Remember when ‘Red China’ was the West’s bogeyman?
Re: “Fear of nuclear North Korea is overblown”, Have Your Say, yesterday.
Growing up in America in the 1950s and ’60s, I was scared to death of what we then called “Red China”.
When I was in junior high school my history teacher said we should nuke China because if we didn’t it would eventually drop nuclear weapons on us. And I believed him.
Back then China was seen as a demented, isolated country and the greatest threat to the survival of the world.
In the 1970s when President Nixon decided to open the door to China and recognise the Middle Kingdom, we found that despite America’s cultural and political differences with that country we certainly could live together in peace.
It seems to me that even the experts don’t know what to do about North Korea. But here’s my humble suggestion: the situation we have with North Korea might not be all that different from the situation we once had with China.
Eric Bahrt
Chiang Mai
