Last week, the Archive posted a collection of documents that laid out President Richard Nixon’s and National Security Advisory Henry Kissinger’s search for viable military options to use against North Korea in the wake of Pyongyang’s downing of an American spy plane in April 1969. These documents, gleaned from the recently-published document collection, The United States and the Two Koreas, 1969-2000, have gathered a fair share of attention from the news media, including a recent story on NPR’s All Things Considered. Much of the attention has naturally focused on the discussion in the contingency military plans of possible nuclear strikes against North Korea, and the prospects for nuclear warfare on the Korean peninsula under certain contingencies.
While the nuclear angle is of obvious and undeniable interest, there seems to be broader lessons to be considered from these documents with respect to the appeal and risks involved in weighing military responses to clearly unacceptable behavior by bad actors on the international scene. There is a visceral instinct to strike back at the neighborhood or schoolyard bully, to show that such behavior is wrong, will not be tolerated and will result in retaliation and punishment. In the best of all possible worlds, such a stand could serve to open up a space for discussion to reform the bully. At the very least, one hopes, it will deter future such actions.
