The Chaebol Returns To The Presidency 1967 [EN]: Chapter 56

56. Making the Country Green Again

“The term ‘national security’ is just diplomatic rhetoric. Isn’t using it as a pretext to withdraw for America’s benefit damaging to America’s credibility?”

“Candidate Nixon, you’re already changing your tune. Very well, are you saying Asia offers no benefit to the United States?”

“That’s right. Does Vietnam have oil? Can Vietnam send troops to the U.S.? Asia is a primitive, rice-farming agrarian nation. It’s the same reason the U.S. doesn’t intervene in African conflicts.”

Kennedy pulled out a world map he had prepared.

It was the same world map, centered on the Pacific, that the Korean president had shown.

“We are accustomed to world maps centered on America and Europe, on the Atlantic. But the reality is this: America is surrounded by Asia to the west and Europe to the east.”

“……”

“If all of Asia falls to communism, the U.S. will have to defend the largest ocean on Earth, the Pacific. Is that feasible? Why should we only defend the European Atlantic and neglect the Asian Pacific? Is that Candidate Nixon’s security map?”

“Ahem, ahem.”

Since TV conveys information visually, the map had a powerful impact on voters.

Nixon, caught off guard by the unexpected counterattack, cleared his throat, trying to come up with a rebuttal.

Kennedy didn’t give him an opening.

“There’s a Korean proverb, ‘Soonmangchihan,’ [meaning ‘if the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold,’ implying interdependence] which means ‘If the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold.’”

“……”

“The cost of the U.S. defending this vast Pacific is far greater than the cost of supporting South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and South Vietnam to defend against China and Russia. The presence of U.S. troops in Asia is entirely in America’s national interest. Candidate Nixon, will you still withdraw from Asia?”

“Well, what I mean is that the South Vietnamese government lacks the will to defend itself. There’s no need to sacrifice American money and lives for a country without the will.”

“It’s true that the incompetence and corruption of the South Vietnamese government have been obstacles. That’s why a new government has been established and is rapidly stabilizing through reforms. The U.S. military is gradually withdrawing, and South Korea is undertaking reconstruction projects as a peacekeeping force. The U.S. has laid the foundation for South Vietnam’s self-reliance. Isn’t this a very successful American strategy for defending Asia?”

“……”

“South Korea, too, has successfully rebuilt itself since the Korean War and is faithfully playing its role as a shield for Asia, sending troops to Vietnam to lighten America’s burden. Isn’t there value in the blood America shed in Vietnam?”

Nixon’s face turned red and then pale.

Kennedy drove the point home.

“Freedom is won with blood and defended with blood. Freedom shouted from hiding in the Americas is not possible. The 21st century will be the Pacific era. What should America, with the Pacific as its front line, truly do!”

That day, the Nixon Doctrine was harshly rejected by the voters.

After the televised debate, the poll results came out. Kennedy overwhelmingly led with 71:29.

Candidate Kennedy strode confidently toward the American White House.

* * *

Night.

Swish— Swish—

A torrential monsoon rain was pouring down across the country.

On the barren mountains with no trees, the yellow soil was washed away, and the stream water writhed in a muddy torrent.

Heavy raindrops pounded the roof of a house at the foot of the mountain like a burst of machine-gun fire.

Thud! Thud!

The incandescent light bulb flickered.

An old man tapped his tobacco pipe and muttered.

“Did a hole open up in the sky? It needs to stop pouring so much. The rice paddy ridges will all collapse.”

The old woman said,

“Are you going to check the waterways this late at night?”

“I need to open them up a bit.”

“Do it when it’s light out. It’s dangerous in this downpour.”

“What are you talking about? Are we going to starve if the entire year’s harvest is ruined?”

The old man clumsily put on his clothes.

Just then.

Crumble!

“What was that? Is it thunder?”

“That doesn’t sound like thunder.”

“Oh, oh!”

The whole house shook.

“Is it an earthquake?”

Rumble~

“Agh-”

A landslide from the mountain swallowed several houses whole.

The muddy stream water swept away all the rice paddies and fields below the mountain, turning them into wasteland.

* * *

Cheonggyecheon Stream.

“Get out of the way!”

The Cheonggyecheon Stream [a stream in Seoul] overflowed, sweeping through the shantytown.

The shantytown collapsed and was swept away like matchsticks in the raging current.

Residents, some not even dressed, carried their children on their backs and fled to higher ground.

However, some were swept away while trying to cross the raging water, and others who couldn’t escape their homes in time were carried away.

* * *

Landslide site.

Reservists, civil servants, and soldiers were sweating as they cleared the collapsed earth with heavy equipment.

The President visited the recovery site.

As soon as the President arrived, the governor, the Minister of the Interior, the Minister of Agriculture, the commander of the nearby military unit, and related officials all gathered.

Looking at the tragically collapsed houses and fields, the President asked,

“Can’t we prevent such disasters in advance?”

Related officials were busy avoiding responsibility.

“The weather forecast was a mess. If they predict 20mm and 120mm comes, there’s nothing we can do, Your Excellency.”

“The reforestation project is too slow to prevent floods. Deforestation continues, so the mountains are even more barren.”

“In rural areas, they use firewood for fuel, so there’s no choice. It takes 10 years for seedlings to grow, but cutting them down takes only an hour. The reforestation project is something the Japanese tried 50 times since 1907 and failed. It’s not an easy task.”

The President asked,

“Who is responsible for the recovery?”

The Minister of the Interior and the Governor exchanged glances.

The President pressed,

“Why can’t you speak and just keep looking at each other?”

“Well, it varies from case to case. If rice paddies and fields are lost, the Governor or the Ministry of Agriculture is involved, and if there are casualties, the Ministry of the Interior is involved, and so on.”

The President clicked his tongue.

“Tsk, if there’s no one responsible for recovery, that means there’s no one responsible for disaster prevention either?”

“……”

“That’s why it’s always too late, and we can’t even fix the barn after the cow is lost [a common idiom for acting too late].”

“We, we apologize, Your Excellency.”

The officials lowered their heads.

The President was overwhelmed, unsure where to begin.

A few emergency measures wouldn’t prevent such disasters.

The President encouraged the workers who were carrying out the recovery work.

“You’re working hard.”

A soldier, his clothes covered in mud and his back soaked with sweat, snapped to attention and responded.

“Corporal Cha Do-hyun! Thank you, Your Excellency!”

The President patted him on the shoulder and smiled.

“Oh, the corporal is setting an example. You can tell a lot about a unit from just one person.”

The President provided boiled pork and makgeolli (rice wine) that he had prepared.

“Thank you for the meal!”

The President pointed to the collapsed mountain with his finger and said to the Minister of the Interior and related officials.

“Because there are no trees on the mountain, even a little bit of heavy rain causes landslides and the loss of rice paddies and fields.”

The officials diligently took notes.

* * *

Government Complex.

The President gathered the Prime Minister, related ministers, and governors from the provinces that had suffered severe flood damage and instructed them on flood control measures.

“When a flood occurs, nothing gets done because you’re all fighting over whose responsibility it is. There must be a central department that responds to and plans for all disasters, including floods, droughts, fires, and epidemics. Prime Minister!”

“Yes, Your Excellency!”

“First, we must establish a Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters under the Prime Minister. It should oversee everything from disaster forecasting to recovery and prevention education. Appoint a vice-ministerial-level official as the head of the headquarters.”

“Yes, I understand, Your Excellency!”

The President spoke about the plan he had conceived.

“Next, we must implement a national land renovation and protection project.”

During Chairman Wang’s era, the focus was only on national land renovation without protection. As a result, the side effects were severe.

Under the guise of development and renovation, mountains were cut to build roads, houses, and factories, and to reclaim land. As a result, the mountains and rivers were recklessly destroyed, the Baekdu-daegan mountain range [a major mountain range in Korea] was cut off, cities devoured green spaces like poisonous mushrooms, rivers rotted black, and mountains revealed red soil.

Therefore, this time, renovation and protection would be carried out in parallel.

The attendees were puzzled.

The Prime Minister asked,

“Your Excellency, it seems that renovation and preservation are mutually contradictory.”

“That’s right. In terms of language, it’s like a spear and a shield. But in reality, we must develop and protect nature at the same time. We must promote development and protection in harmony.”

“……”

“Before civil engineering and construction, we must conduct environmental impact assessments to find ways to preserve the environment as much as possible. Let’s enact environmental assessment legislation.”

“Environmental assessment…”

“It may cost a lot initially, but cities can be developed in an eco-friendly way. In the long run, it will save social costs.”

The environmental assessment system was a system advanced by several decades.

The President proposed a comprehensive list of systems that were evaluated as beneficial in the future.

“The national land protection project is a greening project.”

“Greening project…”

“Let’s establish a Forest Service as the department for the greening project. Since the damage around Seoul is the most severe, the Governor of Gyeonggi Province should serve as the first Director of the Forest Service.”

“Ah, me? I understand, Your Excellency!”

Since the governor was an appointed position, he was nothing more than a local official carrying out instructions from the central government.

There was no power or system to stop environmental destruction, and it was a powerless, dead-end position where one would resign if a disaster occurred.

But being asked to take on the position of Director of the Forest Service, responsible for the entire country’s forests, was bound to inspire motivation.

The President, who had experience with greening projects, especially erosion control projects, during Chairman Wang’s era, was an expert with extensive field experience.

“Nature restores itself and maintains its form if humans don’t damage it. We must establish green belts (development restricted areas) that limit human development and designate national parks.”

“Your Excellency, what is the difference between green belts and national parks?”

“Green belts are green areas established to prevent the disorderly expansion of Seoul, and national parks are important areas in terms of natural environment, scenery, national recreation, and academic value, such as Jirisan Mountain or Hallyeohaesang National Park [famous national parks in Korea].”

The green belt system originated in England.

In 1898, Ebenezer Howard, an urban reform activist in England, proposed the concept of a ‘garden city’ to solve urban sprawl and environmental problems.

It is a plan to surround the city center with green spaces to prevent the indiscriminate expansion of the city.

In 1938, the Green Belt Act, which restricted land use for agriculture and leisure activities, was applied to London, and in 1955, the green belt policy was expanded to the entire country, establishing itself as an urban management system.

The Korean green belt system was modeled after England.

In the future, the area of green belts will decrease due to development pressure, but the positive effect of acting as a space for eco-friendly development, rather than reckless development, will be significant.

Japan also introduced the green belt system, but there is no green belt system because of the prevailing concerns about the infringement of private property rights.

The officials, especially the Governor of Gyeonggi Province, diligently took notes on the President’s words.

The President said,

“Another axis of the greening project is artificially afforesting areas where natural restoration is difficult.”

The sound of pencils writing was heard here and there like the music of crickets.