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In any case, South Korea's occasional similarities to a police state fade in comparison to the situation north of the 38th parallel. North Korea is, for all practical purposes, a Russian colony. Even the Chinese Communists have no representation in North Korea, and Mao Tse-tung's visage is conspicuous by its absence. Said a refugee North Korean major recently: "Russia, not Korea, is held up as the motherland. We don't even study Korean history in the schools there."
"We Hope They Will Stay." South of the 38th parallel Koreans are flexing their muscles in a new nationalism. During 40 years of Japanese rule, the life of a conquered people had led the Koreans into venality, stealth and the habits of petty crockery. Said a Korean expatriate: "I was amazed when I returned to my country in 1945. Living under the Japanese had made my people servile and corrupt. I wanted to leave again." But almost two years of independence have made South Koreans a proud people again. "What do you think of our country? Will you come back again?" South Koreans now ask these questions of foreigners with a ring of salesmanship in their voices.
One night last week a U.S. Information Service film unit went to the schoolyard in the farming village of Manpori to show some movies. By 9 in the evening, when the program began, almost 3,000 people, the entire population of the township, had crowded into the open-air theater. After the show was over, an old and respected farmer, dignified with his pointed white beard and black undersize hat, stood up to thank the Americans. "You have left your great cities that we have seen tonight to come here," he said, "and we are grateful. We are happy that the men from America are with us—and we hope that they will stay."
All over South Korea a newly proud people were anxiously hoping the same thing. Remembering the Russians north of the 38th parallel, another Korean said, half apologetically: "We know that many American leaders- think Korea should be given up. We have trusted and hoped in you. Will you fail us?"
There is no need for the U.S. to fail Korea, for South Korea can be made a sound political and economic unit. There is every need for the U.S. to stay and succeed. Withdrawal would leave not only a shattered economy and a broken nation, but a broken moral obligation as well. Failure in Korea would cost America priceless prestige, and augur American failure elsewhere in Asia.