Opinion - The Korea Times

Remembering a lost war

By Donald KirkSAIGON ― Memories of a brutal past mingle with images of new beginnings in a region of thick mangrove swamps interlaced with canals from which Viet Cong guerillas more than 40 years ago fired rockets into the heart of the capital of “South" Vietnam.Returning for the 40th anniversary of the fall of the old Saigon regime on April 30, 1975,  instead of running into Viet Cong guerrillas, I find 50,000-ton freighters loading and unloading cargo containers  by a dock that's 80 percent owned by a Middle Eastern company. The new port facilities are on a branch of the Saigon River lined with thick jungle that was largely impenetrable to American troops before they withdrew after the signing of the “Paris Peace" in January 1973. Upstream, you can see a cluster of oil tanks that the Viet Cong occasionally managed to blow up, sending shockwaves of noise and fear.I remember black plumes of smoke rising from the oil tanks one morning in July 1968 hours after hearing rockets whistling overhead, exploding as they landed. The dense swampland south of the city forme

Apr 30, 2015By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Vietnam in the American psyche

By Donald KirkAnniversaries have their special appeal. The first anniversary of the sinking of the Sewol on April 16 evoked emotions of outrage and sadness. Anniversaries of war and peace, victories and defeats, are also deeply enshrined in the psyche of nations and individuals. We think of those whom we knew who died, of false hopes and severe disappointments enveloped in tragedies that you had to have been there to feel in their enormity.It's with feelings such as those that I'm going to Saigon for a week of observances marking the 40th anniversary of what the victors call Giai Phong, meaning liberation. That's a word that I find hard to accept, however, after having spent a number of years on the losing side ― that is, covering the war from the American and South Vietnamese perspective.All I can remember is the futility of a cruel war waged in distant jungle fire bases, in cities and towns, in the delta of the Mekong river, those memories mingle with the utter sadness of millions of South Vietnamese caught in the crossfire and then disbelieving when the Americans suddenly left the

Apr 23, 2015By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Asia's evolving 'Great Game'

By Donald Kirk  The Great Game for Asia is assuming new dimensions. Korea counts on the U.S. for some of its most advanced weaponry, but Korea also is a source for weapons technology and components. That’s why India’s defense minister, Manohar Parrikar is in Seoul this week shopping for whatever Korea can offer to buttress India’s defenses against foes to the north and the west.It’s difficult to say which foe bothers India the most. Chinese troops crossed India’s frontiers in 1962, nipping bits of territory that they’ve never relinquished. Pakistan has waged three useless wars to try and recover the Indian portion of Kashmir, a Himalayan wonderland divided by a line of control since the end of British rule in 1947. China, showing its new strength all around its periphery, provides Pakistan more arms than does the U.S. while also building a new port with military implications plus a road running through ice-covered mountains providing access by land from China to the Indian Ocean.How can India deal with the danger of such daunting external thre

Apr 16, 2015By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Models on display

By Donald KirkBeautiful women don't have a lot to do with the graceful curves of a new motor vehicle, but you might not know that from visiting the Seoul Motor Show. By tradition, most manufacturers have assumed they can show off their cars far more effectively by draping them with skimpily dressed female models than by letting them stand alone on their merits.The role of models at the Seoul Motor Show, though, may be outdated. Motor shows in New York, Detroit and elsewhere have abandoned them. Apparently car people realized the models were irrelevant when it came to judging the durability and power of an engine.Then too feminists, who also buy and drive cars, didn't like to see manufacturers exploiting gullible buyers by suggesting, if you buy this car, you might catch the pretty woman as well. Or maybe, as you drove around in your shiny new model, you'd have women flattering your ego, confident you were successful and, above all, rich. The car, by this logic, was the ultimate sex symbol.Korea may be behind other countries in dispensing with the models at such events, but they're di

Apr 9, 2015By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Backlash against 'Whiplash'

By Donald KirkA crew member on the flight from London to Washington was quite emphatic when I asked his advice about what movie to choose. He said he'd seen a lot of people watching “Whiplash.” Often, I don't watch much of anything on planes. I'm either too tired or too easily bored by much of the junk on the screen. I resolved to sit through “Whiplash,” though, if I could manage to stay awake. I must say I found the movie simultaneously compelling and repulsive.Compelling, yes, because the acting performance of the conductor teacher Fletcher, played by J.K. Simmons, was a masterpiece of bullying interrupted by moments of softness and understanding. Repulsive, also yes, because one of the bullied young musicians at the Shaffer Conservatory of Music committed suicide and the protagonist in the film, first-year drummer Andrew Neiman, played by Miles Teller, got in a serious car accident racing to a performance and attacked the teacher. Oh, before all that, Fletcher had thrown a chair at him, had him banging away on the drums until his fingers bled, insulted

Apr 2, 2015By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Comparing two tough leaders

By Donald KirkWhen it comes to judging the performance of deceased national leaders under the icy glare of historical research, strongmen go down in collective memory as tough guys who defeated their enemies and built up their countries. Weak leaders are often regarded as mediocrities, especially if they were overthrown.Of course, strongmen also come in for criticism after they've disgraced themselves and their countries in humiliating defeat, as in the case of Adolf Hitler and Mussolini. While Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union and Mao Zedong of China managed to survive, they are remembered with extremely mixed feelings ― tens of millions died under their harsh rule.All of which leads to a few thoughts ― and memories ― of the late Lee Kuan Yew.  He's credited with having been the "founder" of modern Singapore and having turned the city state into a cleanly governed beehive of commercial success. He's also credited with having ruthlessly suppressed the least criticism, with having jailed political foes and outlawed political groupings that might challenge his long-ruling People's

Mar 26, 2015By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Preserving the peace

By Donald KirkSome of the terrible problems we read, hear and talk about so often are beyond solution. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated this week that as long as he was in office there would not be a Palestinian state. The two-state idea, he said, was not going to happen. Funny that he didn't say when he was in Washington denouncing as "a bad deal" whatever the U.S. is trying to negotiate with Iran about its nuclear program.Maybe Netanyahu was trying to be polite. Having gone around the White House and accepted an invitation to speak from one of President Barack Obama's worst political enemies, House Speaker John Boehner, Netanyahu figured he would save for later his dumping all over the two-state solution that the U.S. has been advocating for years.As in his warning about a nuclear deal with Iran, however, Netanyahu has a valid point about the two-state idea. How can you have a real Palestinian state when all they've got are some odds and ends of land on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip while Israel is building new settlements all the time in the face of massive pre

Mar 19, 2015By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Comparing brutal attacks

By Donald Kirk Incredibly, crackpots on the left, quick to echo any line from North Korea, compare the attack on U.S. ambassador Mark Lippert to the assassination of Hirobumi Ito, Japanese resident-general of Korea in the early days of the Japanese colonial era. I’ve received messages to that effect from some nut in the U.S. who regurgitates whatever he reads or hears from Pyongyang, and I’ve heard others expressing much the same view.As all Koreans know, Ahn Jung-geun shot Ito on a railway platform in Harbin in 1909. The Japanese are offended by the hero status accorded the killer of a man they remember as Japan’s first prime minister, but his legacy as a symbol of Korean outrage endures in memorials on Namsan in central Seoul and also in the Harbin station.As I told the idiot who likened the slashing of Lippert to the assassination of Ito, I doubted if most Koreans would agree with the comparison.  An outpouring of sympathy for Ambassador Lippert has drowned out foolish rhetoric from Pyongyang in praise of his ``deserved punishment” while he a

Mar 12, 2015By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Dealing with Iran

By Donald Kirk WASHINGTON ― Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s exhortations to the U.S. Congress to forget about a nuclear agreement with Iran failing to come to terms with one problem. Absent a deal, who believes Iran will scale down its nuclear program? Is Iran likely to give up on the whole idea just because the U.S. heeds the warnings of the leader of a country that Iran periodically vows to annihilate? Then again, if the U.S. comes through with a deal that Iran will view as merely a stopgap arrangement for biding time, what good will that accomplish? No one should ignore Netanyahu’s warning even if he made it to a politically biased audience that’s ready to criticize Obama for just about anything.There may, however, be another way at looking at the standoff. Netanyahu’s view of ``Persia,” Iran’s historical name, as a natural enemy of Israel and the Jewish people does not mean the hostility has to go on forever ― or that Iran is about to live up to its threats. Like North Korean rhetoric, the polemics from Iran need not inspire terror

Mar 5, 2015By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Waiting for Netanyahu

By Donald Kirk President Obama faces a foreign policy predicament of gigantic proportions. The leader of Israel is coming to Washington, doing an end run around the White House, taking his case to a Republican-controlled Congress that’s eager for just about any excuse to pillory the President.With this play for influence Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is arousing intense feelings from a number of viewpoints. The White House views the invitation from John Boehner, speaker of the House of Representatives, as an act of betrayal, a snub of the president, a politically motivated break with tradition. Netanyahu’s political foes in Israel say he jeopardizes Israel’s longstanding bond with the U.S. while trying to drag the U.S. into a war that nobody wants.But what’s actually going on here? Netanyahu’s basic shtick is that the U.S., negotiating with Iran on its nuclear program, is falling for a transparent attempt by Iran to get out of onerous sanctions while conceding nothing. Netanyahu is convinced Iran will go right on developing nuclear warhe

Feb 26, 2015By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Read more

Remembering a lost war

Vietnam in the American psyche

Asia's evolving 'Great Game'

Models on display

Backlash against 'Whiplash'

Comparing two tough leaders

Preserving the peace

Comparing brutal attacks

Dealing with Iran

Waiting for Netanyahu

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