U.S. OUT OF KOREA

To the Editors of The Crimson:

The recent compromise agreement between the White House and Congress on the bombing of Cambodia amounts to spreading death and destruction upon innocent people for six more weeks.

Must this small nation in Asia be subjected to the brute force of the United States? Can the United States win the hearts and minds of the Asian peoples by bombing?

Most Asians are poor and downtrodden, but they have a sense of justice that distinguishes right from wrong. There is no great power waging wars in Asia today except the U.S. Consequently, Asians construe that America is a militaristic nation out to dominate Asia by reviving the hated colonialist gun-boat policy.

I should like to introduce the case of my mother country, Korea, as an example. Twenty years after the armistice, that unhappy Land of Morning Calm remains divided. U.S. armed forces are still stationed south of the 38th parallel to protect an absolute police-state regime. As long as this situation prevails Korean society will be demoralized and the suffering, restless people will be pushed deeper into repression and despair. But their endurance is not unlimited. In order to stay in power, the unpopular Park Chung Hee regime is desperately trying to tie the U.S. down in Korea.

It is about time for the U.S. in a sense of honor and democracy to withdraw all its armed forces, including military advisers, from south Korea, leaving the Koreans alone to put their house in order. This overdue justice will enable the Korean people to reunite their divided country and families in peace and freedom according to the American principle of self-determination. Not arms and money, but only such democratic action will fulfill U.S. commitments to the Korean nation. Only then will American credibility be restored in Asia. Yongjeung Kim