tl;dr

• F*** Around and Find Out
• Leech is a Necessary Evil
• “Too much a good thing” is a saying for a reason
• This is still better than Zabu Season

Welcome back long-awaited return of the “Here’s What I Learned” saga, a series where I go in-depth about my deck building and piloting strategies for different decks I reach Infinite with. I usually try to switch up my deck every season, so my first post follows my journey using a Cerebro combo deck while my second revolves around a completely different playstyle in a Storm-Spiderman control deck. (I talk a lot about general deck building and strategy in these posts, so I won’t go into nearly as much depth in this one)
I decided to spice it up again this time around. Storm still plays an important role in this deck, but the methodology of this deck vastly differs from the previous ones. For context, the past couple months have been really rough for me, between getting surgery for my ACL for the second time (preventing me from playing football for about a year), college starting back up again (in which I’m taking pretty difficult classes like quantum physics and relativity), and of course, Zabu Darkhawk making f2p decks unplayable for a solid month. As such, I ended up taking a break from Marvel Snap until recently, and honestly, I just wanted to see Big Numbers go BRRR, and there’s no better engine for that than Lockjaw.
Overall this deck is a lot less innovative and consistent than my previous decks but it’s a lot easier to use and matches up with the current meta pretty nicely. However, there are some downsides I want to address first, because this deck is NOT for everyone.
The Negatives

• You are extremely likely to brick (i.e. draw an unplayable hand), since half the cards are 5 cost or higher. If I had a dollar for every time my opening hand was Giganto, Infinaut, and Magneto…
• You are extremely vulnerable to Shang Chi. Because you will be getting out so many high power cards early (hopefully), Shang Chi can and will have a field day, and there’s enough protection to prevent this.
• You are gambling. You don’t know what’s going to happen. Your opponent doesn’t know what’s going to happen. You could put a Wasp down and pull Infinaut. You could put M’Baku down and get Wasp. It can be extremely dopamine-inducing, or it could be extremely frustrating. You just kinda have to let fate take the wheel.
• This is an extremely deep Pool 3 Deck. Unless you’ve been playing for a while you won’t have all of the cards in my decklist.

If even one of these things is a dealbreaker, then this deck IS NOT for you.
Alright, now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about the deck.
The Cards

• Wasp/M’Baku - Low Cost fodder for Lockjaw (helps ensure M’Baku is in the deck at end of game)
• Sunspot - Early game tempo/Lockjaw fodder
• Storm - Secures early lanes
• Lockjaw/Jubilee - Cheat out Big Power early
• Leech - Let’s be serious we all know what Leech does
• Vision - Contest Storm Lane and allow for more Lockjaw procs if pulled early
• Magneto/Doctor Doom - Big Power across the boards/situational disruption
• Infinaut/Giganto - Big PoweLeech fodder

The Strategy
Storm-Lockjaw, or Budget Thanus (spelling intentional) as I sometimes like to call it, is a deck that has a very clear gameplan: get big cards out early. In an ideal scenario you Storm on turn 3 and either Jubilee or Lockjaw + some other card on turn 4. This is the best case scenario, since it means that hopefully you can get big power on the board without having to worry about Shang-Chi or other disruption later. Unfortunately, more often than not it doesn’t work out this way, which is where your other cards come in. If you are able to get Storm by turn 3 but no Jubilee or Lockjaw, don’t be afraid to put Storm down anyway. You have more than enough resources between Vision, Doctor Doom, and Magneto to win that lane. It also means that if you’re up against a Shuri deck you don’t have to worry about any beef in that lane, so Storming when you have a chance is more often than not the right move.
If you don’t have Storm at all, if you are playing in a Kyln or TVA where a location/game ends after turn 4, or if the matchup requires it(e.g. you’re up against a Zoo or Dracula Deck that can consistently get more power in a Storm lane than you), then Lockjaw will be the turn 3 play for you. Sometimes you can even spice it up by putting a Storm on top of Lockjaw so you can get the effect for hopefully more power. If you have neither, that’s what Sunspot is for. You won’t have a turn 3 play but you will be able to buff up Sunspot and hopefully start focusing on other lanes turn 4 and onwards. Also, it might be useful to put Sunspot in the middle or right lane in this case so that you have room for Giganto in the left lane later. If you are unfortunate enough to not draw Sunspot, Lockjaw, or Storm (which will happen frustratingly often), then at that point you might as well scoop and take the 1 cube loss.
Let’s say you survived to turn 5. You realistically have three options: Leech, Vision, or feed Lockjaw. In general, if you are winning, then Leech. If you are losing, then Vision. If you have neither in your hand, then feed Lockjaw and fish for either of these 2 cards if they’re not already on the field. Of course there is a lot more nuance, and there are certain situation where even if you’re losing you want to Leech (like if you’re up against Red Skull/Shuri and you don’t want them to get Taskmaster off) or times when you are winning where you don’t (like if you’re up against Patriot or suspect Infinaut is in their hand). I’d be happy to discuss these finer situations with you in the comments if you are interested in picking up the deck, but a lot of it just comes with experience.
Now one of the cool things about this deck is that on turn 6 you have a lot of freedom given that there are 4 6-costs in the decklist. If you’re confidently winning in the Storm lane, realistically you only need to secure one more lane to win, so Giganto will be your best move in that case. If you’re close in all three lanes only need a little push to get over the edge, or if you need just a little more power in the Storm lane, Doctor Doom is your guy. There are too many possibilities on turn 6 to go over right now, but the more you use the deck and the more you play the game the more of a feel you will get for this turn.
Like I said earlier, this isn’t the most difficult deck to play (it still takes more brain power than Shuri though imho), but there are a couple of learning curves if you want to consistently win cubes, especially at higher ranks.

• Know how to move Vision. This is something that took me a while to figure out but once I did it I immediately saw the difference in cube gains,
• Know when to snap/retreat. This is gambling by nature so snapping/retreating is even more prevalent than normal, given you don’t have as much control over the deck as others,
• Know how to track your deck. If you click on your profile in-game, you can see exactly how many cards are in your deck, and you can keep track of what cards are on the field, what cards are in your hand, or what cards you fed to Lockjaw to know exactly which cards are in the deck and what PROBABILITY you have to pull them through Lockjaw or Jubilee. Even though it’s random, you can calculate the exact randomness if you’re smart and attentive, and that might inform your plays especially later in the game.

What I Learned
This is a fun deck. You can get big cards out quickly. You can enjoy the gambler’s high with relatively low risk. You can cheat out wins that no other deck can. And, if you’re lucky, you get to see M’Baku jump out at the end. I have lost games because of M’Baku. I have won games with M’Baku. I have had games that weren’t affected by M’Baku. But hell if that son of a mother doesn’t make me smile every time he pops out.
However, this deck does get exhausting. I value being able to outsmart and outplay my opponent, and the very nature of this deck means that it won’t happen as often. Sure, you can use your knowledge of probability to your advantage, but sometimes you stick around to the end of the game where you very well could either win or lose and there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s really fun and has some of the highest highs out of any deck, but it’s so remarkably inconsistent that it can get frustrating sometimes. Also, sometimes you just get an opening hand of all 6 drops and you have to retreat instantly, and after a couple of games like that where you spend 2-3 minutes winning 1 cube and then 2-3 seconds losing it the game after, it can be hard mentally. It was really fun for a little bit but I don’t think I’ll be using this deck to climb in the near future. It also didn’t help that I had to restart from low rank since I haven’t played the past couple seasons, so I spent more time with this deck than usual.
One of the most difficult things about climbing in this deck is that it’s hard to switch decks in the middle, especially if you’re really proficient in one deck but it takes a while to build/learn another deck, and you don’t want to lose cubes while experimenting. For all of my Infinite climbs I usually spent the first week theorycrafting, building, tuning, and learning the deck, and then I started the climb after, sticking with that deck for the entirety. However, you can’t do that in the middle of a season, so what I might do is start that process for multiple decks while I’m Infinite so that I’ll be able to switch in-between, especially since I’m starting to experience burnout a lot quicker than before.
Finally, Leech and Lockjaw are the only real meta cards on this decklist, and for good reason. Getting Leech out early or being able to flip Leech into an Infinaut late can be game-breaking, but it’s also the only way for most decks to be able to compete with the Shuris and the Thanos…es? Thani? *insert plurality of Thanos here* of the world, and he singlehandedly won me games. I think without Leader his power is a lot less oppressive, but it is still something to keep in mind.
Anyway, that’s my summary. As always, I’ll be around in the comments the next couple days if you have any questions or suggestions regarding this deck or my playstyle. Happy Snapping!

You can’t be this dumb to pour detergent like this in a front load washer. I’ve gotta stop watching her videos before I lose brain cells! 🤦🏾‍♀️

Master Post
Previous: Rutherford B. Hayes

James A. Garfield

20th President of the United States
1881
Republican Party (Half-Breeds)
President James A. Garfield

The Election of 1880

The presidential election of 1880 followed the administration of President Rutherford B. Hayes, a Republican who had pledged to serve only one term. Hayes’s commitment to civil service reform had exacerbated a rift in his party between the Stalwarts, a faction of openly corrupt Republicans led by New York Senator Roscoe Conkling, and the Half-Breeds, anti-Stalwart Republicans who generally sought to weaken the patronage system. This split in the party was particularly apparent during the Republican National Convention in early June: former President and General Ulysses S. Grant was backed by the Stalwarts, while the Half-Breeds split between Senator James G. Blaine and Treasury Secretary John Sherman. No candidate reached the necessary votes for nomination until the thirty-sixth ballot, when the vast majority of both Blaine’s and Sherman’s supporters suddenly broke for Ohio Representative James A. Garfield, a Half-Breed delegate who had not declared a candidacy. To appease the defeated Stalwarts, the convention nominated Chester A. Arthur, chairman of the New York Republican Party who had previously served as the infamously corrupt port collector at the New York Custom House, as Garfield’s running mate.
The 1880 election was held on November 2, 1880. General Winfield Scott Hancock, a Civil War veteran and the Democratic presidential nominee, took the entire South—where the voting rights of African Americans were no longer under active federal protection—as well as most of the West. But Hancock failed to clinch New York’s decisive 35 electoral votes, cementing a victory for Garfield by 214 to Hancock’s 155 votes. The popular vote was much closer, with a difference of only 1,898 votes (0.11%) out of the more than nine million cast. Garfield remains the only incumbent member of the House of Representatives to be elected president.

Conflict with Conkling

The Republican Party’s nomination of Chester Arthur to the vice presidency failed to placate Senator Conkling. A close friend and crony of Conkling’s, Arthur had rebuffed his boss’s order to reject the nomination, instead accepting it with honor. Although Conkling soon relented on the matter, as well as President Garfield’s nomination of Senator Blaine as secretary of state, he was angered once more when Garfield declined to nominate New York Representative Levi P. Morton, a Conkling ally, as Treasury secretary, and again when Garfield nominated Thomas Lemuel James—a New York Stalwart who had accepted the offer without consulting Conkling—as postmaster general. Garfield attempted to appease Conkling by nominating Morton as minister to France (and some local Stalwarts as attorneys and marshals in various New York districts), and his conciliatory efforts were initially successful.
But tensions suddenly reached an irreversible boiling point when President Garfield unexpectedly nominated former New York Representative William H. Robertson as collector of the Port of New York, jeopardizing Senator Conkling’s statewide political machine. The contested position was the most lucrative in the nation, with the collector managing over a thousand coveted jobs and millions of dollars in government revenue. Although the current collector, Edward A. Merritt, had already been appointed by President Hayes to combat the Stalwarts, he had proven only to be a relatively moderate reformer who Conkling preferred to keep in place. Robertson, on the other hand, was a full-blooded Half-Breed, and would deprive the Stalwarts of their power if given the seat.
Often criticized by journalists, politicians, and much of the general public for supposedly having no backbone, President Garfield flatly rejected Senator Conkling’s repeated demands that Robertson’s nomination be withdrawn. A dirty legislative confrontation ensued. Near-unanimous motions in the state legislature of New York showed overwhelming support for Garfield against Conkling, but the senator was undeterred. Seeking to avoid a vote on the collectorship, Massachusetts Senator Henry Dawes suggested voting on the rest of Garfield’s more than 300 nominations—including a significant number of New York Stalwarts—saving Robertson for last. Conkling endorsed the idea, planning to adjourn the Senate when the vote on Robertson was reached and forcing either Garfield’s capitulation or a riskier recess appointment. Garfield, at Secretary Blaine’s advice, counteracted by withdrawing every major Stalwart nomination still pending, eliminating Conkling’s ability to move for adjournment without disrupting much of his own machine. In protest, both Conkling and fellow New York Senator Thomas C. Platt resigned from Congress, intending to reaffirm their political influence by easily winning re-election; an exasperated Senate immediately used the opportunity to unanimously approve Robertson’s nomination. Both Stalwart senators returned home to a surprisingly uninspired state legislature, and neither would ultimately return to the Senate. Garfield’s commitment to resisting corruption and the consequent end of Conkling’s congressional tenure helped destroy the Stalwart faction, empowering Congress to pursue lasting civil service reform.

The Star Route Scandal

Amid all the uncovered scandals of the Gilded Age, one ring of corruption survived for decades undisturbed. In 1845, Congress reformed the national postal service, granting delivery contracts to the lowest bidders who could guarantee “celerity, certainty, and security” along special mail routes. Marked by three stars denoting the aforementioned guarantees, these contracted routes became known as “star routes”. The system was naturally vulnerable to corruption, with postal officials granting such contracts in exchange for bribes, and businesses tampering with the bidding system to receive excessive payments for their services. The expanding West of the nineteenth century only widened the scope of star route corruption.
Although preliminary investigations conducted over the past decade had been the first to reveal the scandal, it was President Garfield who first actively pursued the destruction of the star route ring. Ordering investigators “not only to probe this ulcer to the bottom, but to cut it out,” the star route investigations unveiled a massive underground ring of postal fraudsters who had cost Congress millions of dollars in wasted expenditures, with officials from local to federal government implicated in the scandal. Although most of the suspects would eventually be acquitted (under dubious circumstances), Garfield’s determined fight against the star route ring would result, under his successor, in its permanent dismantlement. Furthermore, the publicity Garfield brought to the scandal would increase national awareness of government corruption, strengthening support for and hastening the drafting of a major civil service reform bill.

A Stalwart's Revenge

As the episode around the port collectorship played out, Charles Guiteau—a dangerously deranged and disgruntled office seeker denied a consulship to Paris—observed through the New York Herald what he deemed an unforgivable betrayal by President Garfield and Secretary Blaine of the Stalwarts, of whom Guiteau irrationally considered himself an influential member who had helped secure Garfield’s electoral victory through a speech amateurish in actuality. Realizing the vice president, a Stalwart, was one step away from power, and believing he possessed the divine mandate to effect such radical change, Guiteau resolved to “quietly remove” the president. On July 2, 1881, Guiteau shot Garfield twice with a British Bull Dog revolver at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station. Although the first shot hit Garfield’s arm in a relatively harmless manner, the second entered his lower back, fracturing his spine before lodging itself near his pancreas. A dying Garfield was subjected to a variety of unsafe medical procedures over the next two months before finally succumbing to his infected wounds. On September 19, 1881, Vice President Arthur became the twenty-first president of the United States, swearing his oath of office several hours past midnight. Arthur did not pardon Guiteau as the assassin had expected, who instead was hanged on June 30, 1882.
Although President Garfield’s untimely demise denied him the potential impact of a full-term president, the influence of his administration would endure into that of his successor. President Arthur, once a Conkling crony, would capitalize upon the dissolution of the Stalwarts and the attention brought against corruption by Garfield’s investigations of the star route ring to enact meaningful civil service reform. Garfield would influence such reform in death itself, with the national grief behind his murder by a Stalwart office seeker epitomizing the woes of the spoils system.

Dollar general near me has been just peg warmers for a minute and I jumped up to look at the top shelf and found these two.

​
Kim Il Sung in a massive welcome to comrade Fidel Castro in Pyongyang (03/11/86), Photo by Prensa Latina.
PART I
The Korean nation, with its unique culture different from its Chinese and Japanese neighbors, has existed for three thousand years. These characteristics are typical of societies in that Asian region, including those of China, Vietnam and others. There is nothing like it in Western cultures, some of which are less than 250 years old.
In the war of 1894, the Japanese had seized from China its control over the Korean dynasty and turned its territory into a Japanese colony. Protestantism was introduced in this country in the year 1892, following an agreement between the United States and the Korean authorities. On the other hand, Catholicism was introduced in the same century by missionaries. It is estimated that today in South Korea, around 25 percent of the population is Christian and a similar percentage is Buddhist. The philosophy of Confucius had a great influence on the spirit of Koreans who are not characterized by fanatical religious practices.
Two important figures outstand in that nation’s political life in the twentieth century: Syngman Rhee, born in March of 1875, and Kim Il Sung, born 37 years later in April of 1912. Both personalities, of different social background, confronted each other due to historical circumstances that had nothing to do with either of them.
The Christians opposed the Japanese colonial system. One of them was Syngman Rhee who was an actively practicing Protestant. Korea changed its status: Japan annexed its territory in 1910. Years later, in 1919, Rhee was appointed president of the provisional government in exile, headquartered in Shanghai, China. He never used weapons against the invaders. The League of Nations in Geneva paid no attention to him.
The Japanese Empire was brutally repressive with the Korean population. The patriots took up arms against the Japanese colonialist policy and succeeded in liberating a small area in the mountain region of the north at the end of the 1890’s.
Kin Il Sung, born in the vicinity of Pyongyang, at the age of 18 joined the Korean Communist guerrillas to fight the Japanese. In his active revolutionary life, he attained the position of political and military leader of the anti-Japanese combatants in North Korea, at the young age of 33.
During World War II, the United States decided the fate of Korea in the post-war period. It joined the conflict when it was attacked by one of its own, the Empire of the Rising Sun, whose tight feudal gates were opened by Commodore Perry in the first half of the 19th century, aiming his cannons at the strange Asian country that refused to trade with America.
The outstanding disciple later became a powerful rival, as I have already explained on another occasion. Decades later, Japan successively struck at China and Russia, additionally taking over Korea. Nevertheless it was a cunning ally for the victors of World War I, at the expense of China. It amassed forces and, transformed into the Asian version of fascist Nazism, attempted to occupy Chinese territory in 1937 and attacked the United States in December of 1941; it brought the war to Southeast Asia and Oceania.
The colonial domains of Great Britain, France, Holland and Portugal in the region were doomed and the United States emerged as the most powerful country in the world, matched only by the Soviet Union then destroyed by World War II and by the heavy material and human losses resulting from the Nazi strike. The Chinese Revolution was about to conclude in 1945 when the world massacre ceased. The united anti-Japanese combat was taking up its energy then. Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Gandhi, Sukarno and other leaders later carried on the fight against the restoration of the old world order which was already unsustainable.
Truman dropped the nuclear bomb on two civilian Japanese cities; this was a terribly destructive new weapon whose existence they had not reported to their Soviet ally, as explained, one which had been the major contributor to the destruction of fascism. Nothing justified the genocide committed, not even the fact that the tenacious Japanese resistance had taken the lives of almost 15 thousand American soldiers on the Japanese island of Okinawa. Japan was already defeated, and that weapon, had it been dropped on a military target, would have sooner or later had the same demoralizing effect on the Japanese military machine preventing more casualties among U.S. soldiers. It was an act of indescribable terror.
Soviet soldiers were advancing on Manchuria and North Korea, just as they had promised when fighting ceased in Europe. The allies had defined beforehand the point each army could reach. The dividing line would be in the middle of Korea, equidistant between the Yalu River and the southern end of the peninsula. The U.S. government negotiated with the Japanese the rules that would govern the surrendering of troops on their own territory. Japan would be occupied by the United States. In Korea, annexed to Japan, there would remain a large force of the powerful Japanese army. South of the 38th Parallel, the established dividing line, U.S. interests prevailed. Syngman Rhee, reincorporated to that part of the territory by the U.S. government, was the leader the Americans supported, with the open cooperation of the Japanese. This is how he won the hard-fought election of 1948. That year, the soldiers of the Soviet Army had pulled out of North Korea.
On June 25, 1950 war broke out in the country. It is still unclear who fired the first shot, whether it was the combatants in the North or the American soldiers on duty with soldiers recruited by Rhee. The argument does not make any sense if one analyzes it from the Korean angle. Kim Il Sung’s soldiers fought against the Japanese for the liberation of all Korea. His armies advanced irrepressibly up to the far reaches to the South where the Yankees were defending themselves with the massive back-up of their fighter planes. Seoul and other cities had been occupied. MacArthur, commander-in-chief of U.S. forces in the Pacific, decided to order a Marine landing at Incheon, at the rearguard of Northern forces which by now were in no condition to counterattack. Pyongyang fell in the hands of Yankee forces, preceded by devastating air strikes. That fostered the idea of the U.S. military command in the Pacific to occupy all of Korea, since the Peoples’ Liberation Army of China, lead by Mao Zedong had inflicted a resounding defeat on the pro-Yankee forces of Chiang Kai-shek, supplied and supported by the United States. The entire continental and maritime territory of that great country had been recovered, with the exception of Taipei and other small near-by islands where Kuomintang forces found refuge after being transported there by vessels of the Sixth Fleet.
The history of what happened then is well known today. It should not be forgotten that Boris Yeltsin handed over to Washington the Soviet Union archives, among other things.
What did the United States do when the practically inevitable conflict broke out under the premises created in Korea? It portrayed the northern part of that country as the aggressor. The Security Council of the recently created United Nations Organization, promoted by the victorious powers of W.W. II, passed a resolution that none of the five members could veto. Precisely in those months, the USSR had expressed its disagreement with the exclusion of China from the Security Council, where the U.S. was recognizing Chiang Kai-Shek, with less than 0.3 percent of national territory and less than 2 percent of the population, as a member of that Council and with a right to veto. Such arbitrariness led to the absence of the Russian delegate, with the result that the Council agreed to give the war the character of a UN military action against the alleged aggressor: the Peoples’ Democratic Republic of Korea. China, completely outside the conflict, which was affecting its unfinished fight for the total liberation of the country, saw the threat hovering directly against its own territory, this being unacceptable for its security. According to public information, Prime Minister Zhou Enlai was sent to Moscow to inform Stalin of China’s point of view about the inadmissibility of the presence of UN forces under U.S. command on the banks of the Yalu River which marks Korea's border with China, and to request Soviet cooperation. At the time there were no profound contradictions between the two Socialist giants.
It is affirmed that China’s response had been planned for the 13th of October and that Mao postponed it for the 19th, awaiting the Soviet reply. That was as long as he could put it off.
I intend to finish this reflection next Friday. It is a complex and laborious subject which requires special care and information as precise as possible. These are historical events that should be known and remembered.
Fidel Castro Ruz
July 22, 2008.
9:22 p.m.
​
Part II
On October 19, 1950, more than 400 thousand voluntary Chinese combatants, on orders from Mao Zedong, crossed the Yalu and waylaid the US troops that were advancing towards the Chinese border. The US units, surprised by the vigorous response of the country they had underestimated, were forced to withdraw towards a region near the southern coast, pushed back by the joint action of the Chinese and North Korean forces. Stalin, who was immensely cautious, offered far less support than Mao had anticipated, though the MiG-15 aircrafts piloted by the Soviets, over a limited 42.5-miles front, proved valuable help during the initial stage of the conflict in protecting land forces during their intrepid advance. Pyongyang was again recovered and Seoul re-occupied once more, attempting to fight back the incessant onslaught of the US Air Force, the most powerful which has ever existed.
McArthur was anxious to attack China with nuclear weapons. He called for their use following the shameful defeat they had tasted. President Truman saw no other choice but to dismiss him from his command and appoint General Matthews Ridgeway head of US air, sea and land forces in the theatre of operations. Next to the United States, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Greece, Canada, Turkey, Ethiopia, South Africa, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Colombia took part in the imperialist adventure. Colombia, then under the unitary government of conservative Laureano Gómez, who was responsible for the mass slaughter of peasants, was the only Latin American country involved. As we said, the Ethiopia of Haile Selassie, where slavery still existed, and a South Africa still under the domination of white racists, also took part in the invasion.
It had been scarcely five years since the world slaughter that began in September 1939 had come to an end, on August 1945. Following bloody combat in Korean territory, Parallel 38 once again became the border separating North and South. It is estimated that, in that war, about two million North Koreans, nearly half a million or one million Chinese and more than a million allied soldiers perished. Around 44 thousand US soldiers lost their lives. No few of them had been born in Puerto Rico or other Latin American countries, recruited to take part in a war they were driven to by their condition as poor immigrants.
Japan was to reap many benefits from the conflict. In a year’s time, industrial output grew by 50 % and, within two years, it again reached pre-war production levels. What didn't change, however, was how the acts of genocide perpetrated by China's imperial troops in Korea were perceived. The governments of Japan have paid tribute to the acts of genocide carried out by their soldiers, which, in China, had raped tens of thousands of women and brutally murdered hundreds of thousands of people, as was explained in a reflection.
Hard-working and tenacious, the Japanese have transformed their country, bereft of oil and other important raw materials, into the second most powerful economy in the world.
Japan's GDP, measured in capitalist terms, though the data varies across different Western sources, is today over 4.5 billion dollars, and the country has over one billion dollars in hard currency reserves. This is twice China’s GDP, of 2.2 billion, even though China has 50% more hard currency reserves than Japan. The GDP of the United States, of 12.4 billion dollars, for a country with 34.6 times more territory and 2.3 times Japan’s population, is only three times that of Japan. Its government is today one of imperialism's main allies, at a time when it is threatened by economic recession and the sophisticated weapons of the superpower put at risk the entire human species.
These are historical lessons which cannot be forgotten.
The war, however, took a considerable toll on China. Truman instructed the 6th Fleet to prevent the landing of Chinese revolutionary forces that would achieve the complete emancipation of their country by reclaiming the 0.3 percent of their territory that had been occupied by the rest of the pro-Yankee forces of Chiang Kai-shek that had fled there.
Sino-Soviet relations were to deteriorate later, following the death of Stalin, on March 1953. The revolutionary movement splintered nearly everywhere. The dramatic call issued by Ho Chi Minh made evident the damage that had been done and imperialism, through its immense media apparatus, poked the fires of extremism among false revolutionary theoreticians, an area in which US intelligence agencies were to become experts.
Following the arbitrary division, North Korea had been dealt the most rugged part of the country. Each grain of food had to be reaped through sweat and sacrifice. Pyongyang, the capital, had been razed to the ground. Many, who had been wounded or mutilated during the war, were in need of medical attention. They were enduring a blockade and had no resources available. The Soviet Union and other countries of the socialist block were in the process of recovering from the war.
When I arrived at the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on March 7, 1986, nearly 33 years following the destruction caused by the war, it was still difficult to believe what had transpired there. That heroic people had constructed myriad things: large and small damns and canals to store water in, generate electricity, service cities and irrigate fields; Thermoelectric plants, large mechanical and other types of industries, many of them underground in the depths of the bedrock, all created through hard, methodical labor. Because of cooper and aluminum shortages, they had been forced to use iron to create electricity-guzzling transmission lines, iron which, in part, was produced from coal. The capital and other cities that had been devastated were reconstructed, inch by inch. I estimated that millions of new homes had been built in urban and rural areas and that tens of thousands of other kinds of facilities had been set up. Countless hours of work were contained in stone, concrete, steel, wood, synthetic products and machinery. The fields I had the opportunity to see, wherever I went, looked like gardens. Well-dressed, organized and enthusiastic people were everywhere, ready to greet visitors. The country deserved cooperation and peace.
There was no issue I didn't discuss with my illustrious host Kim Il Sung. I shall never forget this.
Korea was divided into two parts by an imaginary line. The South was to have a different experience. It was the more densely populated part and endured less destruction during the war. The presence of an enormous foreign military force required the supply of local manufactured and other products, from crafts to fresh fruits and vegetables, not to mention services. The military spending of the allies was huge. The same thing occurred when the United States decided to retain extensive military forces in the country indefinitely. During the Cold War, Western and Japanese transnationals invested considerable sums of money, siphoning out incalculable wealth from the sweat of South Koreans, a people who are as hard-working and industrious as their brothers in the North. The great markets of the world were open to their products. They were not blockaded. Today, the country has high levels of technology and productivity. It has suffered the economic crises of the West, following which many South Korean companies were bought over by transnationals. The austere nature of its people has allowed the State to accumulate significant reserves in hard currency. Today, it is enduring the United States' economic depression, particularly the high prices of oil and food, and the inflationary pressures from both.
South Korea's GDP –787.6 billion dollars– is almost equal to that of Brazil (796 billion) and Mexico (768 billion), countries with abundant hydrocarbon reserves and incomparably larger populations. Imperialism imposed its system upon these nations. Two fell behind; the other made much more progress.
There is hardly any emigration from South Korea to the West. There is emigration en masse from Mexico to what is currently US territory. From Brazil, South and Central America, people emigrate everywhere, in search of employment and lured by consumerist propaganda. Today, they pay them back with rigorous and contemptuous laws.
The position of principles on nuclear weapons supported by Cuba within the Non-Aligned Movement, ratified during the Summit Conference held in Havana in August 2006, is well known.
I met the current leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Kim Jong Il, when I arrived at the Pyongyang airport. He was standing discretely beside his father, to one side of the red carpet. Cuba maintains excellent relations with his government.
When the Soviet Union and the socialist block collapsed, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea lost important markets and sources of oil, raw materials and equipment. As in Cuba’s case, the consequences were severe. The progress that had been attained through great sacrifices was at risk. In spite of this, they showed themselves capable of constructing a nuclear weapon.
When the nuclear test was conducted around a year ago, we conveyed the government of North Korea our points of view on the damage this could cause poor Third World countries that were waging an unequal and difficult battle against imperialist designs, at a decisive moment for the world. It might not have been necessary. Kim Song Il, at that point, had already decided, beforehand, what he had to do, mindful of the geographic and strategic characteristics of the region.
We are pleased to see North Korea’s declaration on its intentions of suspending its nuclear weapons program. This has nothing to do with the crimes and the blackmail of Bush, who now touts the declaration as proof of the success of his policy of genocide. North Korea's gesture was not aimed at the government of the United States, before which it never budged an inch, but, rather, at China, a neighboring ally, whose security and development is vital for the two States.
Third World countries are interested in the friendship and cooperation between China and the two Koreas, whose union need not be from coast to coast, as was the case of Germany, today a US ally in NATO. Step by step, unhurriedly but indefatigably, as befits their culture and history, they shall continue to knit the bonds that will unite the two Koreas. With South Korea, we are developing more and more ties. With North Korea, these have always existed and we shall continue to strengthen them.
Fidel Castro Ruz
July 24, 2008
6:18 p.m.
​
References: Part I and Part II (English)
Las dos Coreas (parte I) and Las dos Coreas (Parte II) (Spanish)

This is a double-sided half-dollar. I am pretty sure this isn’t an error but rather it was made by someone. Was looking to see if anyone know anything more about this one or half-dollars like this in general.