BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MAY 25-27) — THE PLANET greets Preident Trump’s cancellation of the proposed June 12 summit with North Korean head of state Kim Jung Un with deep disappointment.

The President wants to blame Kim’s “anger” and “hostility” as the reason for pre-emptying the greatest chance of achieving peace on the troubled peninsula since the “victorious” Allies won WWII and played Etch-A-Sketch on the map of Eastern Europe and the Pacific Rim. In fact, however, truth must finger the belligerence of the United States as the underlying cause of the rift. Despite a willingness of South Korea to suspend join military exercises with the U.S., the President ordered them continued, and we all know that when America itches, South Korea scratches.

And so just as Trump looked as if he were committed to avoid the Korean tarpit that has snagged every U.S. President going back to Harry Truman, he falls into the same trap set by the yoyo North. The Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea has alternated carrots and mostly sticks when it comes to dealing with the international community (read “with America”). The hothead in Trump puffed up and bellowed loudly about his “military solutions” being “locked and loaded.” Right. On Korea, Mr. President, there are no military “solutions.” There are military “options.” There are  military “responses,” but there are no “solutions.”

This country had its best chance in Korea at the Yalta Conference, when an ailing, tired, and spent Franklin Roosevelt let Soviet premier Josef Stalin claim the 38th Parallel and land north to the Chinese border as its own sphere in influence.

Stalin ran circles around an outmanned FDR and an outgunned Winston Churchill, insisting on the north as a communist buffer between Red China and the USSR. Stalin played Bobby Fischer-level chess, strategizing ten moves ahead. He knew he would need the north to keep control of newly minted Red China and Mao. Uncle Joe’s biggest miscalculation (though historians divide on this point) involves his failure to understand the determination and steel courage of the 1949-vintage Mao, who didn’t waste much time in attacking South Korea through the surrogate North.

Did Truman have a choice in June 1950 between intervention and hands-off? Again, historians will disagree. It’s beyond reasonable dispute, though, to say that the U.S. combat presence preserved the South, which, fueled by capitalism, grew into one of the world’s most dynamic economies. As long as China remained the reddish sort of Red in its butchering of Marx’s grand idea of a classless society, the strategy made sense. However, Mao and the Cultural Revolution are long six feet under. Today’s China is, if not in principle then in effect, as capitalistic as the U.S., and in some measures even more so — to such a degree that it stands poised to challenge America as the world’s most functional economy.

China today doesn’t want war on the Korean Peninsula. When Kim began building and successfully testing nukes, the war alert ratcheted up to Red Alert. That’s when Trump put his negotiating skills to work, huddling through back channels with his Chinese counterpart. Trump and Xi Jinping realize the mutual interest of keeping Korean cool. Xi put Kim on speed dial and ordered the reclusive one to visit Beijing. After plying Kim with a boatload of gifts, including a case of Johnny Walker Blue and mounds of Beuluga caviar, Xi slapped Kim aside the head and told him to begin playing ball with the South and with Trump.

The “corrected” Kim then turned all lovey-dovey, shaking hands with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and making nice with America. It was all set to go, and then Trump pulled out of June 12. His letter to Kim hinted at the chance of a reopener, but it also makes clear that Kim must be the first one to pick up the hotline, something the DPRK leader won’t do because of lost face. The only way he will find face is if, again, China intervenes. Perhaps Xi, currently the best politician on the planet, may yet save the day.

He and Trump have talked privately since this turn of events. Meanwhile, he urged “calm” and”restraint” while eyeballing the North. Kim can’t afford to tick off Xi.

Until then, THE PLANET will hold off on our planned trip to Pyongyang Yang.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend, everybody.

———————————————————

“And so it’s true pride comes before a fall” — The Beatles, “I’m a Loser.”

” OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

The Usual Disclaimer.