North Korean atrocities?

Did you respond to the wrong post? Because you seem to be responding to things that I did not say.

[dipsydoodle]

14. You seem to have missed the issue

"U.S. military officers sometimes present"

[ohio2007]

30. oh I got the point

get a clue

[panzerfaust]

17. With God on our side.

We advertised ourselves, then as now in Iraq, as the GOOD guys.

Good guys don't do this sort of thing.

Only 'Evildoers' do.

But war is not the movies, it is much more complex than the black/white Godly/Evildoer vision in NeoCon visions, and in (winning) nation's histories.

There has never been a war without atrocities committed by all sides.

Yes, that includes the 'last good war'

[ohio2007]

31. Don't forget China is in Dafur and is responsible for atrocities committed in the name of oil supply

[daleo]

9. "With U.S. military officers sometimes present"

Just present, or "advising"? It sounds like MacArthur was untroubled.

"The declassified record of U.S. documents shows an ambivalent American attitude toward the killings. American diplomats that summer urged restraint on southern officials — to no obvious effect — but a State Department cable that fall said overall commander Gen. Douglas MacArthur viewed the executions as a Korean "internal matter," even though he controlled South Korea's military."

There is a long history of this sort of activity. For example, there is evidence that U.S. special forces stood around while Afghan warlord Dostum slaughtered his enemies in big metal shipping crates at the start of the Afghanistan invasion.

[HEyHEY]

10. I don't know what to say

I just got back from there. It's just hard to believe such crazy awful things happened after seeing what it's like today.

[Smarmie Doofus]

12. Evil, repellent stuff. Even more evil: they *lied* about this....

... for 50 years. Not mentioning it was *lying*.

When the schools fail to teach US history in its *entirety*, they are engaging in brainwashing.

When the media fail to report on the activities of the gov't, in their *entirety*, they are engaging in a criminal conspiracy to mislead the public by covering-up crimes.

[panzerfaust]

13. We 'Mercins did our part too - and not just in S Korea

Here is one link to get started on a part of our nation's buried history:

American War Crimes: The Two Faces of America

"... The Nogun-ri massacre is similar to the Cheju April 3rd Massacre. American soldiers killed hundreds of refugees, many of them women and children, who were trapped beneath the Nogun-ri bridge between the advancing North Korean troops and the digged in American troops. One American Veteran recalled his captain as saying: 'The hell with all those people. Let's get rid of all of them.' A former machine gunner said - 'We just annihilated them' ..."

Use the 'incidents' described there to look up more authoritative sites on the web. I picked this link, because it is succinct.

God Bless America

[Dystopian]

15. Yet another atrocity. K&R eom.

peace~

[DailyGrind51]

16. Anti-communist hystery

Having been born in the early 1950s, I remember the societal hysteria over "the international communist conspiracy". The original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" was intended as a satire of the era when people believed that their friends and neighbors could become soul-less communists, threatening our way of life. The lives of many good people were ruined because of this group paranoia. If Americans could be this crazy, just imagine Koreans living within bombing distance from the PRC and the USSR.

[Dark]

18. Why is it always the leftists who end up executed?

n/t

[jmowreader]

20. Syngman Rhee's excuse was he thought they'd help North Korea

Which of course is bullshit--NO ONE in his or her right mind wanted to live under Kim il-Sung. That guy was a serious piece of work, and everyone knew it.

[panzerfaust]

21. They don't ... look at

USSR, Red-China, N Korea, etc

[UpInArms]

24. because the "right" is wrong

and murderous

[jmowreader]

19. Syngman Rhee was one of the more brutal dictators the US has allied itself with

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syngman_Rhee

Syngman Rhee had this nasty habit of killing anyone who got in his way, mostly people he perceived to be leftists. Believe me, this is NOT the last you'll hear of Korean mass graving. Compared to Syngman Rhee, the Saudi regime is positively benevolent.

[Baby Snooks]

22. We did the same in Vietnam and are doing the same in Iraq

We really are a shameful nation. We have become pariahs in the world.

[bluesmail]

23. The declassified pictures/information released 58 years later

All the responsible parties are they themselves deceased. War Is A Racket, (these declassifications are becoming more frequent (probably) to soften us up for the horrific pictures/information regarding what the hell has happened in Iraq/Afghanistan.

[pnorman]

25. Here's a good and comprehensive source for Korean affairs:

http://kimsoft.com/korea.htm

I don't have the time or patience at this moment to check it out again, but I seem to recall that massacre having being covered there.

pnorman
On edit: Google helped find what i was looking for. Here it is: http://www.kimsoft.com/1997/nogun2.htm

[ben_meyers]

26. Stories like this are

exactly why you can't trust any political party to do the right thing. The US forces and diplomats were from the great FDR and Truman's administration. Not one party is pure and righteous, they must be held accountable, every last one of them!