In South Korea, historians also say Carter adopted messages from a military government that faced criticism over human rights.

In May 1980, a student-led democratic uprising in Gwangju, South Korea was brutally suppressed. Within a day, 60 people died and hundreds were injured.

Timothy Shorrock, a journalist who has covered U.S.-South Korea relations for decades, said the Carter administration was worried about losing a useful Cold War ally and therefore fully supported the military government.

He explained that the United States supported South Korea’s leadership by freeing up military resources to allow the military to suppress the uprising.

“They knew that (military leader Gen. Chun Doo-hwan’s) troops had killed 60 people the day before, but they still considered the uprising a threat to U.S. national security,” Shorrock said of Carter officials.

He added that when U.S. aircraft carriers were sent to the region, some protesters who believed in U.S. rhetoric about democracy and human rights thought the U.S. would intervene on their behalf.

Rather, the carrier is being deployed to bolster the U.S. military presence so that South Korean troops stationed in the demilitarized zone with North Korea can be reallocated to suppress the insurgency.

Shorrock said contingency plans even include the possible use of U.S. troops if the unrest in Gwangju spreads further.

While there is no generally accepted death toll for the uprising, official government figures put more than 160 people dead. Some academic sources put the death toll at over 1,000.

Asked by reporters whether his actions contradicted his stated commitment to human rights, Carter said there was “no incompatibility.”

He claimed that the United States was helping South Korea maintain national security against the threat of “communist subversion,” mirroring rhetoric from the country’s military leadership.

South Korean leaders have long used this rhetoric to justify repression and anti-democratic measures.

Be the president of South Korea Yin Xiyeol Announce martial law In December 2024, many people compared the traumatic events in Gwangju in the name of fighting “anti-national forces.”

“What he said at the time was what General Chun Doo-hwan said, and he characterized the uprising as a communist uprising, which it was not,” Shorok said. “He never apologized for that.”