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American criticism of his country's
condition of ma rtiallaw. Americans
don ' t realize, he stressed, how much
política! and civil chaos prevailed
before martial law was instituted as
a last resort in 1972. Now there is
stabili ty. The economy is steadily
improving. In viJiage elections
people are now being taught for the
first time the value of a vote- that it
is not to be sold for ten pesos to the
highest bidder. When national elec–
tions are held once more, democ–
racy, hopefully, will be appreciated
toa much greater degree.
Almost universally, those we
talked to stressed that the United
States, imbued with its human
rights zeal, shou ld not judge another
country- especially a friendly one–
by certain presently unattainable
goals. Instead the standard should
be: ls the country in the free world
and is it moving (and does it want to
move) as safely as possible in tbe
di rection of greater individual liber–
ties?
Few disagreed with the concept of
human rights in principie. But the
application ofitas a policy has to be
made, in each case, with fuU under–
standing and wisdom.
Korea Pullout
The human rights issue, however,
can change.
It
appears to be some–
what flexible. But two other deci–
sions in Washington are causing far
greater concern. The first is the an–
nounced phased withdrawal of U.S.
ground forces from South Korea
over a five-year period. The second
is the obvious intention of the
United States to recognize the
People's Republic of China , which
can only be accomplished by simul–
taneously dropping ties with the Re–
public of China on Taiwan.
With regard to the troop puUout
issue, South Koreans we talked to
a re unanimous in believing that the
chances of war wiU be greatly en–
hanced once the U.S. forces are
gone. The North Korean dictator,
Kim 11-sung, has caUed for the with–
drawal of American forces ever
since the armistice ending the Ko–
rean War was signed in J une 1953.
"Why are you doing what he has
demanded all a long?" was a fre–
quently asked question.
With regard to the Taiwan situ-
6
ation, diplomatic recognition of Pe–
king by the United States can only
be achieved on Peking's terms: Tai–
wan must be "derecognized" and
the defense treaty between Taipei
and Washington scrapped.
"How can America do this?" we
were asked by officiaJs in Taipei.
The Taiwanese, for their part, have
faithfully lived up to every jot and
tittle of the treaty. What grounds
can the U.S. give for terminating its
solemn commitment? What effect
would a break have on similar de–
fense ties between Washington and
Japan or between the U.S. and Aus–
tralia and New Zealand (the
ANZUS Pact)? What would be the
effect on the NATO alliance?
These are huge issues-too big to
deal with in this brief overview ar–
ticle. The Korea issue and the Tai–
wan dilemma will be explored in
greater detail in subsequent issues
of
The Plain Truth.
Suffice it to say here that every–
where we went in Asia, government
and business leaders are appealing
to the United Sta tes to not rock the
boat, to not change a winning game,
to not slacken on its commitments
to the nations of free Asia. On the
issue of human rights, these same
officials plead to be given the time
to deal with what they perceive to
be their own higher-priority human
rights problems: that of first guaran–
teeing freedom from want and fear
by continuing to build up their
economies while mainta ining politi–
cally stable societies. Once these
goals a re accomplished, then per–
haps they candeal with loftier "Jef–
fersonia n" principies.
But one wonders
if
America is lis–
tening to their appeals. One won–
ders , too , if the leadership in
Washington took note of a very sig–
nifican! full-page advertisement in
the July 17, 1977 edition of the
New
York
Times.
Tt
was in the form of an
open letter to President Carter by a
committee of concerned Japiwese
citizens. The signatories included
many professors of top Japanese
universities, política! affa irs com–
mentators, even retired generals of
Japan's Self Defense Force. Their
appea l read: "We the undersigned
wish to urge you to exercise extreme
caution in undertaking any policy
changes in East Asia as you formu-
late the new foreign policy of the
United States. We strongly believe
that any precipitate withdrawal of
American troops from the Korean
península or change in America's
relationship with the Republic of
Ch ina would have a dangerous de–
stabilizing effect on security relation–
ships in East Asia.
"For more than
20
years East
Asia has enjoyed. unprecedented
peace and prosperity. But it would
be a grave mistake to take this situ–
ation for granted . A continuation of
the current U.S. role in the Republic
of Korea and in the Republic of
China is absolutely vital to the secu–
rity of Japan and to that of East
Asia in general.
"We also believe tha t criticism in
the U.S. of the current governments
of the Republic of China and the
Republic of Korea is largely incor–
rect and unfortunate. America
should take pride in its role in he lp–
ing these two countries to achieve
that success which they have. They
are important countries. With a
combined population of about 50
million people, they are about ha lf
the size of Japan, and they are two
of the most impressive success sto–
ríes in the developing world, having
maintained incredibly high growth
rates of about 10 percent a year for
more than a decade, while at the
same time achieving an exception–
a lly even distribution of income.
What such a rapid growth rate
means is a dramatic improvement in
the standard of living of the people
of these countries to an extent that
would not have been considered
possible a few decades ago .. ..
"More than any other part of the
world, East Asia, through the spec–
tacular success stories of Japan, the
Republic of Korea and the Republic
of China. demonstrates how peace
and prosperity can be achieved in a
free world under American lead–
ership. To endanger this situation
by a major change in the status quo
would surely be a tragic mistake."
lf Washington turns a deaf ear to
picas such as these, then all of Asia
could be heading into a time of un–
pa ralleled ins tabiJity- eventually
culminating in war, destruction and
suffering. An'd the impact upon
America itsel f will be calami–
tous.
o
The PLAIN TRUTH October-November 1977