Victor Davis Hanson is a historian of ancient times, so he
could be forgiven for making a mistake or two when discussing the history of
modern times. But when he writes an entire article based on a false representation
of contemporary history, somebody ought to tell him he went too far.
Hanson wrote: “What if South
Korea acted like North
Korea ?” an article that also came under the subtitle: “If
China were threatened like America has
been, war would have come already.” The article was published on September 13,
2017 in The Washington Times.
Apparently oblivious of the events that unfolded in North East Asia since the end of World War Two, Victor
Hanson made assumptions and painted pictures that are absolutely false. He then
constructed a theory based on those falsehoods, and put the onus on China to fix a
dangerous situation he does not see as being the product––at least in part––of
an American foreign policy that proved to be totally bankrupt.
To prevent us from getting confused as to America 's motives, let us recall two trends
proper to America
which are separate from the current North Korean issue. First, succumbing to
demagogic whispers from Winston Churchill, America feared the spread of
Communism around the globe, and launched a program to contain the Communist
world by encircling it with military bases. Second, succumbing to fantastic
stories told by immigrants from Cuba ,
America
gave the green light to invade that country. When this prompted the Soviet
Union to protect Cuba by fielding nuclear missiles into it, America did not
like being contained, and risked a nuclear holocaust (dubbed the Cuban missile
crisis) to force the removal of the Soviet encirclement. Incidents such as
these set the standard for other nations to emulate when they can.
We now look at the situation in Asia
where two largely similar and almost simultaneous trends developed. Korea
was divided into a Communist North and a non-Communist South. Also, Vietnam was
divided into a Communist North and a non-Communist South. The French fought in Vietnam to
prevent the North from conquering the South before handing the war effort to
the Americans. As to Korea ,
it was the Americans who organized the world under a UN mandate to try and
prevent the North from conquering the South.
The Americans lost the war in Vietnam and today, that country has
become a unified model nation making giant strides at building a modern
economy. As to the Korean theater, America
managed to score a stalemate, after which it maintained a large contingent of
troops in South Korea
while the North remained Communist. Since then, America has been conducting
military exercises that angered the North and brought the situation there close
to a level approaching that of the Cuban missile crisis.
Having ignored all that history, Victor Hanson constructed
what he calls a fantasy scenario in which the roles of North Korea and the South are reversed; and the
roles of the United States
and China
are reversed. Like it or not, this is an accepted technique used by writers who
want to make a point … provided they do something else. First, right after
telling the story he created, Hanson should have mentioned that in the interest
of having maximum effect, he ignored the real history of the region; something
he did not do. Second, he should have avoided distorting the characters he
created, a rule he violated so grotesquely, there was not the slightest
resemblance between his fiction and the real world.
Were Hanson not a historian pretending to write history, he
might have gotten away writing what would be considered a spoof on the North
Korean leadership. But that was not his intention as demonstrated by the
serious accusation he leveled to the effect that: “the truth of the North
Korean crisis is not the assumption that China is the key to the solution,
but rather that it is the root of the problem”.
Had Victor Hanson checked history before writing that
article, he would have discovered a reality so startling, he might have written
a different article and reached a different conclusion. It is that in the
1960s, disciplinarian North Korea looked as modern and developed as it does
today, whereas permissive South Korea looked as bad as the worst slum you'll
encounter anywhere in the Third World. It was estimated that the per capita
income in the North was several times that of the South.
Aware that it was losing the propaganda war to the
Communists, America poured billions of dollars into South Korea to build an
infrastructure there, invest in manufacturing, teach its engineers and train
its workforce, all of which helped the South achieve a level of
industrialization that made growth in that country impressive and
self-sustaining.
This done, America
opened the doors of importation very wide to products made in South Korea .
The result was that two generations later, the South had caught up with the
level of the North, but with a difference. Whereas South
Korea became a giant in the production of civilian goods,
North Korea
became a giant in the production of military equipment. And so, if you put a
price on what the North has achieved, you'll find it to equal or surpass that
of the South.
Consequently, the leaders of the North made it clear that
because they are close to achieving the security they were seeking, they will
devote their attention to making the civilian side of the economy grow as fast
as they can.
Thus, we should now expect to see an economic miracle to
happen in North Korea ; one
that will make Vietnam and South Korea look like purring pussycats compared
to the ferocious tiger that North
Korea will become.