AMERICAN - KOREAN

FRIENDSHIP AND INFORMATION CENTER

160 FIFTH AVENUE • NEW YORK, N. Y. 10010 • SUITE 809

TELEPHONE:  (212) 242-0240

Dear Friend:

The main focus of the news today, as it concerns United States foreign policy is, as it should be, on Indochina and the Middle East. There is, however, another area of major concern about which almost no reliable information reaches us. There is much misinformation and deliberate untruth about Korea, a country which has not known genuine peace for 30 years.

Korea is in the news when a U.S. imperialist spy ship is captured in North Korean waters, or a U.S. plane is shot down over North Korean territory. This is page-one news, followed by expressions of outrage, denials, threats of reprisal, and, finally, acknowledgment of [sic] trespess which is never really acknowledgment. Korea comes into the news again with brief and buried items about student uprisings in South Korea or strikes against starvation wages. These never make page one.

Almost the only news about North Korea that enters the United States comes through the suspect auspices of the government at Seoul. There is occasional reportage and commentary in the radical press, but this has a circumscribed audience.

There is ample evidence that the government of the United States would prefer this condition of ignorance and misinformation about Korea to persist, so that it can develop without interference its policy of neo-colonialism by economic penetration and political control.

There is a grave danger that a new generation of Americans could be involved in a second "war that nobody wants” in Korea. More and more, there are hints in the press that dangers are rising on the Korean peninsula, despite the periodic Pentagonian rumors and planted news reports in the media about American troop withdrawal from South Korea.

The basic aim of the new phase of American policy regarding Korea is to tum over to a rapidly remilitarizing Japan the major share of the policing responsibility for Korea. This is directed ultimately at the destruction of an economically strong and politically independent North Korea, and at a confrontation with the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union over Korea.

We believe, therefore, that Korea is a most urgent item on the world agenda. Our government must be dissuaded from reactivating a disastrous policy regarding Korea. The first step toward this end is to oppose as vigorously as possible military appropriations for Korea, and to insist that Washington withdraw all U.S imperialist armed forces and war materiel from South Korea, and from the waters surrounding Korea – completely and finally.

This is a job for Americans to do-Americans of anti-imperialist persuasion who are equipped to inform our fellow Americans of the disaster to the nation that would ensue from another Korean War.

To make the American people aware of these ominous developments, and the nature of their national interests in Korea, we who have signed this letter have agreed to become the initiating-sponsors of an American-Korean Friendship and Information Center.

Specifically, the purpose of the Center is to help organize a campaign of the utmost pressure on the government of the United States to:

1. END ITS MILITARY SUBSIDY OF A DESPISED REGIME' IN SOUTH KOREA;

2. EFFECT A TOTAL WITHDRAWAL OF ALL ITS MILITARY FORCES AND WAR MATERIEL IN SOUTH KOREA;

3. ABANDON ITS POLICY OF “JAPANIZATION" OF KOREA.

The people of Korea want to determine their own future without foreign interference; they should have that right.

We are pleased to inform you that the Center is already functioning, and is gradually being staffed with officers and office personnel.

Five thousand copies of the first edition of the Position Paper have already been mailed. This second edition of 20,000 is now being circulated.

A newsletter to be called Korean Focus is being planned, as well as forums, meetings, exhibitions, and concerts of Korean music, campus lectures on Korean events, and publicity and advertising campaigns.

There is still time to avoid a military confrontation, but it grows shorter. In this belief we ask you to join with us as a sponsor of the Center, and to work with us in this urgent task. Your professional advice and fraternal guidance will be most welcome.

Yours for peace and sanity,

Sincerely,

INITIATING-SPONSORS

(partial list)

John J. Abt, Attorney, New York

James S. Allen. Publisher, New York

Robert L. Allen. Author, Black Studies  Dept., San Jose State College. California

Professor Robert Ante. Queens College, New York

Dr. Herbert Aptheker. Author-Historian, Director, American Institute for Marxist Studies, New York

James Aronson. Author, Journalist, Editor, New York

Rev. Lee H. Ball, New York

Edward K. Barsky, M.D., New York

Charles G. Bell, Author, Tutor, St. Johns College, Santa Fe, N.M.

Elmer A. Benson, Former Governor of Minnesota

Professor Fred J. Carrier, Villanova University, Pennsylvania

Rev. Mark A. Chamberlin, Oregon,

Professor Robert S. Cohen, Boston University

Rev. J. Raymond Cope, California

Professor Ephralm Cross, City College of New York

Professor Horace H. Davis, Author, Massachusetts

Dr. Stanton Ling Davis, Case Western Reserve University, Ohio

Ossie Davis, Noted Actor, Playwright, Director and Black People’s Leader, New York

Hugh De Lacy, Former Congressman, California

Angie Dickerson, Member, World Peace Council, N.Y.

Ruth Crawford France, Writer and Editor, Formerly Member UN Secretariat, Indiana

Stanley Faulkner, Attorney, New York

Sidney Finkelstein, Author, New York

Professor Phillip Foner, Lincoln University, Pennsylvania

Eleanor W. Fowler, Executive Director, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Washington, DC.

Ruth Gage-Colby, United Nations Representative of WILPF and United Nations Correspondent, New York

Josh Gilman, Midwest Chairman, National Coalition Against War, Racism and Repression

Sidney J. Gluck, Businessman Consultant

Carlton B. Goodlett, M.D., Member, World Peace Council, San Francisco, California

Professor Martin Green, Center for 20th Century Studies, University of Wisconsin, Wisc.

Nan Gurrero, Vice President, Advisory Board, Southern Conference Educational Fund Atlanta, Georgia

Ralph H. Gundlach, Ph. D., New York

Professor Donald C. Hodges, Florida State University, Tallahasse, Florida

Charles J. Jackson, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Georgia

Dr. Oakley c. Johnson, New York

Rev. J. Spencer Kennard, Jr., New Jersey

Professor Howard D. Langford, Ph. D., Author, Maryland

Professor Denise Levertov, Poet, Boston

Professor Oliver S. Lnud, Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio

Dr. Bernard Mandel, Cleveland, Ohio

William M. Mandel, Author, Berkeley California

Andy March, Anthropology Department, Queens College, New York

Carl Marzani, Author, Publisher, New York

Henry McKnight, Jr., Executive Board member, Local 6, International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union, Cal.

Rev. Howard Melish, New York

Michael Munk, Jornalist, New York

George B. Murphy, Jr., Journalist, Washington D.C.

Scott Nearing, Author, Maine

Isidore G. Needleman, Attorney, New York

Professor Wayne O’Neil, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, Mass.

John Pappademos, Vice President, Local 1627, American Federation of Teachers, Illinois

Professor Howard L. Parsons, Chairman, Dept. of Philosophy, University of Bridgeport, Conn.

William L. Patterson, Co-chairman, Black Liberation Commission, Communist Party, U.S.A.,  New York

Victor Perto, Economist, Author, New York

John Pittman, Journalist, Co-editor, Daily World, New York

William J. Pomeroy, Author, Journalist, Middlesex, England

Quinton Q. Priest (graduate student), Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars, Tucson chapter, Arizona

Jeanne Quan, Division of Asian Studies, Ethnic Studies Departmen [sic], University of California, Berkeley, California

John Randolph, outstanding screen, T.V., and theater personality, New York

Holland D. Roberts, American-Russian Institute, California

Irving Sarnoff, Peace Action Council, Los Angeles, California

George Shenkar, Engineer, Michigan

Jessica Smith, Author, Editor, Journalist, New York

Andrew Stapp, Chairman, American Servicemen’s union, N.Y.

Professor Louise Pettibome Smith, Connecticut

Dr. John Somerville, California Western, San Diego, California

Prof. Emeritus Dirk J. Struik, MIT, Mass.

Anthoney Toney, Aartist, New York

Tom Turner, President Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO, President Detroit NAAGP Chapter

Jarvis Tyner, National Chairman, Young Workers Liberation League (YWLL)

Joe Walker, N. Y. Editor "Muhammad Speaks.”

John Woodford, Editor of "Muhammad Speaks.” Chicago, Ill.

Karl G. Yoneda, Working Longshoreman. San Francisco, California

Professor Howard Zinn, Boswn University

(Organizations, professions, and posts listed only for identification)

DR. HOWARD L. PARSONS

Chairman

PROFESSOR FRED J. CARRIER

Director of Education and Information

PROFESSOR ROBERT ANTE

Director of Publications

GEORGE B. MURPHY, JR.

Secretary

JOSEPH BRANDT

Executive Director

JOE WALKER

Vice-Chairman

RUTH CRAWFORD FRANCE

Vice-Chairwoman

ANDREW STAPP

Vice-Chairman

REVEREND LEE H. BALL

Vice-Chairman

RUTH-GAGE-COLBY

Vice-Chairwoman

JARVIS TYNER

Vice-Chairman

DR. HERBERT APTIIEKER

Vice-Chairman

JOHN WOODFORD

Vice-Chairman