Category: Asia

Introduction to the New Edition of ‘The Hidden History of the Korean War’

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By Tim Beal and Gregory Elich

For a book on contemporary events to have a new edition seventy years after the first is a rare achievement. Izzy Stone’s The Hidden History of the Korean War has a continuing relevance for three major reasons: it is a tour de force of investigative journalism; the Korean War was a pivotal event in post-1945 history; and the combination of the two—the method of investigation and what it revealed of machinations behind the official curtain of obfuscation—can be brought to bear on a wider scale in order to understand what has happened since then and what is happening around us now, and into the future.

 

What is on the Agenda in South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s Visit to Washington?

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Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Gregory Elich to discuss South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s state visit to the US and what might be on the agenda with regard to South Korea’s involvement in the conflict in Ukraine, the potential for South Korea to be a bigger part of the US tech war against China as tensions between the US and China escalate, and how this visit may impact inter-Korean relations as the US prepares for a conflict in East Asia.

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US Military Exercises Ramp Up Tensions in the Asia-Pacific

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Hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Gregory Elich to discuss ongoing military drills between the US and South Korea, which are testing the potential bombing and invasion of North Korea, how this fits into the recent slate of military exercises in the region, and how that reveals the absurdity of calling these drills “defensive,” how these drills fit into US preparations for war with China, and how North Korea is being framed as an aggressor by the US press despite the aggression from the US.

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Manifestations of Unending War / Yoon’s Project to Reshape South Korea

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Joint Presentation by Christine Hong and Gregory Elich

Christine Hong – Manifestations of Unending War: Korea

Gregory Elich – Yoon’s Project to Reshape South Korea

Roundtable: A Geopolitical Perspective on the Biden-Yoon Summit

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Presentation by Simone Chun, Tim Beal, K.J. Noh, and Gregory Elich, discussing how the Biden-Yoon Summit signals a shift toward raising tensions on the Korean Peninsula in particular, and the Asia-Pacific in general. Live program originally shown on May 23, 2022, the day after the summit.

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The Geopolitical Influences on Upcoming South Korean Election

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In this segment of By Any means Necessary, Sean Blackmon and Jacqueline Luqman are joined by Gregory Elich to discuss the upcoming general elections in South Korea and the geopolitical contours that affect the race and US involvement in the peninsula, how South Korea’s proximity to North Korea and China impacts the stakes of the election and US interest in the eventual winner, and current president Moon Jae-In’s myopic focus on a peace declaration that would have little effect on the potential for peace on the Korean peninsula.

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Is Korea Heading Toward a Political Crossroads?

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South Koreans go to the polls on March 9 to elect a new president, who will assume office two months later. At a time when U.S.-North Korean relations are at an impasse, and the Biden administration is building an aggressive anti-China alliance, much may rest on the outcome.

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A Geopolitical Perspective of Biden’s North Korea Policy

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Presentation by Simone Chun, Tim Beal, and Gregory Elich

Penetrating Curtains of Deceit: I.F. Stone’s ‘The Hidden History of the Korean War’

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By Tim Beal and Gregory Elich

When the American journalist, I.F. Stone, published The Hidden History of the Korean War at the height of the military conflict in 1952, its message did not find a warm welcome at home. In a period of unhinged anti-communist fervor, mainstream media took little or no notice of such an iconoclastic work, and whatever impact it had would have to wait for a later time, when the Vietnam War encouraged more skepticism about the motives underlying U.S. war-making. Even so, mainstream receptiveness to critical analyses of US war-making in subsequent decades has not substantially improved, and Stone’s book has spent far more years in out-of-print oblivion than in ready availability.

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Reminding South Korea Who is Boss: Biden’s Enforcers Pay a Visit

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In a Washington Post opinion piece, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spelled out their objectives in visiting Japan, South Korea, and India. “The United States is now making a big push to revitalize our ties with friends and partners,” they wrote. The nature of those relationships, as perceived by Washington, is the subordination of Asian nations as junior partners in an anti-China coalition. “Our alliances are what our military calls ‘force multipliers’,” Blinken and Austin explain. “Our combined power makes us stronger when we must push back against China’s aggression and threats.” [1]

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