(Anyone
familiar with 20th century world history can
easily understand this situation ----- it was
repeated over and over in post-colonial nations
------- and nations like the US and those in
Western Europe also had their own strong
convulsions as believers in communism vs
democratic capitalism struggled for power).
In South Korean society itself, US policy
makers believed it was inevitable the government of Syngman Rhee
would fall to communist subversion because of the amount of violence and chaos
keeping the society in turmoil. One of the reasons Kim Il Sung invaded was
the confidence he had that
enough South Koreans would gladly join
him in
getting rid of the pro-US Syngman Rhee government and the war would be over very quickly.
Thus, in this period
(1945 to 1950)
there was plenty of anti-US thought in South Korean society.
The invasion by North Korea in 1950 however crushed
a lot of the pro-Pyongyang thought that some average Koreans
might have felt before. The death and destruction caused by
the communist invasion made many Koreans firmly
anti-Communist - and the US help in pushing the
North Koreans out of the South made them
pro-American.
Post-1953, however, as the South Korean government
remained very heavy handed, more and more middle-of-the-road (motr) Koreans
began to become anti-SK government - and - anti-US
because the America was considered the reason the authoritarian
government was able to keep power.
---a brief step back---
In the 1945-1950 period, it
was highly
likely, you did have
some middle of the road people who were
not far right or left wing, and if they had been in a normal environment,
they could have formed a fair
democracy that ruled for all the people. But, in the 1945-1950 period coming out of colonial domination the society
was too fragmented and
the extremist groups too bloody
active and willing to use extreme
violence to win that people were pulled to the extremes.
After 1950, the anti-communist held the upper hand.
They controlled the state propaganda machine, which was very heavily anti-NK and very
anti-communist pinko sympathizers in South. The authoritarian South Korean government painted
everyone who challenged
their own harsh rule blood thirsty
commies who wanted Kim Il Sung to rule all of
Korea. And as already mentioned, the war convinced
most Koreans the
propaganda had a lot of truth in it.
However, from 1960 to the early 1990s, the fact South Korea's government
remained heavy handed made it easier for the minority elements that were still pro-communist and
pro-Pyongyang to recruit followers
from among the motr South Koreans. This was not a linear process. It ebbed and flowed
depending on how strong armed the South Korean government
was at the time.
And the North kept doing enough
evil things, like blowing up South Korean passenger
planes, blowing up the South Korean government while
it was in a summit in a South East Asian nation, and
frequent bloody DMZ incursions and much more, to
convince many South Koreans that while the South Korean
government might not be democratic and should change -
the North were still worse
bastards and their
covert supporters in South Korean society even
bigger bastards. And because they feared the North, they were grateful for the US security blanket
even if they thought the US in Korea
had major problems - just like the South's authoritarian
government.
In short, from 1945 until the early
1990s opposition to the South
Korean government was the same as
opposition to the US being in Korea. At different times during this period this opposition
grew stronger and weaker. But, the
fear of the North
- just as it does today - overrode both
strong, active opposition to the government in Seoul and the
US in Korea.
This complex dynamic in South Korean society began to change
in the 1980s to mid-1990s.
South Korean society grew stronger while
the North
grew weaker. The threat from
the North seemed less troublesome though something still
feared. South Korea's government also became
less authoritarian in the 1980s than it had been
under Park in the early 1970s and under Rhee in the 1950s. As the opposition to the South's
authoritarian government gained some reforms in it
anti-Americanism began to diverge somewhat from
anti-government thought.
That is why, I believe, it only seems like there was no significant
anti-Americanism in Korea pre-1980/Kwangju Massacre. The worst period for real anti-Americanism - read
again - real anti-Americanism
in Korean society was the late 1980s.
(Well ---- 1945 to 1950 was
arguably the worst, but everything was in such
flux and chaos, I don't count it)
With the 20 year rule of Park Chung Hee at an end
in 1980, both the pro-Pyongyang and pro-real democracy
groups active in opposing the return of a Park Chung
Hee-style dictatorship felt emboldened enough to
fight
harder for changes. And as those changes
occurred --- they pushed harder. And I think it is safe to say
both groups viewed the US in Korea as
the key
stumbling block to gaining the reforms they wanted.
repeat -
both the tried and true
pro-communists in South Korea - and the real advocates for
democratic reform - tended to view the US as a road block
to their effort. But, as real democracy took shape in the
late 1980s to mid-1990s, opposition to the government
dropped like a meteor and anti-Americanism became
more of a fad
than a religion.
However, this did
NOT mean
anti-Americanism became nothing to worry
about.
In fact the vast majority of the experts on Korea agree with me on this anti-Americanism in the 1990s
and especially in the 2000s became a
serious problem. Why is a complex and fascinating question, and it begins
to touch again on the article I began the post with.
As
democracy grew in South Korea North
Korea also collapsed as a nation so at least two things happened. Fear
of another North Korean invasion
plummeted. And fear
of a pro-communist
revolution toppling the South Korean
government also plummeted.
Starting in the
1990s and continuing today, nobody but a minority of
far-right conservative groups in South Korean society really
believed communist forces inside South Korea could win. The
Pyongyang-true-believers
that are left are clearly in
the tiny minority - just as the far-right conservatives
are today in the minority.
In short, South Korea is a
middle of the road society.
The divide in social + political thinking might be more in
SK society than in the US, but it probably
isn't worse than in Europe. South Korean society is
firmly ---- democratic
and capitalist.
BUT - the irony is
that this has given more freedom to
entertaining
the pro-communists/socialists/Pyongyang thought.
(the key phrase is "entertaining" it which
means not really letting it sink into the heart)
Since democracy
became firmly planted in South Korea and the North
collapsed, many in South Korean society have decided to look back at their own past and
criticize the authoritarian
South Korean dictators
-- AND -- believe the opposite of
the propaganda those South Korean dictators preached.
Even
if they don't really believe it is safe to entertain the idea maybe
all of the guys the South's bad leaders said were bad
were actually good. What harm could it do to
think that? Even if some were
wrongheaded pro-communists who would have been happy
to help Kim Il Sung rule both the North and South, which we know today would
have been HELL
for South Korean society
there is virtually no harm
whatsoever in
pretending that they
were really all
advocates of true democracy or perhaps a
benevolent form of European-style socialism
This trend or fad in Korean society is strongest with the intellectual and artistic groups
(much like similar thought
is in American and European society).
But these
groups are also the ones who have a hell
of a lot of influence on pop culture: movies, tv, literature,
education, and so on....
It will take a few more generations, and more and more
years of true democracy under their belts, before South
Korean society can go back into their troubled past and make sense of it. Look at it this way - a good number of the
people who were key players in the authoritarian governments
of the 1970s and 1980s are still alive and still have
influence and so too are some
of the "reformers" who were really
"revolutionaries" --- of the Che Guevara variety.
But the overall trend in the society
is to boomerang away from the too-strong
right-wing propaganda of the past.
I
believe eventually newer generations will
boomerang away from the too-big-of-a-swing in opinion that
we are seeing today that avoids looking at what real
pro-Pyongyang subversives were active in South Korean
society. There are already signs of this. The very much pro-Pyongyang - very very very very very
much anti-US - university student union is
having a hard time recruiting on campus. The pro-Pyongyang, pro-communist,
idiot
hold outs that were always the leaders of these
groups in the past have started to be replaced in student body votes
by more middle-of-the-road or conservative student leaders
who promise to focus on things contemporary kids care
about like lower tuition, better dorms, better food,
more activities, more help getting a job after graduation and so on.
Even better for the US in Korea if it ends up
staying (which I pray it does not) the boomerang toward making all anti-dictatorship
South Koreans of the past into white-hat wearing good guys
and balking at
entertaining the idea some of these
guys were communist who
would have ruined South Korean society -- the fact this attitude of wanting to
believe in a black and white version of Korean history that
just flip flops who was good and who was bad has become more and more the norm in Korean society
-- has caused some
Koreans to decide they need to fight that trend.
The TV shows and Movies
and Korea Teachers Union lesson plans that have a good number of pro-freedom fighter/anti-US
moments in them have caused some Koreans to decide to
form pro-US groups. Or, have caused some Koreans to decide they have to
engage actively in the
debate about what the true
interpretation of South Korean history is all about.
The bad thing for the US in Korea is, and why I still want all our
troops out, this dialog in South Korean society is going to
take a couple of decades
to work itself out ---- at least.
And during that time
anti-US thought is still going to
be very popular and North Korea is still going to
be ready to collapse at any moment and a North Korean collapse could come in
the form of a very
short -------- but very deadly --- explosion
outward.
As an American, I'd rather see us use up valuable
resources elsewhere and avoid the
costs in American lives and more getting involved in a
second Korean War would bring.
(The fact South
Korean society is so much stronger than the North - that the
South can afford to arm and defend itself without the US,
makes it even harder to understand why - in our post-Cold
War, post-9/11 world, American society maintains its massive
committment to defend the South from a North Korea at least
for now many in South Korean society want to pretend isn't a
real threat and views the US as a much bigger problem for
South Korea than Kim Jong Il.)
When they gained their freedom from the Japanese Empire
- there was no clear leadership
in the society and it was split
in many violent directions.
Things tended to push toward the
extreme - the nation was divided between
a far left-wing communist North
Korea and a far right-wing
authoritarian South Korea.