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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 26, 1994)
EDITORIAL Put draft issues and D-Day politics aside "Those are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. Those are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war." Ronald Regan said at Normandy, rekindling tear-wrenching emotions in the veterans who stood by to listen. Noxt week President Clinton will attempt to do the same at tho biggest D-Day commemoration in history. The 50th anniversary of the the June 6, 1944 invasion of Europe will be the grandest in history. As the generation of veterans who fought in the war comes to an end, this celebration will bo the last, at least of this magnitude. The three-day, two-continent event has been in the works for over two years and will include several thousand military personnel represent ing all the services President Clinton will be speaking to veterans of war and people who lost people they loved while serving during World War II. But, the veterans will have a hard time seeing eyo-toeye with Clinton. Reagan was part of tho D-Day generation and he was easy to identify with. Certainly there will be a sense of animosity knowing that Clinton sidestepped the only draft he was ever eligible for during the Vietnam War. The difference in tho emotions and politics separating World War II and the Vietnam War will probably be buried under the simple title of "draft dodger," the title that rang clear in the attacks by Reagan during the last election and still rings clear, without a doubt, in the oars of those who did serve the country in tho service. The draft, however, is only one of the issues, hut it is the only one that matters. Tho fact that Clinton is part of a differenUgenoration won't matter. The fact that Clinton is not a World War II vet won't matter The fnc t that Clinton is president of a world that is radically different from the world in which Reagan was president won't matter The fac t that Americans’ attitudes toward Soviet expansion has turned 180 degrees since Reagan was president won't matter. Tho fac t that the* Vietnam War was a dumb war won’t matter. The only thing that matters is tho draft. Clinton has made his argument and explained his rea sons for not participating in the draft. Although there are too many emotions in those involved, the explanation, no matter how good, won’t ever matter to some. But. at this commemoration, it should be a time to look beyond Clinton’s past and focus on this country’s past. This event will mark a true tost of Clinton’s ability to reconcile differences between people who don’t under stand tho differences and don’t care to. People should see beyond the politics and issues and recognize the giant stops this country made during the World War II era. It is hoped the spirit of the event won’t be lost in tho things that "won’t matter." but instead will bo a time to show everyone that for a period of time this country hummed in unison, working together to fight for change and working together until the end was vic tory. Oregon Doily 0 0 l>Ol tUGthi OAtGON S?4iU the Oegon Oaty (m&aki«» pubfeshed deity Monday through f rxjay dunng the school year aod Tuesday and Thursday dunng lhe summer by the Or agon 0.4 > Efflffltd Pubfcshmg Go , inc a? the Urwvtws4y of Oregon. t ugene. Oregon The emerald operalm ^xJependem-y of the UnrvrKVty *•’•' offc.es g S.. -Tr» XX) of N Eft) Memorial Union and«» a member of tf« Aasocci'-od P’qu The fmprMi >9 private properly The unlawful remove* o* u*e of papers proeecutatxe Managing Ed It or Editor tel Editor Graph tea Editor Freelance Editor Editor-In-Chief JaKe Be*g Ca «*> Anderson Sports Editor Davxl Thom Editorial Editor Je« Pastay Photo Editor A i*na Baum Supplements Editor N»ght Editor, ftnatherte Hmia Steve M*n» Jeff PcAherdt Me ham ShmdNw Katy Soto Aseociete Editors Tchvara KtopNmsietn Sfudeni Government Aam<m Ret**.-.a Merntt. Commursfy. Itaalhada iSme*. Higher £dUcafcw AdmwsiS'afcan News Staff Lon Beftnesfc Wison Oan. Dave ChJVbonnaau Amy Colombo. Jvm Dave Meg Dedolph Amy Devenport. Ta»h# E»chan*ehef Ma a F*ekJs Martm F.$h#r Sarah Henderson. Yin long l eong. Su/anne Marta Manus Meland Tosta Noe* E sabeth Roenatfeme, Robb* Ree*es Kate Sabourtn, La Selocoe. Scon Stmonson. Siepharu# Sisaon. Straanne St©h«ri* McNM Thompson. Amy Van Tuyi. Darner Went General Manager Judy Rax* Advertising Director Mar* Water Production Manager Mche* Rosa Advertising: Brian Qavis. Sut>r Du ft a N-cce Herxmarti. Teresa I*ab4»<e. Jeff Ma-on Jeremy Mason. Mfchaei M^ehe. Kelsey Wskr Classified flacky Merchant. Ma-usgw Victor Mr*.a. S*m T/e Tec* Distribution: John long. Ferenc Raaocn. Graham S-mpson Business Kathy Carbone. Supervisor Judy Connoty Production: Dee McCqbb. Pncxjurtion CcJo/tAnahy Shawna Abe*e. Greg Desmond. Tara GauAnay. Brad Jots, Jarwfar Roland. NaR Thangw^t. Dayton Yee Newsroom --,--..34*4611 -Oiepiay Advertising___3464716 Business Office.---346 6613 ClsssMsS Aitearffalag_....346 4343 2 Oregon CMy ErrmnU Thur*d«y May 26. 1994 NOPE, Nor UNDER THAT one arn£P. DARn. J0/tfv 'W; mcwj vjfLL. t c.*tc*t.o ah r*Q(t EtctPr nil oa* hc sAio K /4 f*HQT Allow 0 TO CHICK . , OPINION North Korea: A ticking bomb Marks Mu.and Wi' don't usually hear much about North Korea Once in n while the media report disturbing sto ries about Kim II Sung, the octo genarian "Great Leader” who presides over the most vulgar c ult of personality since the glo ry days of Joseph Stalin For the most part, however. North Korea remains closed to the rest of the world, nestled as it is on a peninsula between Communist China and the U S.-supported capitalist South Hut now. North Korea is on the front page of newspapers, and the news is most disagree able Kim won't allow the Inter national Atomic: Energy Agency to inspect all the nuclear sites in the country, and observers think they know why He's trying to build nuclear bombs. Not sinc e the Cold War has the threat of nuclear annihila tion been so imminent. Nothing could lie more frightful than the detonation of a nuclear bomb, destroying all the animal and plant life of an entire region and polluting largo areas of the world for generations to come. The fact that human beings invented such a weapon of total destruction speaks not only of the vast powers of humankind, hut also of its potential for evil Hut during the Cold War, there was always the presump tion that the nuclear superpow ers would act rationally Although the United States and the Soviet Union accumulated enough weapons to exterminate all life on Earth, people assumed that the weapons would primar ily be used as a deterrent. Nobodv could conceive that anyone would lie so utterly evil ns to open the gates of hell and let the hell-hounds loose It's what President John K Kennedy called the; MAD. or Mutual Assured Destruction, policy: so atrocious that no country in its right mind would even think about aiding it out. With Kim, however, the situa tion is different. Over and over again, history has provided ample evidence that North Korea's "Great Leader" doesn't abide by the laws of reason This is the man responsible for hold ing the c rew of a captured Amer ican spy ship for 11 months in 1968. blow ing up half the South Korean cabinet in Rangoon in 1983. and shooting down a South Korean airliner over the Andaman Sea in 1987. Kim is just the last chapter in the tragedy that is Korean histo ry And in this tragedy, the Unit ed States, along with the Soviet Union and Japan, plays the role of the villain Before World War II, Korea was a c olony that the Japanese ran with unusual bru tality for 15 years Under the Japanese iron rule, the imperi alists drafted thousands of Kore ans to work in mines, factories and military bases, and Korean women were brought to the front to serve as "pleasure girls" for Japanese soldiers during World War II After World War II, Korea once again became a mere tool in a game played by imperialis tic: superpowers In 1945. the United States drew a line along the 38th parallel and declared that the Japanese should surren der to the Soviet army in the north and to the U S army in the south Thus, with the stroke of a general's pen, Korea became a divided nation, a casualty of the Cold War reasoning that governed geography after World War II. Kim, a staunch. Soviet-loyal communist who fought in the war against the Japanese, became Stalin's straw-man in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea An admirer of Stalin, Kim soon tried to emulate his image as the “father of the nation." In a cult of personality so bizarre that it could only be surpassed by Hitler. Stalin and Mao. the "Great Leader” began the construction of enormous monuments in his own name. His birthplace was converted into a national shrine. For his 60th birthday, his people built a colossal bronze statue, and for his 70th birthday they built an Arch do Triomphe taller than the one in Paris South Korean sources claim that North Korea spent $4 billion — out of an annual 525 billion budget — on public works projects in com memoration of Kim's 70th birth day. That figure would be absurd in any nation, but in a country whore people are so poor that they’re advised to eat no more than twice a day. such financial recklessness is no less than insane. Hut Kim's ambitions extend beyond the borders of North Korea Throughout much of his rule he has regarded it as his destiny to be the one who uni fies the South and the North. In 1950, with the help of the Sovi et and Chinese armies, he launched a fullscale invasion of South Korea, estimating that it would take no more than three weeks to conquer the South. What Kun didn't expect, how ever, was that the United Nations, whose Security Coun cil had shifted its policies toward U S. interests because of a Soviet boycott, would take sides with the South in the war Shortly after the U S. interven tion, American warplanes bombed Pyongyang so intense ly that only a few chimneys broke the flattened horizon of the capital. When the armistice was signed three years later, the war had resulted in four million casualties and the devastation of 33 percent of all Korean homes. Turn to KM. Page 3
