quote:

SEOUL, South Korea - The American colonel, troubled by what he was hearing, tried to stall at first. But the declassified record shows he finally told his South Korean counterpart it "would be permitted" to machine-gun 3,500 political prisoners, to keep them from joining approaching enemy forces.

In the early days of the Korean War, other American officers observed, photographed and confidentially reported on such wholesale executions by their South Korean ally, a secretive slaughter believed to have killed 100,000 or more leftists and supposed sympathizers, usually without charge or trial, in a few weeks in mid-1950.

Extensive archival research by The Associated Press has found no indication Far East commander Gen. Douglas MacArthur took action to stem the summary mass killing, knowledge of which reached top levels of the Pentagon and State Department in Washington, where it was classified "secret" and filed away.

Now, a half-century later, the South Korean government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission is investigating what happened in that summer of terror, a political bloodbath largely hidden from history, unlike the communist invaders' executions of southern rightists, which were widely publicized and denounced at the time.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Level

quote:

SEOUL, South Korea - The American colonel, troubled by what he was hearing, tried to stall at first. But the declassified record shows he finally told his South Korean counterpart it "would be permitted" to machine-gun 3,500 political prisoners, to keep them from joining approaching enemy forces.

In the early days of the Korean War, other American officers observed, photographed and confidentially reported on such wholesale executions by their South Korean ally, a secretive slaughter believed to have killed 100,000 or more leftists and supposed sympathizers, usually without charge or trial, in a few weeks in mid-1950.

Extensive archival research by The Associated Press has found no indication Far East commander Gen. Douglas MacArthur took action to stem the summary mass killing, knowledge of which reached top levels of the Pentagon and State Department in Washington, where it was classified "secret" and filed away.

Now, a half-century later, the South Korean government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission is investigating what happened in that summer of terror, a political bloodbath largely hidden from history, unlike the communist invaders' executions of southern rightists, which were widely publicized and denounced at the time.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080706/ap_on_re_as/korea_mass_executions_us

Is being at war a valid reason for such actions?

quote:

It was the British who took action, according to news reports at the time. On Dec. 7, in occupied North Korea, British officers saved 21 civilians lined up to be shot, by threatening to shoot the South Korean officer responsible. Later that month, British troops seized "Execution Hill," outside Seoul, to block further mass killings there.

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ORIGINAL: Level
Is being at war a valid reason for such actions?

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ORIGINAL: Sanity

The North was advancing and would soon overtake the prisoners who would then be given rifles to help kill those who formerly held them. What South Korea did back then was not good, but still nowhere near the level of the mass atrocities that have occurred under communist regimes.

This will give the America haters information that can be made into propaganda, and it will without a doubt be twisted and spun until it is unrecognizable as the truth. 

quote:

ORIGINAL: Sanity

The North was advancing and would soon overtake the prisoners who would then be given rifles to help kill those who formerly held them. What South Korea did back then was not good, but still nowhere near the level of the mass atrocities that have occurred under communist regimes.

This will give the America haters information that can be made into propaganda, and it will without a doubt be twisted and spun until it is unrecognizable as the truth. 
[/quote)Just give it a minute and the usual suspects will start their usual"blame uncle Sam "litany.As if America is responsible for all the crimes commited against humanity ,be they by the left or by the right.This was done to Koreans by Koreans and somehow our presence there makes us responsible.Having control of all South Korean Forces involved in the repulsion of the invasion by forces of North Korea did not and could not extend to total control of all activities in all places by the Goverment of South Korea,this attrocity paled in comparison to the attrocities that would surely have resulted in a victory by North Korea.....but we were there so we shall be blamed and sooner or later reparations might even be demanded,yet the same voices that will scream the loudest due to the inaction of American Officer's will next week bemoan the actions of some American somewhere else meddling in the affairs of others...

(in reply to Sanity)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Sanity

The North was advancing and would soon overtake the prisoners who would then be given rifles to help kill those who formerly held them. What South Korea did back then was not good, but still nowhere near the level of the mass atrocities that have occurred under communist regimes.

This will give the America haters information that can be made into propaganda, and it will without a doubt be twisted and spun until it is unrecognizable as the truth. 

quote:

ORIGINAL: Sanity

The North was advancing and would soon overtake the prisoners who would then be given rifles to help kill those who formerly held them.