Rumsfeld`s memoir

On the relationship between Iraq and terrorists, former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, "There are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns." Though his comment sounds inexplicable, many say Rumsfeld gave a clever answer to a complicated issue in his recently published memoir, "Known and Unknown."

In his book, Rumsfeld criticized South Koreans` "historical amnesia" under the former Roh Moo-hyun government. When he visited Seoul in 2003, a journalist asked, "Why should South Korean youths go to Iraq to risk their lives?" He said in his book that he responded by saying, "What would`ve happened in South Korea if the U.S. hadn`t sent its youths to a country at the opposite side of the globe 50 years ago?" On the desk at his office was a satellite picture of the Korean Peninsula taken at night. In the picture, South Korea was bright with lights but North Korea was dark.

When then President-elect Roh mentioned in December 2001 a review of bilateral relations with the U.S., Rumsfeld ordered the U.S. Defense Department to accept Roh`s request. Having wanted Seoul to raise its financial contribution to U.S. forces in South Korea, Rumsfeld must have rejoiced when Roh later urged Washington to return wartime operational command to Seoul. People will wonder if Roh was aware that his bid to get South Korea more independent from the U.S. instead helped Washington to get what it had long wanted.

Under his judgment that the six-party nuclear talks would fail, Rumsfeld planned to induce the collapse of the North`s communist regime through pressure on the North. He regretted that the Pentagon was blocked from North Korean policies and those supporting negotiations with the North at the U.S. State Department took the initiative at the end of the Bush administration in 2006. Another category of "unknown knowns" should be added to his past comments. Those who prefer dialogue with Pyongyang, such as former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Washington`s former top nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill, might have turned a blind eye to the failure of the six-party talks due to China`s taking sides with the North.

Editorial Writer Song Pyeong-in (pisong@donga.com)