Some U.S. officials may benefit from perpetuating Korean tensions.

Evidence

Rather than keeping the peace and making the Korean peninsula safer, U.S. bases may be contributing to a state of heightened tension that has made the outbreak of war more likely and peace more difficult to achieve. In fact, there’s a reasonable argument that it’s been in the interest (conscious or unconscious) of some U.S. officials to maintain a state of war, to have a justification for maintaining troops and bases in Korea and thus on the Asian mainland. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 1046

Categorization

• QUESTION: Interesting to chase the base-preservation motive — whether institutional self-interest in keeping bases explains a failure to pursue peace agreements elsewhere.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 1046
• XREF: connects to: Washington’s Korea crisis was driven by global proliferation fears, not local ones