America divided Korea – then came war

english.hani.co.kr

4 points·negativelambda··3 comments

Dividing Asian countries is standard US foreign policy MO.

There's a reason why there is a North vs South Korea, same reason why there was a North and South Vietnam, why there is still currently two Chinas, the Republic of China on Taiwan and the People's Republic on the Mainland - US antagonism to national liberation movements dominated by the Communists. Millions of people have died due to this policy; perhaps millions more to come

There's only one japan, but apparently there were two, opposed, policies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_Course

(I had been thinking of the "short 20th century" as being 1914-1991, but I guess korea is an example of frozen conflict which has outlasted it)

Indeed so, partition was only a fall back option if compliant government couldn't be installed, ala Marcos in the Philippines, Suharto in Indonesia etc.

US actually also wanted a United China, but didn't find it within themselves to indefinitely support Chiang Kai-shek (probably rightly from the US POV, Chiang was a China nationalist through and through and would not have been compliant to anyone) against the Reds, probably because it would have required using nuclear weapons on the mainland. Came close though, killing millions wasn't a problem, then or now

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