Al Gore is well known as a conservationist. He has been a proponent for clean and renewable energy, recycling and reducing carbon pollution. Like his father before him, Al Gore entered politics as a Democrat. Despite Al Gores clean credentials, his father, Al Gore Senior, thought up possibly one of the most environmentally damaging proposals one could ever think of during his early years in congress. Al Gore’s father actually proposed a radiation belt across Korea to end the conflict.
Al Gore Sr. was first elected to congress on January 3, 1945. Having seen through the end of World War II as a congressman, the next war he would have to face as an American politician was the Korean War.
The Korean War was a war between the South and its United Nation allies, and North Korea, China and the Soviet Union. It lasted from 25 June 1950 until 27 July 1953. It was a war that stagnated very much like the First World War, with the occasional movements either north or south. In 1951, Al Gore Sr. proposed a solution to end the stalemate. In his words, “something cataclysmic” to bring the Korean War to an end.
Al Gore’s fathers cataclysmic solution certainly was cataclysmic, and not very environmentally friendly either. I’m sure it would have made Al Gore Jr very upset indeed. Al Gore Sr. proposed a radiation belt separating North Korea from South Korea. How would he make this radiation belt? Simple, by using nuclear weapons along the 38th parallel to create a permanent radioactive wasteland and dividing the Korean peninsula for ever.
Al Gore Sr. ended his career as a congressman in 1953, and served in the United States Senate from 1953 until 1971, where he failed in his bid for re-election. I think Koreans on both sides of the divide, and probably the rest of the world are glad that Al Gore’s fathers plan for a radiation belt were never followed through.
