Agent Orange

Yesterday I was leaving Camp Carroll and I noticed that the fence outside the gate is plastered with signs. Most of them are in Korean, but one says, “US Army, come clean!” This is because of the big news here: some U.S. veterans claim to have buried Agent Orange on base. The Army says they buried some chemicals in 1978, but removed them two years later. Currently, they’re investigating the area along with the Korean government for traces of Agent Orange.

And the locals are making sure they do. There are demonstrations outside of the gate that cause it to close once and awhile. We always receive warnings to avoid demonstrations, and I do, but I’m not entirely sure why. I have never seen anything approaching violence at one of them. Actually, demonstrators have to warn the Army in advance that they will have a protest at a certain place and time. The Korean police show up in full riot gear, which looks pretty comical next to the Koreans waving signs and talking on bullhorns. No one even throws a tomato.

The Army and the Korean government have not found any Agent Orange or traces of it, but the investigation continues. The outrage caused by this incident brings to light a deeper issue. There are more and more Koreans who believe that the U.S. military has overstayed its welcome. It took me awhile to realize this, since Koreans are, for the most part, very polite to us. There is a pretty large disconnect between what the Korean establishment says and what the people on the ground believe. More so, I think, than in other countries, since you can know a Korean person for a long time without knowing his or her political opinions. They are just not expressed in mixed company. In my experience, when a Korean person speaks to a foreigner, Korea and everything Korean are sacrosanct, including the pro-U.S. rhetoric of the government. It takes an incident like this to bring all that hidden animosity to the surface, and it comes out in a pretty spectacular—albeit nonviolent—way.