THE RANCH
UNITED SNAKES FORCES
SEOUL
BUDDHA'S BIRTHDAY
21 MAY 80
Dear Folks,
Not much going on here except a couple riots, mobilization of the troops, and a Military Coup.
I do seem to have a talent for picking the good ones. Let's see; the City is quiet after the disturbances last week. The imposition of Martial Law seemed to cool the jets of the students, particularly since the Junta closed the schools. They threw a bunch of kids in the Hoosegow, and with the elimination of civilian courts, they can keep anyone they want for as long as they want. So Seoul is, for the moment, fairly comatose.
The real trouble is down south. Kwang-ju has been in an uproar for the last couple of days. Some reports are claiming 50,000 people in the streets. As usual, the real reason is not so much that the people down there are pissed off about democratic reforms, but more because they have had their native son 'detained* for questioning along with the head of the other major opposition party leader. The ROKs sent in the Special Forces and the Airborne troops with bayonets. That was about the last the U.S. can figure out. The Commander of the airbase near town sealed of the installation, on the principle that we could more effectively ignore the whole thing if no Yanks got stepped on. Our loyal ROK allies have clammed up tight on the matter; so much so that we got some hot intelligence off the AP newswire yesterday.
The key to the matter is whether Labor will support what has been mostly a student lark. Remember when we were having the riots ten years ago in America? The Students for a Democratic Society clowns I knew just kept talking about 'getting the Workers together,' convinced that a coalition would bring down Nixon and the entire war machine.
It never happened at home, and probably never will. (Unless this little Recession blossoms into something particularly nasty. In fact, a resident of Miami could tell better riot stories than I can.)
It is hard to judge just how bad things are. Everyone has a paranoia that is based on the war. The rumor mill had all the rich people fleeing down south to Pusan to take ship for Japan. A shoot-out between the Martial Law Commander and an associate left a bodyguard dead. Nothing concrete. It all goes on in Hongul, so the Yankees are fat, dumb and happy until someone comes over from the Ministry of National Defense to fill us in on the official line. The people up North still remember us driving our jeeps around Pyong-yang when MacArthur swept north all the way to the Chinese border.
Down south, they recall the fall of Seoul and the great retreat all the way to the Pusan Perimeter. I personally am going to celebrate the solidity of my life by going over to the Naija Hotel for a nice dinner and a few drinks tonight. Everything that is going on has been played a couple times since the Armistice. Sigmun Ri and the students had it out in the '60s; the Park assassination should have put the fat in the fire, but didn't.
At the moment, the Government is assuring the Megucks (that is Korean for Gaijiin which is Japanese for clueless American) that all is well; that the tourists should come and spend hard currency in the market at Itaewan, and take away the famous bargains by the carload. They sure have them here.
Do you need a real deep sea diving helmet? They have them for one hundred dollars just up the street. Huge brass oil lamps and kim-chi pots. Custom tailoring and camping gear. Shopping unparalleled shopping this side of Taiwan and the Philippines. Haggling is the order of the day, and for once I am not with my 5,000 intimate friends from the aircraft carrier.
I can actually walk away from the merchants and bide my time, instead of having to shell out the inflated "Fleet's In" prices. You would like the color of Itae-wan Dong, and the frantic bustle of East Gate. If the situation cools off it would be a nice stop on an Asian swing.
I'm going to step out into the nice early summer day, still cool before the summer monsoon brings the hot sticky air up from the tropics with the typhoons. Maybe I can shake some cash out of Uncle Sugar. He should be feeling generous. After all, it's Buddha's Birthday.
Say hello to the fast lane for me. It was like a good amphetamine buzz to be back in the World again.
It was a bit tiring, though. Maybe a once a year visit to the Land of the Big PX is all I can handle these days.....
Vic