Remembering the Kwangju Incident

Abstract

Books reviewed in this article: William H. Gleysteen Jr., Massive Enganglement, Marginal Influence: Carter and Korea in Crisis John A. Wickham, Korea on the Brink: From the “12/12 Incident” to the Kwangju Uprising, 1979–1980 In Kwangju, the capital of South Cholla province in the Republic of Korea (ROK), over two hundred – possibly as many as two thousand – citizens died and many more were injured in May 1980, when government troops suppressed students demonstrating against martial law. The incident helped to quash widespread hopes for democracy in the months following President Park Chung Hee's assassination the previous October and paved the way for the rise to political leadership of another military leader, Chun Doo Hwan. Combined with later support for the Chun regime during the Reagan administration, the failure by the United States to prevent the outrage – and widespread suspicion that Washington may even have encouraged it –...