Story. On sundays, book tv brings you the latest in nonfiction books and authors. Funding for cspan two comes from these television companies, and more including cox. Omar can be hard but squatting in a diner for Internet Access can be even harder. That is why we are working to make sure all students have access to affordable internet. Its a homework can still be homework. Cox, competes. Support cspan 2 as a public service. Thsonian good evening. Thank you all for joining us. I am thrilled to welcome you to tonights program, the korean war. The forgotten forever war. To our members, a sincere thank you. Now more than ever it is your support that keeps us going. As many of you know, a Smithsonian Associates is not federally funded. It relies entirely on funding and membership donations to anyone who might be new to Smithsonian Associates, welcome. I invite you to explore the wide range of programs that we offer, and to consider becoming a member to support a work in bringing you hundreds of trust of learning experiences every year. You can find out about those events and more on our website, smithsonian associate dot org. As well as on facebook, instagram, and twitter. We have also posted a link in the chat box. It brings me to my next and im a business. Before turning to our speaker this evening, i want to quickly point out a few key features of your virtual experience on zoom. Let me direct your attention to the chat box a new tool bar. This is where we will post relevant information and links throughout the program. Also on the tool bar is the q a box. This is where we will draw questions from during the q a question following the presentation. My colleagues are monitoring this area. We encourage you to submit your questions throughout the presentation. We will get to as many as possible. This program is set to run about two hours, including the audience q a portion. I also have noticed that this Program Includes close captioning, which you can choose to hide by clicking closed caption on the tool bar. If you are using a tablet or smartphone, you may need to switch the captions off in years in settings. Following the plug ran, please take a minute to complete the autonomous closing survey. We appreciate your feedback. Finally, let me tell you about the speaker this evening. Dr. Balbina hwang currently a visiting professor at the Georgetown University and the d. C. Campus of bush of texas and i am. She is an Adjunct Research associate at an age asked mark it. Over the course of her career she has served as a Senior Special adviser to ambassador, christopher health, the assistant secretary of east asian and Pacific Affairs of the u. S. State department. What senior policy analyst for northeast asia and the asian city center and heritage foundation. Tom at National Defense university in washington d. C. Taught at George Washington university, american university, and the university of maryland. Wasnt Adjunct Research fellow for the institute for National Security strategy in seoul, korea. Doctor who won a native of south korea is the author of numerous articles and has received several running awards. She has provided expert testimony before expert hearings and regularly lectures for foreign diplomatic institutes, military economies, and thriving services. She is a frequent commentator for Major InternationalInternational Media outlets, including cnn, nbc, npr, abc, and cbs. She is also a frequent contributor to james intelligence review, the wall street journal, the washington post, the new york times, as well as numerous foreign media publications. Bobby knight has provided further resources for todays top. You can find that link in the chat. I actually, before she takes off she would like to do a quick poll. Im going to throw this up on the screen for you, real fast. Please take a minute to fill it out. It is going to help her with something. You will find out in just a second. So we are so excited to have Balbina Hwang here this evening. Without any further ado, please join me in welcoming doctor Balbina Hwang. Good evening well, i hope it is evening wherever you might be joining us. Will thank you soone of the adv apparently i just need to click one more button. There we are. Thank you so much, heather. And the staff at the smithsonian for all of the work that youve done to bring this program together. Thank you to all the audience members for joining us this evening. So i would like to begin heather, we are going to wait to get back some of the results. Is that correct . Im going to end the poll in just a second. We are slowing down. So, i might as well just Start Talking. Oh, there we go all right. Wonderful. These results are very interesting. Im very glad i asked this question. So, thank you so much for your response. If youre wondering why i ask you your age, i hope nobody found that route. Normally when i get one of these talks, i am with an audience. I can usually, sort of, gauge just by looking at the audience about approximately how old ar. That gives me an idea about how much you may or may not know about the korean war. Interestingly im assuming, heather, everyone was able to see the results on the screen, as well. It seems that the majority of our listeners this evening or actually, were probably alive right around the time of the korean war or they were children. That is actually a good sign. Youre probably wondering why it is that i have a picture of the Lincoln Memorial up here. There are several reasons for this. One of them, aside from the fact that it happens to be one of my favorite monuments in the beautiful city than i am allowed to call home, but it actually carries a lot of meaning in terms of korea, the way we think about korea, and everything that this memorial symbolizes. Favorite, the Memorial Park that i am no, this is my favorite view. You are sitting on the steps of the memorial, looking out. You will see this panorama. This is another one, taken in the evening. If you turn to the right, from the steps over by the trees you will see this. This is the memorial, built for commemorating not just the korean war and the u. S. Involvement in it, but all u. S. Lives sacrificed. Well over 30,000. I encourage all of you, if you havent been there, to go visit this memorial. Tsai, i guess i should bring that paid back up so you can see it. In any case, the reason i bring that up is, lincoln, obviously president lincoln brought back our country after it was torn apart by civil war. In fact, that is very much part of korea story. Interestingly enough, as we well now know, all of the controversies that we have with memorials, the war could and. Uk have graded under 50 years have passed, still many deep issues left over, left unresolved, they can still percolate up. Continuing to be issues that the country must face. Korea is a country in which civil war started 70 years ago. In fact, last year was the 70th anniversary of when it started. For three years there was a lot of killing and bloodshed on the peninsula. Well over 2 Million People, 2 Million People essentially the population of washington. Washington and the surrounding metropolitan areas. They were killed, from many different countries. What i would like to talk to you about this evenings, not just really about the war itself but about what that means. What it has meant how it has changed. Obviously not the country, which, technically is still in a state of war. Hostilities exist. Also for americans. Also, for the entire International System in our globe. What the korean war did was its fundamentally changed how everything was run. How all the countries within the International System interact with each other. It was essentially an entirely new period after only five years after we were too had ended. By the way, the korean war is essentially what triggers the cold war. I would like to take you through all of that. Starting off with this incredible view of korea. Ironically, the country has been known, for centuries, as the land of the morning calm. Frankly, there could not be a more ironic name. Just look at these pictures. The country is called, land of the morning calm. Yet, how did we get here . Here how do we get here . How have we been in this state for partially yes personally know, the last 70 years. Thats what i would like to talk to you about this evening. Of course it ends up being divided. We need to talk about this. Essentially the causes of the war itself lie much, much, longer than 1950. June 25th, 1950. The north Korean Forces on mass cross over something called the demilitarized zone, and the 38th parallel. Something i think you are all familiar with. Quickly to go back to why its so important for us to know i want to know the general age group so near memories are what your knowledge of korea might be interestingly enough i have no problem with people recognizing korea. Knowing so much about korea because of the popularity of south green culture. It is the kpop effect, right . In fact it wasnt that long ago, when i was a youth in fact, i will get to the background. It was actually quite difficult for people to even find korea on a map. I will put up this map i wont do another test by, here. Take a look see if you can spot exactly where korea is. Now, i dont mean this in any way to be an insult of our incredibly divides miss only an audience. As i say, not that long ago people had a really difficult time even finding korea on a map. Part of it is we americans tend to be notoriously bad a geography. Here, of course, is the world map im going to zoom in you can see the Korean Peninsula is here im hoping that all of you are able to at least sort of see it. I would like to take a moment look very carefully at this geography in fact, let me zoom out for a moment. This frankly will help you understand the and hire well what i like to call a paradox korea is an extremely complicated country. Extremely complicated pass. As people tell me, an extremely complicated society and culture. But, if you want to understand it, theres only one word. That word is, paradox. I think i messed up my slides you may have seen that earlier. Everything about korea itself can be explained by the one wonderful world, paradox. Im sure this incredibly edified smithsonian audience knows very well but it means and apparent contradiction i think that that wonderfully sums up exactly what korea is and much to everyones beef element exactly why it is the Korean Peninsula seems so odd to us today you have one country on the southern half the tenth largest economic country in the world. It is a Global Economic powerhouse. The sixth largest overall trading partner. Im sure most of you own something owned by samsung, hyundai, lg products. How is it on the other half when one of the country probably ranks the tenth i dont really like to use this word, poorest. I mean the smallest and least functioning economies. In fact, north korea probably ranks at the bottom of that list. North korea probably wins at winning every single one of these global rankings that they have. Most close acai. 197 countries, north korea probably winds. One of the most hostile countries. North korea probably is on their. How is it that we end up with two, essentially two different halves of the global system . Global economy steph curry is probably the most democratic. Most vibrant, open, Civil Society in all of asia, east asia much less northeast asia. How exactly did we get here . The clue is in this geography. Look very carefully, it is all about geography. Geography, essentially, was destiny when it came to korea. I tried to put this is a little bit of a dagger. This is the best icon i could find. What you see is for centuries, actually for millennia, well over 2000 years, the Korean Peninsula has been the geographical the bridge, the last point on the map, on the asian continent, that is the for this east. It is essentially a peninsula dangling. One of the wonderful historians once described korea, like a ripe fruit, dangling off the fertile asian continent. That is exactly what korea has been. What you are looking at here is, essentially, the Korean Peninsula has served as the gateway, or pathway, to japan as we see here. And, interestingly enough, what you will see is that if you look, korea has been described as a dagger pointed at the heart of japan. Meaning that japan has always felt that korea was a threat. It is through the Korean Peninsula, over the millennia, that numerous empires have tried to gain access to the japanese islands. Of course before navigation became advanced enough that large ships could go long distances. Not just small little fishing vessels. Big empires in china many different tribes different strength. One of the most famous being the mongolian. The mongolian empire under genghis khan who, in fact, took over korea. Took over the Korean Peninsula for well over 100 years or so. Tried to use korean advancements and civilizations to try to make an invasion of japan. Failing, ultimately. For most of the millennia, korea was seen as one of the most valuable pieces of real estate. Meanwhile, for japan, it is yes, a threat to japan. It is also a pathway up into the asian continent. Up the peninsula, up into the whole of mainland china. That is essentially exactly what happens. Fast forward to the 20th century with world war ii when japan essentially decides it is going to build its own empire. Korea was the first empire and important piece of territory that had to be controlled. As we will surely see it essentially sets off the story of the entire 20 century. One of the bloodiest centuries in human history. Not only world war i and world war ii, what most americans dont really or, im not even sure if they learn this in history. They have certainly forgotten it. Two critical wars that start at the very end of the previous century. What are essentially the causes . An contributed greatly to both world war i and what were to. So, lets move forward. Again, this map shows you exactly how over the millennia, korea has been essentially, there has been a civilization of koreans. It was not unified. Shortly can see a little graphic in a minute. Korea has been unified as one nation for close to 1800 years. For millennia before that, numerous, numerous, incursions were always coming through korea. Let me also point out that it wasnt always threatening invitations. In fact, the greatest of civilizations, china in the was essentially passed on to korea. In fact, korea advanced very much in being in chinas orbit. It was also the gateway through which, of course, japan received much of its knowledge and the facts and influences. From the great chinese empire. So, these graphics simply show you, the influences why it is that from the north there were constant innovations. Okay . As i mentioned before, the mongolian empire was one of the earliest. Chinese, at one, point tried to take over. When korea had been split into a period called the three kingdoms. There were three separate kingdoms. Also later on fast forwarding to the 20th century or the very end of the 18 hundreds you can see this arrow it is pointing to russia. When the russian empire it grows and power to rival one of the great european powers it has always considered itself a european empire. At the end of the 19th century it realizes that it is also a Pacific Power with its worldclass navy in fact what it really needs is i think it will fast forward here. I think vladivostok. That becomes a absolutely crucial piece of real estate. The other arrow that you see here is where japans interest joins. So you see here that moscow finally figures out that actually the far east region is an absolutely crucial part of expanding its global empire. Rivaling the growing, already grown empires in the west. The british empire. And all the other european empires. Also the growing power of the United States. We see here, the United States has always had some interest, primarily in the philippines. Then, it ends up being the case that the Korean Peninsula starts bringing in u. S. Interests. I drew this hearing to indicate that korea has been the fulcrum. The bullseye, of, centrally, all of the dynamics. Swirling all around the Korean Peninsula. For most of creates history, korea actually managed to do very well keeping most of the powers, the foreign powers outside, and at bay, hence he may have heard the term, hermit kingdom if you watch the news, im sure again, this audience does,. You have heard the hermit kingdom be applied to kim jongun the previous leaders before him, his father and grandfather. North korea in its modern history, certainly now, is called the hermit kingdom. We like to call it that. But actually, the Korean Peninsula, united korea was known as the hermit kingdom. For centuries before that. It is really important to keep that in mind. Again, what this shows is eventually all of this collides together at the and of the 19th century. As we are ushering in what would be, essentially, the modern era for asia, it is essentially a disaster. Of course china, it had been being opened up. If i am using my intensive correctly. The previous 200 years. Of course, as you know, the 19th century, the 18 hundreds, was considered the century of humiliation for china. That was the end of the chinese empire. This glorious empire that have been in existence for 5000 years. One of the most advanced china is in utter chaos it starts to go through civil war. As we know throughout history. What was the cause of that . It was essentially, in part, of course, because the western powers and entered into china. It was, essentially, the sino japanese war. That really leads to the