Ali stopped by to visit US troops stationed at Camp Casey in June 1976 after participating in a exhibition match in Tokyo against professional Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki.  In the exhibition match Ali threw only six punches and made a total of $6 million for the appearance; that comes out to $1 million a punch.  Fortunately for USFK leadership Muhammad Ali came to Korea throwing punches for free.

Muhammad Ali Arrives at Kimpo International Airport

When Ali landed at Kimpo International Airport he was driven through Seoul on a three mile parade route where he was greeted by hundreds of thousands of onlookers who crowded the streets to get a glimpse of the world famous boxer.  The motorcade had to be stopped three times as authorities had to clear the road of well wishers who wanted to shake the hand of the boxing legend.

Muhammad Ali's motorcade drives past Seoul City Hall.

I wonder if there are any celebrities today that could draw the crowds that Muhammad Ali drew in Korea back in 1976?

After driving through Seoul the motorcade headed north to Dongducheon where Camp Casey the main US military installation along the Korean Demilitarized Zone is located.  Here the bulk of the combat power for the US Army’s 2nd Infantry Division is housed.  At the time of Ali’s visit few would have guessed that these same soldiers would two months later almost be engaged in a war with North Korea in the aftermath of the DMZ axe murder incident that led to Operation Paul Bunyan.  However, war was far from the mind’s of the soldiers at Camp Casey when the champ visited the post.  Ali was taken to the Shoonover Bowl outdoor stadium where 2,500 soldiers awaited his arrival.  Here Ali conducted an exhibition boxing match against a US soldier:

Muhammad Ali spars with SPEC4 Gerald Noble. What a lifetime memory this must have been for Noble?

The soldiers, including division commander Maj. Gen. Morris J. Brady, had to wait more than an hour at the theater for Ali’s arrival, delayed by the downtown Seoul welcoming activities.

After a 20-minute speech, the soldiers wanted to see some action.

“All right, fellows. Do you have any boxers out here?” Ali asked.

Specialist Fourth Class Gerald Noble, 28, stepped out. The 202-pound soldier was a Michigan State heavyweight champion in 1967.

They agreed to a five-minute round, in which Noble tried hard but was no match for Ali. The champion danced in and away and landed scores of accurate but soft punches on the soldier-boxer.

After the fight, in which Ali patted Noble on the seat of the pants with his right fist after forcing him into a corner, the champ declared the soldier one of the best men he has fought.

The soldiers booed, and a 149-pounder volunteered to “put up a better fight, if not knock you out.”

The challenger was Private First Class Larry D. Rice, 20.

Ali faked being knocked down twice in a five-minute round with the welterweight, drawing big cheers from the crowd. In the end, however, it was Rice who became exhausted and gave up.

“Ali is a great fighter but today he turned out to be a greater entertainer, too. We love him in this remote area. He must be second to none in every sense,” an enlisted man said. “Second to None” is the slogan of the division.

After the fight, the division commander presented the division souvenir sweater for Ali’s hour of entertainment.  [Stars & Stripes]

PFC Larry Rice jokes around with Muhammad Ali.

Muhammad Ali receives a 2ID souvenir sweater.

As Muhammad Ali met and joked around with the soldiers at Camp Casey I can’t help but wonder what the 2ID commanding general MG Morris Brady thought about Muhammad Ali considering that nearly a decade earlier avoided being drafted into the military due to his opposition to the war in Vietnam.  General Brady was a combat veteran of both World War II and Vietnam and many other soldiers in the division would have been combat veterans of the Vietnam War as well.  I would think that some of them would have had mixed feelings about Ali, but I think everyone would have appreciated Ali going so far out of his way to visit with US troops at Camp Casey.

MG Morris Brady sits with Muhammad Ali as the two watch a martial arts demonstration at Camp Casey.

More pictures from Ali’s visit to Camp Casey can be viewed at the Stars & Stripes picture archive.

Interestingly enough I could not find any other visit by Ali to South Korea besides his 1976 trip, however I did find out that he visited North Korea in 1995.  Ali joined a contingent of professional wrestlers that put on a show in Pyongyang.  This has to be one of the strangest events ever held in North Korea because 1995 was the height of the famine that killed hundreds of thousands of people in North Korea and here the Kim Jong-il regime was using resources to host the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) to execute the event they called “The Collision In Korea“.

What must the crowd have been thinking seeing these enormous wrestlers flying around the ring?  The wrestlers put on two shows over two nights that drew an estimated audience of 380,000 spectators.  The only picture of Muhammad Ali that I could find from his 1995 visit to North Korea was from the Myspace page of professional wrester Scott Norton who was on the trip with Ali to North Korea:

Professional wrestler “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair was one of the people who traveled to North Korea on this wrestling tour and he had an exhibition match against Antonio Inoki, the same professional wrestler from Japan that Ali scrimmaged against before traveling to Korea in 1976.  This match drew 190,000 people and is believed to be the largest crowd to witness a professional wrestling event ever.  In his autobiography Ric Flair recounts his trip to Pyongyang as being extremely eerie.  Here is an excerpt from his book that recounts that despite having Parkinson’s disease Muhammad Ali still hadn’t lost his wit:

Because of the ravages of Parkinson’s disease, it was difficult to understand Muhammad Ali when he spoke. But at one function, we were sitting at a big, round table with a group of North Korean luminaries when one of the guys started rambling on about the moral superiority of North Korea, and how they could take out the United States or Japan any time they wanted. Suddenly, Ali piped up, clear as a bell, “No wonder we hate these motherf*ckers.”

My hair practically stood up on my head. “Oh, sh*t,” I whispered, “don’t start talking now.”

Muhammad Ali was famous for speaking his mind and this has to be one of the best stories about when Ali spoke up publicly what many people were thinking.  Despite only visiting the Korean peninsula twice Muhammad Ali definitely left an impression that probably no other celebrity to visit the peninsula has ever made.

Robert Kennedy and his wife Ethel meet with Korean President Park Chung-hee and his wife Yuk Young-soo.

According to the book, “Robert Kennedy: Brother Protector” this is how Robert Kennedy felt about the war at the time:

During his years as law student and political neophyte, Robert Kennedy rejected the internationalist perspective of most Democrats to embrace the conservative, neoisolationalist view popular among Republicans.  He also judged US leadership in foreign affairs weak and indecisive.  One could trace the faults in the country’s postwar policies, he wrote in his seminar paper on international law and repeated in newspaper op-ed pieces, to mistakes made at the Yalta Conference in February 1945.  He asserted that “the peace of the world was lost” at Yalta when President Roosevelt made far too many concessions to the Soviet Union in negotiating postwar alignments.

It wasn’t so much that he was against the war in Korea, he just felt that the US action there was indecisive and was a weak response towards the Russians.  According to the book his brother John Kennedy felt the same way and blamed Truman for the loss of China in 1949 to the communists.  John and Robert Kennedy appear to have adopted their views on Truman from their father, Joseph Kennedy who condemned Truman’s containment policies as drains on limited US resources.  He was an advocate of reducing US global commitments and described American intervention in Korea as “suicidal”.

Fourteen years after the start of the Korean War that Robert Kennedy was against, in 1964 he found himself in South Korea as the US Attorney General serving under his brother President John F. Kennedy.  He was visiting Korea with his wife Ethel to thank US troops serving along the Demilitarized Zone.  One of the stops Kennedy made was to Camp Casey where he was eager to meet one of his favorite college football players, Don Holleder.

Holleder was a US Army Captain serving at Camp Casey as the commander of A Company 1-31 Infantry regiment.  However, before becoming an infantryman CPT Holleder attended West Point where he was an All-American football player in 1954.   Holleder was drafted by the New York Giants but decided to forego the NFL to pursue his military career.  In 1967 CPT Holleder volunteered to go to Vietnam where he was killed by a sniper’s bullet when trying to rescue wounded troops.  He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1985 and the indoor sports center at West Point is named in his honor.

Here is a picture of Robert Kennedy with his wife Ethel at the Joint Security Area receiving a briefing from Sergeant William Brown of the 1st Cavalry Division before conducting an inspection tour of the DMZ:

Robert Kennedy traveled to multiple outposts along the DMZ much to the surprise of the US Army soldiers he met:

Robert F. Kennedy, younger brother of the late President, showed Sunday that he still retains most of the youthful vitality common to the Kennedy brothers.

He climbed hill after frozen hill to shake hands and chat with American soldiers standing lonely guard duty in sandbagged hunkers along the. Demilitarized Zone.

As Kennedy and his party neared the top of one particularly steep hill, a puffing escort officer asked the Attorney General if he would like to slow up a bit and take a. breather, Kennedy smiled, glanced hack at his aides and said:

“No, but perhaps some of my Washington colleagues would.”

Then he bounded on to the top of the icy ridge.

Several times during his up-and-down tour of the truce line positions, Kennedy broke away from the escorting generals to shake hands with some bewildered private.

At Outpost Mazie, he went out of his way to find and thank three soldiers who had earlier brought him coffee. They were PFC’s Charles Rutzer of Nahcotta, Wash., Joe King of Carlesville, Ga., and Francis Conski of Cross Keys, N.Y.  [Stars & Stripes]

Besides visiting US troops Robert Kennedy finished his trip by visiting with the President of South Korea Park Chung-hee:

During the visit Kennedy and his wife were pictured with Park Chung-hee and his wife Yuk Young-soo.  Amazingly three of the four people in the picture were assassinated a few years later.  Park Chung-hee would be assassinated by his CIA director in 1979 and his wife Young-soo was assassinated by a North Korean agent in 1974 on Korean Independence Day.  The assassin was trying to kill Park Chung-hee who was speaking at the National Theater but his bullets missed and killed Park’s wife instead.  This assassination attempt of Park is famous in Korea because Park Chung-hee continued on with his speech while his dying wife was carried off stage.  The final person in the picture to be assassinated, Robert Kennedy would never have a chance to return to Korea to see the amazing economic development of the country since he was assassinated while running for President four years later in 1968.  Nevertheless Kennedy’s visit to Korea is one in a long line of interesting faces to visit Korea over the years.

Monroe’s visit to Korea was a spur of the moment decision that ultimately helped lead to the end of her marriage with baseball slugger Joe DiMaggio.  Monroe and DiMaggio after a whirlwind romance were married on January 14, 1954 in California.  The best man at the wedding was DiMaggio’s long time friend “Lefty” O’doul who is known as the father of baseball in Japan.  O’doul was the then manager of the San Francisco Giants and is credited with giving the Tokyo Giants its name due to his work promoting baseball in Japan.

After the hastily organized wedding Lefty recommended to the newlyweds to spend their honeymoon in Japan to escape the hordes of fans and media that hounded the couple after their surprise wedding.  DiMaggio had already agreed to go with Lefty sometime in the future to promote baseball in Japan, so he figured he could keep his promise to lefty and escape the mobs following them by honeymooning in Japan.  DiMaggio would soon find out how wrong he was.

Monroe, DiMaggio, Lefty, and his wife Jean all flew to Japan on Feburary 1, 1954.  It was during this flight that General Christenberry who flew on the plane with the couples approached Monroe about entertaining troops in Korea.  General John E. Hull of the military’s Far East Command would later send her a formal invitation when she landed in Japan.  When Monroe and DiMaggio landed in Japan they saw that the crowds that met them there were worse than anything they saw back in the US.  While in Tokyo the couple were literally trapped in their hotel due to the large Japanese mobs that surrounded the Imperial Hotel which they stayed at.

Joe DiMaggio had agreed to a 24 day promotional tour of baseball around the country and played plenty of golf with O’doul, which left Marilyn often alone at the hotel, while she suffered through bouts of endometriosis that often left her in great pain.  So I do find it a bit odd that DiMaggio got upset at Marilyn when she accepted General Hull’s invitation to entertain troops in both Japan and Korea. When DiMaggio heard of this announcement he told news reporters at the Imperial Hotel, “We’re supposedly on our honeymoon, and this is what happens!”  DiMaggio was also supposedly upset that when Marilyn attended some of the Japanese baseball games he was promoting all the fans’ attention turned towards her instead of him.

Monroe while in Japan did visit a military hospital and spend some time with the troops stationed there.  Monroe would go on to spend a few days with her husband touring the Izu Peninsula, Hiroshima, and finally Fukuoka before flying to Korea.  Marilyn arrived in Korea on February 16, 1954 to begin her four day USO tour of the country.  You have got to love the military ID given to Marilyn as a USO entertainer with her official name of Norma Jean DiMaggio:

Since the visit was so hastily arranged Monroe had no band perform with, so the US military gathered together 11 military band members to form the, “Anything Goes Band” to support her performance.  However, the GI’s serving in Korea could care less that she didn’t have a real band, they came to see her.

Here is Monroe meeting with members of the 25th Infantry Division:

Here she is posing with what appears to be Korean baseball players:

Is there anything sexier than Marilyn Monroe on a tank?:

During her visit to Korea Monroe was seen with a bandage thumb which allegedly occurred due to a cake cutting accident while in Korea:

However this bandage thumb has been alleged to be caused by Joe DiMaggio swiping a cup away from her in anger after hearing of her announcement to entertain troops in Korea.  This picture taken in Fukuoka, Japan before her Korea trip seems to confirm this suspicion:

Her husband may have been pissed off at her, but the GI’s in Korea loved her.

Monroe’s performances were so popular in Korea that a stampede broke out when she performed for the 45th Division.  Thousands soldiers waiting in line for hours to get in to see the performance in one degree below zero weather, had grown impatient waiting for the show to begin.

The soldiers in their frustration began throwing rocks at the stage and crew demanding that they be let in and the show to start.  One person injured by the demonstrators had to be taken away in an ambulance.  Concert organizers had to rush to get Monroe to the stage and canceled the concert’s opening acts to prevent a riot.  The soldiers absolutely went berserk when Monroe took the stage.  The soldiers were so delirious after the performance that organizers felt it wasn’t safe to let her mingle with troops and sign autographs after the show.  The acting 45th Division commander Brigadier General John C. Oakes instead took Monroe around in his Jeep to see military units in the area.

After the Jeep tour of the 45th Division Monroe was handed over to the commander of the 2nd Infantry Division Maj. Gen. William Barriger.  The commanding general took Monroe to have dinner with enlisted troops in the chow hall.

Monroe would go on to wow audiences throughout her trip to Korea with fortunately no more riots breaking out:

Marilyn Monroe left Korea from Daegu Airbase on February 19, 1954 where she gave one last show to 9,000 airman stationed there. It was in Daegu that Marilyn gave her only performance of “Diamonds are A Girls Best Friend”.  She was weary of performing such a song in front of troops that could hardly afford such a luxury for their girlfriends.  So she waited to the end of the tour where she had to borrow some diamonds from Lefty O’doul’s wife because she had forgot her’s at home.

Just think that she is out performing for hours in below freezing weather wearing this compared to all the GI’s in the crowd wearing winter clothes:

At the conclusion of the show Monroe flew back to Japan to meet her husband who was staying in Itami.  The couple continued their honeymoon in Japan until they flew back to the US on February 24, 1954.  I have always felt that DiMaggio missed a really good opportunity to bond with his wife by not joining her on the USO tour in Korea.  Instead of complaining about her going, he should have embraced it.  Sure Monroe would be more popular than him with GI’s that haven’t seen their girlfriends back home in month, but they still would have appreciated him coming; more importantly I think his wife would have appreciated him coming even more. Marilyn even hinted at this when she told one crowd, “I’m sorry Joe can’t be with me in Korea.”.  Unsurprisingly the marriage only lasted for eight months before Marilyn filed for divorce.

In all Monroe made 10 different appearances to entertain troops all across Korea during her 4 day visit to the peninsula.  It is estimated that over 100,000 servicemembers saw her perform during all those performances.  Marilyn often reflected back that her trip to Korea was one of the best experiences of her life and the moment when she realized she had become a superstar.  Quite a remarkable trip when you think about how circumstances of general flying on the same aircraft that the surprise newlyweds were making their last minute honeymoon to Japan on, led to quite possibly the greatest show the USO has ever put on.

Further Reading:

• Marilyn in Korea, 1954
• The Marilyn Monroe Treasures
• Marilyn Monroe Ends Korea Swing
• 6,000 Thunderbirds Stampede, Mob Stage to See Marilyn
• DiMaggio’s to Shop In Tokyo Before Return Flight
• Marilyn Monroe Pictures In Korea

Entertainer Michael Jackson has died after being taken to a hospital on Thursday after suffering cardiac arrest, according to multiple reports including the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press. CNN has not confirmed his death.

ackson, 50, had been in a coma at the hospital, sources told CNN.

Brian Oxman, a Jackson family attorney, said he was told by brother Randy Jackson that Michael Jackson collapsed at his home in west Los Angeles Thursday morning.

Family members were told of the situation and were either at the hospital or en route, Oxman said.

Fire Capt. Steve Ruda told CNN a 911 call came in from a west Los Angeles residence at 12:21 p.m.

Ruda said Jackson was treated and transferred to the UCLA Medical Center.

Asked specifics of the patient’s condition, he said he could not discuss them because of federal privacy laws.

The music icon from Gary, Indiana, is known as the “King of Pop.”

Jackson is the seventh of nine children in a well-known musical family.

At the medical center, every entrance to the emergency room was blocked by security guards. Even hospital staffers were not permitted to enter. A few people stood inside the waiting area, some of them crying.  [CNN]

My condolescenses to the Jackson family for their loss if this report is in fact true, which right now it appears it is.

Michael Jackson may be thought of as an extreme weirdo in the US, but in Korea it has always seemed he was quite popular even after all the child molestation accusations. However, something I have heard repeatedly before from Koreans is that Michael Jackson had initially refused to have a concert in Korea unless the Korean government gave him Cheju-do island.  Has anyone else heard this rumor before?

I have no idea if this is true or not, but what I do know is that Michael Jackson did eventually play in Korea.  The first concert I could find of him playing in Korea was in October 1996.

Michael Jackson was in Korea in February 1998 on concert and even made a stop at Everland:

Here is a Korean news report of Michael Jackson again in Korea in 1999:

The 1999 concert in Seoul was to raise money for needy children around the world.  Jackson even brought his children to Korea for the concert.

That was about all I could find about Michael Jackson in concert in Korea.  Does anyone else know if he has had any other additional concerts in Korea?

Remembering the life of television legend Ed McMahon includes a long list of achievements. Many people would quickly recognize his infamous voice as he announced “Heeeeeere’s Johnny” on the “Tonight Show“. McMahon had been battling cancer for quite some time and it was also reported that he’d been fighting pneumonia. He died in a Los Angeles hospital at the age of 86.

Ed McMahon was born in 1923 and grew up in Lowell, Massachusetts. He served his country, in the United States Marine Corps, during both World War II and the Korean War. During WWII he was a flight instructor and test pilot, and remained in the Marine Corps Reserves after the war was over. In 1946, McMahon pursued speech and drama in college and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1949. During the Korean War, he returned to active duty in 1953. Mr. McMahon retired from the Marine Corps in 1966 with the rank of Colonel.  [The Examiner]

McMahon was out of the Marines and working for CBS in 1952 when he was recalled to active duty due to the Korean War.  After several months of training Ed McMahon arrived in Korea in February 1953.  McMahon flew artillery reconnaissance spotting missions in a Cessna OE Bird Dog plane for the last few months of the Korean War. McMahon flew a total of 85 combat missions and incredibly one of the people he flew with was baseball great Ted Williams.

The war would end in July 1953 and Ed McMahon would eventually receive orders to return home in September 1953 where he continued his career with CBS.  In 1962 he got his big break when he became Johnny Carson’s sidekick on the Tonight Show.  After the war McMahon would stay in the Marine Corps Reserve and retire as a Colonel in 1966.  Over the years McMahon would go on to honor Korean War veterans most recently in 2003.  And the rest as they say is history, which was only possible after Ed McMahon faithfully served his country fighting communism as a young man in Korea.

President Johnson visited South Korea on October 31, 1966.  I have tried to confirm, but according to my research Lyndon Johnson was the first American President to visit South  Korea.  I could find no information whether President Harry Truman ever visited South Korea which I doubt he did considering the Korean War was still on going during his time in office.  President Dwight Eisenhower ran a campaign in 1952 centered around the promise he would go to Korea and end the war.  After winning the election, Eisenhower did go to Korea, but only as the President-Elect.  I could find no information that President John F. Kennedy ever visited Korea either.  I assume he hasn’t because I’m sure such an event would have drawn just as much media attention that Johnson visited did.  So that leaves LBJ as the likely the first US President to ever visit South Korea and the welcome he received demonstrates that.

The Stars & Stripes newspaper listed the crowd that greeted Lyndon Johnson from when he landed at Kimpo Airport, along the streets of Seoul watching his motorcade, and at his final destination at Seoul City Hall at 2 million people:

President and Mrs. Johnson got a rousing Texas-style welcome here Monday.

They were greeted by an enthusiastic crowd estimated at 2 million as they flew to the Republic of Korea on the last leg of a 7-nation trip.

Officials traveling with the presidential party called the welcome the largest and most enthusiastic of the trip.  [Stars & Stripes]

LBJ reviewing troops with Korean President Park Chung-hee at Kimpo International Airport after deboarding Air Force One

TIME Magazine listed the Korean crowd that gathered to greet the “Texas Grandpa” at 1 million people:

The President got the tonic he really needed in South Korea, where joun son means “good guest.” At Seoul, more than 1,000,000 people —more than half of them schoolchildren—lined his 17-mile motorcade route, strewing it with thousands of chrysanthemums and a ton and a half of confetti. A forest of welcoming signs rose above their heads, many bearing bizarre, if well-intended, portraits of a green-faced, Oriental-eyed Lyndon Johnson with an outsized nose like Charles de Gaulle’s. The slogans were on the inscrutable side. WELCOME TEXAS GRANDPA, said one. Another somewhat ambiguously proclaimed: TEXAS

BULL-WE LIKE.  [TIME Magazine]

Well considering the recent mad cow nonsense Texas Bull’s are out of style now a days in Korea.  However the people welcoming this Texas Bull back then acted like mad cow protesters of now with their rush to see the US president:

At times, the ecstasy almost resulted in tragedy.

Frenzied crowds estimated at 250,000 at Seoul’s City Hall Plaza roared approval at the sight of Johnson so loud and long that the speech of Korean President Chung Hee Park was drowned in the din.

The mob also overran a 2,000-member girls’ chorus near the presidential stand, trampling some of the girls underfoot, and at one time threatened to break Secret Service lines and overflow onto the speaker’s stand.

One 57-year-old Seoul woman was hospitalized with serious injuries after being trampled and 12 persons were treated for minor injuries.

Well at least they didn’t trample anyone to death unlike Christmas shopping stampeders at Wal-mart in the US.

The crowds only stopped their mob rush when the Deputy Prime Minister of South Korea Key Young Chang took control of the police frontlines and asked the crowd to remain calm.

So people amazed by the frenzied mobs that can form in Seoul today can now see there is a historical precedent that goes decades back. The security for Johnson’s visit was to keep the crowds at bay and the US President safe, was unprecedented in Korean history as thousands of soldiers and policemen were mobilized in the effort:

Here is what President Johnson had to say to the excited Korean crowd that had gathered to see him:

Johnson told the city hall crowd that Koreans should be “rightly proud” of the rebuilding job they have done after the Korean War leveled the nation, and suggested that Asia was experiencing “a new spirit of cooperation.

“That spirit of cooperation in this part of the world was shared by the seven nations who met at Manila last week.

“That historic meeting, which you first suggested … affirmed the broad partnership and the common purpose of free Pacific nations — a partnership that will endure long after the communist aggression is ended in Vietnam,” Johnson said in his speech.

(“Here in Korea, our fighting men stand with your own along the Demilitarized Zone, and we shall come once again to your defense if aggression — God forbid — should occur here again,” he added, AP said.)

(“To an American, the free soil of Korea is hallowed ground,” Johnson told the throng police estimated at some 350,000.)

(“More than 54,000 Americans died in the bitter 1950-53 battle to save this mountainous peninsula country from communist invaders from the north. Today South Korea has around 45,000 soldiers helping the allied cause in South Vietnam.”)  [Stars & Stripes]

Here is what Korean President Park Chung-hee said after the address given by President Johnson:

Park said Korea had “undiminished appreciation” for the help the United States has given it during the past quarter-century.

“We have been much indebted to you as comrades-in-arms,” he said.

“Please be assured that ours is not a nation which will indefinitely continue to be indebted to others, but rather is a nation which knows how to requite its obligations, which has a keen sense of responsibility, and which abides by good faith.”  [Stars & Stripes]

Following the speeches at City Hall, President Johnson and his wife we honored with a state dinner at the National Capitol.  After dinner they attended an art festival at Seoul’s Citizen Hall.

Decorated Seoul City Hall

The next day Presidents Johnson and Park would have a private meeting together before Johnson took a helicopter to Camp Stanley to visit soldiers of the 26th Infantry Division and the 36th Engineer Group. This is what President Johnson had to say to these soldiers:

Lunching with American servicemen just 15 miles south of the Demilitarized Zone the next day, he lauded them in grisly language as “the boys that are willing to go and die and leave their arms and legs and their eyes all over the world. Except for you and your brothers who came here ahead of you, Korea would now be under the master’s heel.” Caught up in the tide of his own oratory, he recalle’d that his great-greatgrandfather had died at the Alamo, adding a previously unrecorded chapter to the family’s martial annals.

“Your parents and your dependents may not see some of you again,” the President wound up, “but they will always be mighty proud that you came this way, and so am I.”  [TIME Magazine]

Johnson’s words came true that night when a North Korean team ambushed and killed six US soldiers and one KATUSA on patrol along the Korean DMZ.  I have no doubt that this ambush was pre-planned to correspond with President Johnson’s trip to Korea. Just another in a long line of similar provocations from the North Koreans during this time period.

After visiting US troops Johnson then traveled by helicopter to Suwon to see an agricultural display put on by Korean farmers and get this, he tried on a hanbok:

From Camp Stanley, the President helicoptered to an agricultural demonstration area south of Seoul. He viewed the painstakingly cultivated land, tried on a flowing blue-and-white Korean farmer’s robe and stovepipe hat, then invited Village Elder Si Jong Choe, 65, for a helicopter ride. After 10 minutes aloft, Choe exclaimed: “It’s like going to heaven.”  [TIME Magazine]

So having foreigners wearing hanboks is not a new tradition in Korea.   Now a days, it is pretty much standard practice for famous foreigners visiting Korea to be pictured in a Korean hanbok.  Well now we know this tradition at least stretches back to 1966 when President Johnson visited Korea.  I looked all over for a photograph of Lyndon Johnson in the hanbok, but could not find one.  If anyone knows where to find this photograph please send me a link because I would love to see it.

The next day President Johnson would wake up to the news of the DMZ attack that killed the six Americans and one Korean soldier.  I’m sure Johnson was none to pleased by this news but he continued on with his itinerary that day to give a speech at the Korean National Assembly:

Here is an excerpt of the opening of President Johnson’s speech to the Korean National Assembly:

Mr. Speaker, Members of the Assembly:

Sixteen years ago an event occurred in Korea that changed the shape of Asia and the world.

On a June morning in 1950, we woke up to learn that a Communist army had smashed into the Republic of Korea without warning or provocation.

Many Americans at that time could not locate Korea on the map. We were concerned mainly with the Communist threat to Europe and the rebuilding of that continent. Asia seemed remote and beyond the pale of our interest.

But President Truman acted quickly. American forces went to the aid of our Korean friends. The United Nations was called into emergency session and a majority resolved to meet the aggression.

There were those who condemned us for trying to play “world policeman.” We were told that there would be no successful outcome to a “dirty little war” in Asia. [American Presidency Project]

It is amazing that the above statement is actually something stilled often times thrown around today in regards to the US’s involvement in the world.  Make sure to read the rest of the speech because it is interesting to read what Johnson wanted historians to write about South Korea.  I can’t imagine President Johnson could have ever imagined the historical revisionism going on right now to shame the US for its involvement in Korea.

After the trip President Johnson and his wife flew back to the United States after a extremely successful visit to South Korea.  However, the success of the visit would be overshadowed by the headlines back in the US of the deadly DMZ ambush.  North Korea effectively played spoiler to what should have been remembered as the greatest welcome any American has ever received in Korea.

Zimbabwe’s leader Robert Mugabe has been making headlines recently in regards to his attempts to rig his nation’s election to keep him in power.  However as people criticize his recent actions, many people have forgotten how he came to power in the first place; through help from the North Koreans.

Mugabe had been jailed for 10 years by the white minority government in Zimbabwe for his anti-government activities.  When Mugabe was released in 1974 he was elected as President of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU).  ZANU was one of two main opposition groups that were fighting against white minority rule in Zimbabwe which was then called Rhodesia.  The white minority rule was a legacy of British colonialism that the black opposition groups were trying to end.  Prison had radicalized Mugabe who after being elected as the President of ZANU fled to Mozambique to lead his opposition group that was based out of the adjacent country that was friendly to their cause.

ZANU flag

The other main opposition group besides ZANU that was fighting for the end of white minority rule in Rhodesia was the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU).  The two opposition groups were backed by different communist sponsors.  ZAPU was backed by the Soviet Union while ZANU was backed by the People’s Republic of China.  Though China backed the ZANU they could not openly support the ZANU with soldiers because in the 1970′s China was attempting to open up to the west in particular the United States.  China helped finance ZANU but asked North Korea to assist the ZANU with military training as to not involve their military in the conflict in Africa.  At the request of the Chinese, North Korean dictator Kim Il-sung decided to aid his blood ally from the Korean War.

North Korea opened a ZANU explosives training facility 15 kilometers outside the North Korean capitol of Pyongyang.  Likewise they deployed special forces trainers to assist the ZANU in Mozambique.  The ZANU forces would often launch guerrilla attacks from Mozambique into Rhodesia before fleeing back across the border.  Popular targets were bombing train tracks, ambushing convoys, and raiding white owned farms.  This time of conflict against white minority rule became known as The Bush War.

The war ended in 1979 with the British brokered Lancaster House Agreement that ended white minority rule in Rhodesia.  In 1980 Robert Mugabe was elected Prime Minister of the now newly named country of Zimbabwe.  However, peace would not come to Zimbabwe with the end of white minority rule.  Robert Mugabe’s exposure to the North Koreans had exposed him to North Korea’s dictator Kim Il-sung’s “juche” philosophy and one party rule.  Mugabe hoped to bring such a philosophy and one party rule to Zimbabwe.

Shortly after taking power Mugabe signed an agreement with Kim Il-sung that would allow North Korean military trainers to specially train one brigade of Zimbabwe soldiers.  In August 1981, hundreds North Korean trainers arrived in Zimbabwe and began the training and equipping of the 3,500 soldier Zimbabwean Fifth Brigade.  The brigade’s training included much more then tactical training.  The core of the brigade’s training centered around North Korean style political indoctrination to ensure loyalty to only Robert Mugabe.  As the brigade became operational they became recognizable from the rest of the Zimbabwean military because they wore red berets and drove Chinese vehicles unique to the unit.

Soldiers of the Fifth brigade march in 1992.

Mugabe sensed that the biggest threat to his control of Zimbabwe would not come from the white minority Rhodesians that remained in the country but rather from his one time allies against white minority rule the ZAPU party.  With the training of the Fifth Brigade complete in September 1982 Mugabe put them to work repressing members of the ZAPU party.  The base of support for the ZAPU party came from the provinces of Matabeleland.  A campaign of torture and murder was unleashed by Mugabe on the people of Matabeleland.  Mugabe had a larger goal in mind then just simply killing and terrorizing the people of Matabeleland, he wanted to indoctrinate them as well.

While being simultaneously being tortured villagers had to sing pro-Mugabe propaganda songs.  The villagers were also forced to participate in the execution of family members.  The techniques of torture, humiliation, and implication were all mastered by the North Koreans as tools of indoctrination that were even successful in the brainwashing of American POWs during the Korean War.  These techniques would go on to brainwash the entire nation of North Korea and Robert Mugabe was hoping to do the same thing in Zimbabwe in order to establish one party rule and cement his hold on power.  This campaign of terror in Zimbabwe became known as the Gukurahundi and it is estimated that at least 20,000 people died during this terror campaign.

Victims of the Gukurahundi campaign in Zimbabwe

When Mugabe traveled to Pyongyang for the first time to meet with Kim Il-sung he was deeply impressed with the indoctrination of the North Korean people that led to stadiums filled with hundreds of thousands of cheering citizens as well as the many state monuments in North Korea.

Robert Mugabe meets with Kim Il-sung in Pyongyang.

Mugabe wanted to create the same devotion to him in Zimbabwe that Kim Il-sung created in North Korea.  In order to do this Mugabe needed to create an information blockade into the country similar to what Kim Il-sung had done with North Korean.  By blockading outside information state sponsored propaganda is much more effective.  Over the years Mugabe has kicked out foreign journalists and has done what he can to limit outside information.  However, unlike North Korea Zimbabwe is bordered by many countries thus making it harder to keep outside information out.

Along with his information blockade operations Mugabe began the construction of large memorials that citizens would be forced to conduct pilgrimages to.  The first large scale memorial Mugabe constructed was the 140 acre Heroes Acre in the capitol Harare that commemorates heroes of the war against white minority rule:

National Heroes Acre

The monument was constructed according to Marxist-Leninist design and obviously inspired by the Juche Tower in North Korea:

Juche Tower in Pyongyang

Mugabe was such a believer of Juche that books about Juche philosophy could be found in Mugabe’s office.  However, Robert Mugabe’s attempts at creating Juche self reliance was just as much of a fraud as Kim Il-sung’s claims to the self reliance of North Korea.  The truth is that North Korea was heavily depended on Soviet financial assistance which stopped with the ending of the Cold War.  The stopping of this financial assistance would lead to a massive famine in North Korea that caused the deaths of up to 2 million people by some estimates.  Likewise Mugabe’s economic policies and forced removal of white Rhodesians from their farms led to famine in Zimbabwe which for decades was thought of as the bread basket of Africa.

To this day these two nations’ economies are collapsed and dependent on outside humanitarian aid to feed their people while their rulers maintain a tenuous but yet firm grip on power.  Hopefully one day these two countries will experience more shared history with the collapse of their repressive regimes.

Further Reading:
Pyongyang’s Man in Harare

Hank Aaron is known as being one of Major League Baseball’s greatest hitters. He batted .305 for his career with 3,771 hits, and 2,297 RBIs. His most famous accomplishment was the setting of the All-Time Major League Career Home Run Record by breaking Babe Ruth’s record of 715 career home runs in 1974 after having to put up with months of racist threats from extremists warning him not to break the record. Not only did he break the record but he shattered it by finishing his career with 755 home runs before retiring in 1976. This record stood until 2007 when Aaron’s home run record was broken by Barry Bonds. (Note: Aaron is still the all-time home run leader as far as I’m concerned)

However, something many fans of baseball don’t know is that Hank Aaron worked as a batting instructor and promoter for the Samsung Lions of the newly created Korean professional baseball league for a short stint during his retirement from baseball. Shortly after being inducted into the Pro-Baseball Hall of Fame in August 1982, Hank Aaron boarded a plane to South Korea to spend nearly a month in the country promoting the Samsung Lions and working as a batting instructor for their hitters:

Aaron while traveling around the country attending baseball games with the Samsung Lions held autograph sessions where children waited in long lines to meet and receive autographs from baseball’s all-time home run leader:

I would have to imagine that Hank Aaron touring around Korea, meeting Koreans, and signing autographs for kids must have been a significant experience for the people in Korea because there has probably never been a more prominent African-American to visit Korea up until this point:

Besides working as a batting instructor for the Samsung Lions and traveling around the country signing autographs Hank Aaron also took the time to visit the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and meet with US soldiers stationed there:

Aaron was also taken to the then famous pagoda in the Joint Security Area (JSA) to take in a view of nearby North Korea:

Interestingly enough the man who escorted Aaron on his tour, commander of the JSA Lieutenant Colonel Richard A. Pack, was at the age of 12 a former batboy for the Milwaukee Braves spring training camp in Palmetto, Florida. As a kid LTC Pack had the opportunity to see Aaron participate in his first spring training with the Braves and years later attended the game that Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record. Now here was LTC Pack leading his boyhood hero on a tour of one of the world’s most dangerous places, the Joint Security Area:

While visiting the JSA Aaron met with South Korean military policemen and judging by their uniform and gear they appeared ready to prevent any hijinks from the North Koreans during Aaron’s visit:

Aaron also met with US military policemen to include signing an autograph for Specialist James Salley:

Aaron even found time to throw out the first pitch for a softball game played in the Joint Security Area:

After visiting the JSA, Aaron continued to tour around the DMZ area and meet with soldiers of the 2nd Infantry Division. After completing his tour around the 2nd Infantry Division area Hank Aaron had this to say about US forces in Korea:

“You don’t realize what a tremendous job our armed forces all through Korea are doing until you come here,” Aaron said. “It’s a tremendous job and I know a lot of people take it for granted. But I’ve always felt that wherever the presence of the U.S. is, it’s always a presence of peace.”

Hank Aaron is truly a legendary sports hero in America, but he may be an even greater man considering how he has lived his life and treated others he has been around, including the people of Korea.

With such a focus on this historical figure few people outside of Korea have ever heard of, who exactly is Jang Bogo? Really no one really knows the full story about Jang Bogo but according to the few historical records that exist Jang Bogo was born into a peasant family on Wando Island sometime in the late 8th century during the Shilla time period of Korean history and died sometime around 841AD.

Jang Bogo

During his teenage years he went to China with his best friend Jeong-yeon where they joined the Tang Army. During their enlistment in the Tang military the two Korean friends excelled and were ultimately promoted to junior generals. The legend goes that Jang quit the Tang military and returned to Korea with his best friend Jeong-yeon when they became upset with the amount of Shilla slaves being sold in Tang China by pirates that raided Korean coastal cities. The pirates also had impact on trade between the nations of northeast Asia because they would hide on Korean coastal islands and raid merchant ships that traveled between China and Japan via Shilla Korea.

Jang by this time had formed his own private army and asked the Korean monarch King Heungdok for permission to set up a military garrison on his old home island of Wando to combat the pirates. Jang chose a small off shore islet from Wando as his military headquarters which he named Cheonghaejin:

Cheonghaejin military garrison near Wando Island

Jang proceeded to heavily fortify the islet that would prove extremely difficult for any pirates to attack due to its rocky shores, high walls, and guard towers:

Map of Cheonghaejin.

Supplies could be brought to Cheonghaejin by land only when the tide was out revealing a land bridge to the islet:

From this base Jang began operations against the pirates and his early successes encouraged him to ask the Korean King for additional soldiers to augment his private force. King Heungduk augmented Jang with 10,000 conscripts which he used to effectively suppress the pirates that plagued the southern Korean islands. With the pirates suppressed Jang was able to open a safe sea trading lane between China and Japan that ran through Shilla Korea. Jang was able to start a merchant marine trading business that made huge profits for himself and the Korean King.

Jang Bogo’s exploits however did not go over well with the Korean noble Yangban class who were jealous of a peasant winning such acclaim and favor from the Korean King. King Heungduk would die in 836 without an heir which led to a power struggle among the royal family over who would take power. Ultimately the nobleman Kim Jeryung won the power struggle and was crowned King Huigang in 836. King Huigang then proceeded to go after those that opposed his rise to power and one of his opponents Kim Ujing fled to Cheonghaejin to seek the protection of Jang Bogo. Jang would protect Ujing and would ultimately aid him in overthrowing the Korean monarchy and installing him as King of Shilla.

Ujing would be crowned as King Sinmu in 839. However, King Sinmu would die after only four months in power due to either illness or poisoning. Sinmu’s young son took power afterwards and was crowned as King Munseong. Jang trying to secure his own power attempted to have his daughter married to the King. Jang’s attempt to marry into the royal family was the final insult to the Yangban nobles who sent an assassin to kill Jang. The assassin named Yeomjang traveled to Cheonghaejin to meet Jang disguised as a Shilla emissary. Yeomjang hid a knife under his clothes and while holding a private meeting with Jang he took out his knife and killed him. With the death of Jang the Cheonghaejin garrison lost it importance and eventually was abandoned in 851.

Today with the legend of Jang Bogo given new life due to the Korean drama Emperor of the Sea, the Wando government is working hard to restore the old Cheonghaejin garrison:

Restoration of the Cheonghaejin military garrison continues today.

Jang Bogo is credited in Korean history with being the King of the Seas that was responsible for opening trade between all nations of northeast China. I’m sure he played some part in making this happen but having personally looked at the Cheonghaejin garrison I find it highly unlikely the islet housed 10,000 soldiers or was able to harbor a large fleet of ships. There is also no way large amounts of goods could be stored on the islets necessary for the large trading business Jang supposedly based from Cheonghaejin as well. I would have to assume that most of the forces had to be located on Wando Island which should leave more archaeological evidence that has yet to be found if it exists at all.

No matter what the real history of Jang Bogo may be, it is an interesting part of Korean history that surely has some truth to it that you can’t help but learn about while visiting beautiful Wando Island.