1971
Insert included in Operation War Shift: Position Paper, Second (Revised) Edition
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
The AKFIC claims that "there is much misinformation and deliberate untruth about Korea" in the United States.
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