A Stalinist View of History Enters the Mainstream of Public Debate

Here’s a very balanced, well-written response to some of Stalinist revisionism on the Korean War. Even this dignifies what would best be described as “a hallucination,” but the real blame for that is with those who decided to set a few prosecutors (and a hoarde of reporters) upon Kang Jeong-Koo.

Men like Kang and Jang Shi-Ki fear a rational debate based on objective truths more than they fear any prison cell. Indeed, to men like these, a prison cell may be the only escape from the things they fear the most–anonymity and ignominy. Park Geun-Hye’s fulminations must have them secretly shouting, “Free at Last!”

Update 9/21: Something good is finally coming of this:

Yesterday, [Park Geun-Hye] repeated her questions, asking whether the president agrees that “the U.S. General Douglas MacArthur was an enemy of the state” and “that unification does not have to come in a capitalist fashion.” The feisty Ms. Park continued, “Are these questions [the Blue House] cannot answer? Or is [the Blue House] refusing to answer?” The Blue House spokesman, Kim Man-soo, rallied at her blows, saying, “We’ve already given answers. Go back and review them carefully.”

I think that’s a fair enough question, although Mrs. Park thinks that Roh can only show his patriotism by arresting unpatriotic people. But Park, with her keen instict for political exploitation, is right to say that Roh has tried to avoid taking a clear position on Kang’s ideas, which are now dead-center of the public debate. Roh wants to keep his hard-left base happy while holding onto his six or seven remaining “swing” voters. Hey, I have no use for arresting people for their non-violent speech, but I’m all for making Roh actually join the public debate on the ideas themselves, now that Uri ambivalance, GNP authoritarianism, and everyone’s ineptitude have “mainstreamed” those ideas.