Gwangju Uprising

And so that responsibility for both the civilian massacres and the military coups falls firmly in the lap of the United States.

And by 1980, the Gwangju Massacre became too embarrassing.

So the U.S. said, we have to kind of find a way to pretend we don't have OPCON, but still maintain OPCON.

So after years of negotiation, in 1994, they said, we have given OPCON to Korea.

Okay.

To understand the gravity of this book, we have to establish the historical reality of the 1980 Gwangju Uprising.

Right.

Following the assassination of a long-ruling military dictator, a new military faction seized power and declared martial law.

Explain it for the people who didn't grow up in Korea, because I had to look it up.

May 18th, 1980, is the start of the Gwangju Uprising.

Students and citizens in the city of Gwangju stood up against a military dictatorship, and the government sent in troops and tanks.

Official records count around 200 dead.

So if you're paying a visit to the UCCN Pavilion at GMAP, do not forget to visit the centuries-old pavilion as well.

And number two, GMAP is about a five-minute walk away from the historic Geumnam-ro Street, the very place where the May 18 Gwangju Uprising took place back in 1980, which is the historical inspiration behind the very conception of the Gwangju Biennale.

A few more Gwangju Biennale pavilions are along or nearby the street as well.

And number three, in this area, plus actually segwaying back to what you asked me earlier, there are indeed a healthy number of fantastic spectacles.

And these units that served in Vietnam a few years later came back and they initiated a military coup.

And then they went on to commit the Gwangju Massacre, which was the largest civilian massacre in South Korean history in 50 years.

And so Korea has a very, very strong military relationship, a horrible one, to Vietnam.

It enriched itself, engorged itself as a war profiteer during the Vietnam War, but that didn't keep it from having tremendous damage on its own society.

And I think there had already been a massacre and he wanted to have another come down further.

And this is why KCIA chief killed him.

And I thought this was the Gwangju massacre, but maybe I'm mixing things up.

The Gwangju Massacre came later.