Obama may be tempted to leave the budgeting of a credible U.S. Asian presence to his successor

By on    BB Columnists, BB NE Asia, Cambodia, Columnists, Donald Kirk, Exclusives, Japan, NE Asia, North Korea, South Korea, Stateside, Top Stories, U.S. Economy, U.S. Media, U.S. Military, Vietnam, Washington  

Obama may be tempted to leave the budgeting of a credible U.S. Asian presence to his successor

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com The temptation to slash defense spending is overwhelming. Why worry about huge standing forces overseas when they’re not deployed much except on military exercises and war games that are repetitious and boring? Easy to say, but the U.S. had only 500 advisers in South Korea when the North […]

War and peace, then and now

By on    Cambodia, Columnists, Donald Kirk, Exclusives, Iraq, Mideast, NE Asia, South Korea, Syria, Top Stories, Vietnam  

War and peace, then and now

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com In sunny Florida, while storms and blizzards rage in the American Northeast, old war correspondents from our days in Vietnam and Cambodia talk about those days of fighting in the jungles, of going down remote roads, of running into the bad guys and coming back alive. One of […]

The U.S. is at war again, only this time it’s different; Really?

By on    BB Columnists, Cambodia, Columnists, COMMENTARY, Donald Kirk, Exclusives, Iraq, Mideast, NE Asia, Stateside, Syria, Top Stories, U.S. Military, Vietnam, World Links  

The U.S. is at war again, only this time it’s different; Really?

By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com WASHINGTON — The eyes of the world are upon the new U.S. war in Syria and Iraq, and that’s not just because people want to know how or whether aerial bombardments and missile strikes are really knocking out the bad guys. One question is whether such high-tech attacks from the air […]

Forgotten then and unreported now: The bloodletting inspired by ‘Maoism’

By on    BB NE Asia, Cambodia, China, Exclusives, India, Life, Mideast, NE Asia, North Korea, Top Stories  

Forgotten then and unreported now: The bloodletting inspired by ‘Maoism’

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com NEW DELHI — The late “Great Leader” Kim Il-Sung no doubt drew upon the teachings of Mao Zedong when he formulated his philosophy of “juche” or self-reliance, but one word you never hear on visits to North Korea is “Maoism.” If North Korea recognizes Mao Zedong as an […]

When world leaders talk about ‘human rights’ and when they do not

By on    Burma, Cambodia, China, Exclusives, Japan, Life, NE Asia, North Korea, Philippines, South Korea, Stateside, Top Stories, U.S. Politics, Vietnam  

When world leaders talk about ‘human rights’ and when they do not

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com The spectacle of the ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh did more to lay bare the problems, conflicts and paradoxes of relations among the region’s wildly different and widely scattered nations than to resolve them. The fact that at least three of the leaders at this year’s ASEAN summit […]

The people be damned: Recalling the odd friendship between ‘Snooky’ Sihanouk and Kim Il-Sung

By on    Cambodia, Exclusives, Life, NE Asia, North Korea, Stateside, Top Stories, U.S. Intelligence, World Links  

The people be damned: Recalling the odd friendship between ‘Snooky’ Sihanouk and Kim Il-Sung

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com They formed one of the oddest, blood-stained duos in Asian history. Cambodia’s king and prince and then king again, Norodom Sihanouk, bonded with North Korea’s “Great Leader” Kim Il-Sung for reasons that had to do with their mutual hatred of the United States. Never did the adage, the […]