Guest post: You must see this film

Our friend Jim recently posted this on what he calls “the Zuckerberg entity.” Follow his advice. This is a great film.

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This is a film you must see, and must tell everyone you know to see.

This is a story about real heroes, a story that will make you weep, that will make you glad to know that such people have walked the earth. This is the story of the Gwangju Democratic Movement and the murder of hundreds of civilians by a corrupt dictator, an ally of the USA, the brave West German reporter who exposed the regime’s crimes to the world, and the astonishing taxi driver who made the reporting possible.

On 18 May, 1980, forty years ago today, the repressive dictator, Chun Doo-hwan orchestrated the murder of hundreds of civilians, mostly students, who were demonstrating against the martial law government. For this, he was called "The Butcher of Gwangju" by many people, especially among the students.

Chun had become the de facto leader of South Korea at that time since coming into power on December 12, 1979, after he led a successful military coup of the previous South Korean government, and seen to the murder of the previous dictator.

Source: ， Gwangju Uprising

“The Butcher of Gwangju” was invited to the US by The Great Prevaricator. ‘At the invitation of President Ronald W. Reagan, the President of the Republic of Korea and Mrs. Chun Doo Hwan made an official visit to Washington, D.C. from February 1 to 3, 1981. ‘

Source: Reagan Library

We lived in LA at the time. I remember the local CBS anchor, Connie Chung, gushing over this visit by one dictator to meet with our own reactionary leader, who was just getting started murdering leftists in Central America. She made no mention of the Gwangju murders.

This has already happened at the end of the Carter administration: ‘On December 2, 1980, members of the Salvadoran National Guard were suspected to have raped and murdered four American, Catholic church women (three religious women, or nuns, and a laywoman). Maryknoll missionary sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, Ursuline sister Dorothy Kazel, and laywoman Jean Donovan were on a Catholic relief mission providing food, shelter, transport, medical care, and burial to death squad victims...

the [Carter] administration claimed that the regime had taken "positive steps" to investigate the murder of four American nuns, but this was disputed by US Ambassador, Robert E. White, who said that he could find no evidence the junta was "conducting a serious investigation."  

White was dismissed from the foreign service by the Reagan Administration after he had refused to participate in a coverup of the Salvadoran military's responsibility for the murders at the behest of [Reagan administration]  Secretary of State Alexander Haig. ‘ 

Source: El Salvador Civil War

For more about the film, see IMDB: A Taxi Driver

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Thanks, Jim!