tees a tat

Muskie confronts
the real world

One of the first realities Ed-
mund Muskie, Carter’s new
Secretary of State has dis-
covered is that he, and the
country he-represents, do not
Tun the world.

Even more, Muskie found
out that the USA cannot any
longer tell its allies what to do.

_Gone are the days when one
word from the White House
sent governments scurrying to
comply — except perhaps this
government in Ottawa.

The latest lesson was pro-
vided by French President
Giscard d’Estaing who had the
temerity to hold discussions
with Soviet premier. Brezhnev
without asking Muskie. At
their meeting in Warsaw, Gis-
card and Brezhnev exchanged
views about the dangerous
situation in Europe (both states
inhabit that continent).

They talked about the alarm-
ing weapons build-up by
NATO in Western Europe and
agreed to keep lines open. The
talks were described as
‘‘frank”’ and both leaders em-
phasized there is no alternative
to political dialogue.

The Soviet press welcomed
the talks and, while remarking
the two states would not al-
ways view issues the same
way, stressed this was no obs-
tacle to cooperation and high-
level consultation.

Muskie (who represents a
country that does not inhabit
Europe) was outraged and pub-
licly chastized Giscard d’Esta-
ing. This prompted a classic
reply from French Foreign
Minister Francois-Poncet:
“The President of the French
Republic. does not need the

rmission of the President of
the United States to go out-

- of-doors.’
ee Pierre Elliot Trudeau lis-

tening?

President for life

in the best traditions
Not too many years ago
' Egypt’s Anwar Sadat was a
sergeant in the army. — He
climbed, as many ambitious
_people.do, and, following the
untimely death of president
Nassar, was named president.
Sadat, not without suhcaly,
to keep Egypt within
ne aan of Arab unity. In
the mid-1970’s it became more
and more clear Sadat ~
ing his country’s policy
en one of friendship with
the socialist and Arab world to
a policy of fronting for U.S.

interests in the region.
The real break came in 1977
with his self-proclaimed

~

— INTERNATIONAL FOCUS

‘“‘peace moves’’. Sadat jour-
neyed to Israel, the love affair
was on. He and Begin started a
veritable shuttle between their
capitals and Washington and
the whole operation was
crowned in the Camp David
media circus.

The-charade has come apart.
Peace in the Middle East is
further away than ever, in part
due to Sadat’s treachery. Last
week, in the best traditions of
the Duvaliers of Haiti and the
Amins of Uganda, the Egyp-
tian parliament passed a law

’ giving Sadat the presidency for

life.
The little sergeant has come
into his own.

Millionaires decide
fate of millions

If you’ve: ever wondered
who in the U.S. Senate is mak-
ing the decisions affecting all
our lives, a survey of that
100-member body is revealing.

The Senate, highest body in
the United States, is presently
stalling on SALT-II rati-
fication, for example. They
pushed the button after the
phoney Bay of Tonkin episode
which started the 10-year war
against Vietnam. Nothing of
major significance happens (or
doesn’t happen) in U.S. poli-
tics without the Senate’s say.

The survey reports at least
25 and possibly as many as 42
senators are millionaires. The
two richest were H.J. Heinz
(R-Pa), whose ketchup doesn’t
run, with personal wealth of
$23-million and John Danforth
(R-Mo) with almost $6-million.

There seems, however, to
be some uneasiness in that au-
gust body. Last year compul-
sory survey forms on personal
wealth required the senators to
list incomes in groups all the
way to $5-million and above.
This year’s forms only go as far
as $250,000 and above. Surely
just about every senator will
now effectively have his/her
income hidden.

Other statistics show that’
the U.S. Senate has only one
woman senator and not a single
Black.

Something to think about as
the U.S. lurches through the
1980s.

Ms

OO ulate hy

‘“Nothing personal, but you are, unfortunately, the wrong
: huddled masses yearning to breathe free!”

TRIBUNE PHOTO — TOM MORRIS

Members of the Toronto Korean community marched May 27 in front of the U.S. and South Korean consulates

in support of their compatriots at home battling the U.S.-backed military regime. They marched on the very day
the South Korean army smashed its way into the city of Kwangju killing hundreds and arresting thousands. In
a leaflet handed to passers-by, the Koreans charged the U.S. army gave permission for 10,000 troops of the
U.S.-Korea Joint Command to attack the city of one million. it further said that these troops included “elite
airborne troopers”.

Korea: fighting for
unity, human rights

‘By TOM MORRIS |

Dramatic events taking place in
South Korea with mass popular
uprisings challenging military
tule, have again brought that
country into the spotlight.

For...weeks,.. hundreds... of
thousands of people have been
battling police, and army units
demanding the most elementary
basic rights. The city of Kwangju,
130 miles south of the capital,
Seoul, was in insurgent hands for
one week.

Whatever the immediate out-
come of this popular struggle, it
highlights the long-standing divi-
sion of Korea, the fact that the
south is a country without basic
human rights, that it is one of im-
perialism’s anchors in Asia.

* * &

Thirty years ago, on June 25,

1950, the Korean war began as -

units of the Republic of Korea
(ROK) army launched an attack
along the entire border of the
Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea to the north.

The attack, the first major mili-
tary confrontation between im-
perialism and socialism following
World War II, tumed into a
bloody conflict involving Ameri-
can, Canadian, Australian, In-
dian, Chinese and British troops.

The war lasted three years and
wreaked terrible damaged on the
land before hostilities finally
ended with the signing of an ar-
mistice at Panmunjom in 1953.
Since then, with the continued
stationing of 39,000 U.S. troops
and constant provocations by the
south, it has been an uneasy
truce. =

The Korean war was a study in
imperialist politics. The peninsu-
la’s geographical division follow-
ing the defeat of Japan in the
Pacific, reflected the fact that
socialism was being constructed
in the north, and a ‘‘friendly’’ re-
gime existed in the south.. The
United States built the ROK army
into what journals of the times de-
scribed as the best fighting force
in Asia. ;

Consistent with its policy of the

day, the U.S. tried to nail down its
power in the area. A puppet re-
gime was set up with the bellige-
rent dictator Syngman Rhee as
president. The Korean people,
after years of Japanese occupa-
tion, were forced to. continue their
struggle for independence and, on
May 20, 1950, defeated the Rhee
regime in a general election.

It’s important to recall that, one
year earlier, People’s China was
born and the balance of power in
Asia shifted dramatically. There
was near panic in many Western

circles and calls for the powerful .

U.S. army to act. John Foster
Dulles was U.S. Secretary of
State, a vocal hawk. General
Douglas MacArthur, an un-
abashed advocate of U.S. power
in the Pacific was Commander-
in-Chief of U.S. Pacific forces.
Harry Truman, architect of the
atom bombing of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki was president. The Un-
ited States held virtual control of
the United Nations, especially the
Security Council.

It was quite another world.

Following the Rhee electoral
defeat, plans were hastilly put in
place to carry out what had beena
longer-range aim of U.S. policy
— military defeat of the socialist
government in the north. In addi-
tion to gaining complete sway in
all of Korea, the strategy had a
wider, more deadly aim: that of

rectly on the Chinese border.

On June 20, 1950, Dulles travel-
led to Korea and, along with U.S.
and ROK generals actually
participated in the military plan-
ning for a strike northward.

On June 25, 1950. the invasion
began. It was immediately turned
into its opposite by the western

~media. U.S. troops entered the

war on June. 27, and the UN
Security Council, heavily weigh-
ted in U.S. favor, backed the
American move.

The victim was called the ag-
gressor. Canada and other U.S.
allies sent troops and the fighting
raged northward to the Chinese
border. The entry of Chinese
units signalled the beginning of
the end of the war and opening of
protracted negotiations which
finally resulted in today’s demar-
cation. The Rhee regime survived
until it was replaced in 1961 by
Park Chung Hee. This dictator
lasted 18 years until he was assas-
sinated last year by the head of his
own secret police.

But as one dictator replaced
another throughout the 30-year
span since the Korean war began,
life for the people of South Korea
changed little. Countless
demonstrations, revolts and acts
against military rule are a re-
minder of the Korean. people’s
determination to reunify their~
country. Their long struggle for

establishing a military threat di- independence is still in progress.
Ti
Petition for Korean unification

The Canadian-Korean Friendship and Cultural Association is circu-
lating a petition to U.S. president Carter calling on his government to
-standing

renew its long:
Korea and permit the peaceful,
The

commitment to withdraw U.S. troops from South

reunification of Korea.

independent
points out that nearly 40,000 American troops have been

stationed in South Korea for the past 30 years in violation of the Korean
Armistice Agreements of 1953 and of the UN which approved the Agree-

ments.

Thirty years of massive military backing by Washington, the petition
says, has resulted in South Korea becoming the most powerful U.S.
nuclear base in Southeast Asia and a vast pool of cheap labor for runaway
U.S. companies. It urges that the Korean people be allowed to settle their
internal problems free from outside interference and military pressure.

WUMEDEGEOUECEUEQUREOEOEOEAOEOUOUOUOGEROOUEOUOOOUENEAUGGEOUONUAUEUEREOUGERSOQEOGEQUEQEAUOUEOLAUEDEOUCUOOLEGOGEOUEQOOLUICOUN
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 6, 1980—Page 9