The 91st story of a full-length business novel.
Then, the general spoke on leisurely again as before.
“Actually, the Northern Seoul was the old capital of Korea. And the Southern Seoul has been recently upbuilt as a mushroom city for businesses. As I’ve already said, our gunboats can flow into the old capital in the North and the newly-built business town by using the River, I think. Then we can advance into the two cities deeply in two directions at the same time. From this point of view, I surmise, the River will serve as the highway for our maneuverability. Then, the Korean campaign will be waged easily and successfully within a short time.”
So far, there has been no overstepping of the authority in his speech. But here, his voice changed into a lower but grave one. And he said to the officers plainspokenly that:
“Well, of course, our ultimate goal is not to take it and capture the small peninsula. Right, the peninsula and Seoul are not our final targets at all. The target is more than that. Frankly speaking, between us, the ultimate purpose of our campaign is basically focused upon on China and the eastern Russia.”
In harmony with his exultant but somewhat grave speech, the continuity in the film was about to continue according to his own script.
At the right time, something happened. One officer gently rose up from his seat. Then he expressed some pessimistic opinion as below:
“Sir, if I may humbly make one comment. But, in my private and personal opinion as it may sound, I have heard that. That was that, there was a Korean War over here. From my memory, it happened in the early 1950s. So it was about sixty years ago or so. In this relation, I think, this Korean campaign bears a great resemblance of the last Korean War. But, at the time, the commander in chief, Omar Bradley, called it a ‘Wrong War.’ He said that ‘It is the wrong war. It happened at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong enemy.’ His words were shocking to me. So I still remember them. Aligned with this point of view, I am afraid that, this campaign might be another wrong war at the wrong place with the wrong enemy. That is my concern, general. Sorry for that, general.”
Then he added that:
“Hopefully, you will forgive my plain speaking, sir.”
(Below was the Korean War in the early 1950s. Source: orlop.net/2012/08/06/my-war)
In its literal sense, the inquiry was soft and gentle in a good manner. Substantially his attitude was non-conforming. In the plain speech, it was standing against his plan. Truly, it seemed that he non-concurred the up-coming campaign. His seeming suggestion seemed that the Korean campaign would be unwelcome, unwise, and simply wrong. Further, he was saying indirectly that:
“It is plain that you will fail in the campaign.”
As for the high commissioner as well as the supreme commander of the campaign, it was an unexpected happening. Before the meeting, he did not expect such an unexpected and unfavorable question from the staff would be raised. Right, he had not made any Q&A (Questions & Answers) series beforehand in preparation for such a happening. Right here, the continuity was cut down. The hidden goal of the meeting was to be shattered down into pieces. Indeed, it was discontinuity against continuity of the conference.
Momentarily the overbearing commander felt sour and was puzzled a little bit. Throughout his entire soldiering he has not hidden himself behind bushes. Never has he flinched from battlefields. His long soldiery career did not permit such a flinching and hesitant attitude at all. To him, such things were a shame itself. He was and is still high-energy as a professional soldier. But now he is not a battalion commander in the battlefield. This time, he is in the highest post as the supreme commander. So he could not act as a fighting commander against the pessimistic questioner. Indeed, he did not take it toughly and retort against it dismissively. Rather, he, as the high commissioner, said slowly and frankly as below:
“Hum, it was and is a nagging question to me.”
Then he tried to think out something to explain. At first he pretended to look at the situation map of the past Korean War once again. But he found out that it was not hung on the rack. Nonetheless, he did not take it amiss. Rather he pretended to ignore it. And he began to limber up again to solve the thorny question. Then he touched the water bottle on the podium. He uncapped its cap slowly and gulped the water down as if he had been thirsty. All of it was a good acting for a veteran soldier like him. Yes, there was not a flip-flopped bungle in order to evade an awkward moment temporarily. Then he pretended to reflect on the dim vistas of the past Korean War. Then he opened the mouth and said to him in a soft voice slowly that:
“Of course, you are partially right. In this point, that’s a great question. At the time the situation was surely turning unfavorable to us. The reason was that we had lacked a little bit background information on the War and the Korean history. Further, we had not recognized seriously the surrounding environments and neighboring countries’ military situations, for instance, the communists China & Russia. So we had made some mistakes and experienced the ravages of the war, I do agree. For the reason, we have been chagrined at them so far.”
Then he hemmed. With a hem, the commander pretended to accept his objection at the onset. But all the seemingly soft attitudes were part of histrionics as generalship to control combat troops. Right, they were.
In this sort of the cunning but commonly usual way, the commander was to continue the original script and make the continuity editing like in the film. Actually, this sort of skills was and is used in most films for more logical coherence. However, the official strategic conference was not a makeshift stage at all. It was truly a real scene for the real and bloody campaign in the battlefield. So it was far from the Continuity Editing in the film. Further the questioning officer and the commander were not stage talents at all. They were truly soldiers as warmongers. Nonetheless, the questioning officer helped the commander lead the conference into his hidden direction as if the question had been intentionally made for the skillful Continuity Editing. Either way, the questioner must have helped him lead his own way clearly. It was ironical. The following scene showed how the commander made the Continuity Editing. (Below is an image of the Continuity Editing in the film. Source: Wikipedia, www.slideshare.net)
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