ABSTRACT
Archimedes once declared, “Give me a fixed point and I can move the earth.” Historically speaking, the Gwangju People’s Uprising of 1980 is such a fixed point. It was the pivot around which dictatorship was transformed into democracy in South Korea. Decades afterwards, its energy resonates strongly across the world. Among other things, its history provides both a glimpse of the free society of the future and a sober and realistic assessment of the role of the US government and its allies in Asia.
