Talk:William H. Gleysteen

Gwangju Massacre section credulous/Exculptory of likely crimes
The section about the gwangju massacres seems incredibly exculpatory.

For example, the citations for "during the uprising but before the outbreak of serious violence, Gleysteen met with General Chun to urge restraint with regard to the student protests" are two documents released under FOIA.

The first document basically says "I feel that the military coup leader is taking a very sensible approach to the student uprising" - of course, thousands of people were massacred... And then that "I spoke to [imprisoned activists awaiting execution, later to be awarded the nobel prize] that they should stop encouraging the pro-democracy student protests, because it will only make the good major-general mad"

The second document is saying "they told me they want to end it peacefully but are drawing up plans for a massive military assault against pro-democracy student protesters" and in the face of this gleysteen's priority is to assure the good major-general who massacred thousands of people that "the US does not want to limit his freedom in such military contingencies" and then rambles on about how to maintain a good image for the military junta while all of this is going on.

I mean, either Gleysteen is so credulous that his mental capacity to discharge his duty is called in to question, or he is culpable in a major crime.

The characterisation of these documents as supporting the notion that Gleysteen was doing all that he could to prevent the massacre seems to be either credulous, or a total distortion. Gleysteen could simply have argued to General John Wickham that all troops under his command should stay in their Barracks in order to prevent a possible military assault against student protesters. He could also have arranged for "truce" negotiations which the student leaders were requesting, instead of rebuffing them the day before the assault which Gleysteen, no doubt, had foreknowledge of (given that troops under US command carried out the assault and massacre). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 1.239.35.10 (talk) 18:28, 16 October 2020 (UTC)