After two decades of relative political stability and unprecedented economic progress, South Korea is once again racked with political disorder, civil strife, and student unrest. The trouble began in Seoul in May with massive demonstrations by students demanding free elections for a new government and a quick end to martial law. What followed was a virtually total military takeover of the government and even more inclusive martial law. The initially peaceful demonstrations escalated into grave civil strife, bringing Kwangju, the country's fourth largest city, under the control of protesting youths.

For there to be a day like July 17, 1980, a nation's citizens have to fail completely in their duty to their country. It was, in fact, the only possible end for Bolivia after fourteen years of military dictatorship and three years of childish civilians' games that were so grandly called "the road back to democracy." It may look as if the military, who returned to power in a two-day battle that claimed three thousand lives, should bear all the blame. But I believe that civilian politicians hold greatest responsibility for the tragedy.

Leon Trotsky said that those who yearned for the quiet life had no right to be born in the twentieth century. The lover of the quiet life certainly had no right to be in Southeast Asia in the past year. The speed of events, many of them unexpected and “irrational,” has left a trail littered with hasty analyses and wrong predictions (to which this article will no doubt contribute its fair share). It is plain enough, however, that the dust has not yet settled; neither the Kampuchean question nor the recent thrust of Sino-Vietnamese relations have run their course. It is also undeniable that too little is known about the internal dynamics of decisionmaking that resulted in the first and second open inter-Communist wars in history.

The Vietnamese invasion of Kampuchea demonstrated the role and value of conventional warfare—a point to remember in an age when war by conventional means appears to many as a thing of the past. It is natural for regimes fighting guerrilla wars to be mesmerized by those struggles, but it is worth noting how few governments have been toppled by guerrilla wars and how many have been overturned by other means. Even in the military theorizing of the Communists, the guerrilla's place is at the beginning of revolutionary wars; the end game is still reserved for conventional military means.

Another Holocaust.” “Fearful Tragedy.” “Looming Catastrophe.” Cambodia increasingly evokes phrases such as these—belatedly. Brief images of the emaciated and the starving, the dying and the dead flicker across the non-Communist world's TV. screens. They are only the tip of the iceberg.

This was Wednesday, another day of intolerable heat. When I awoke, the sun was already high in the sky— it must have been well past eight o'clock. I looked at my watch, but, alas, it had stopped again during the night. This broken watch I have worn the last seven-eight years now is long overdue for a cleaning-but that would cost two-and-a-half yuan! Never mind, my stomach knows the time, anyway. When it begins to mumble-grumble, it is mealtime. It never goes wrong.

Observers of Korea have recently received a surfeit of facts about the military takeover, riots, civil insurgency in Cholla province, widespread arrests, and abuse of prisoners. What we lack is a firm sense of what all these events mean for South Korea and the United States. Though it is still early, sufficient evidence exists to warrant a preliminary judgment about the new leadership of post-Park Korea and what may be ahead for the Republic of Korea.