Operation BootStick or Operation Payback was the operational codename of the joint military operation in North Korea, named for the saying and attributed to President Theodore Roosevelt "speak softly and carry a big stick." A joint military response from the United States, Republic of Korea, Japan, Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia, France, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Thailand and many other countries in response to the shocking assassination of then-President Ronald Reagan on 13 November 1983, was authorized on 30 November 1983 by President George H.W. Bush and announced in a televised address on 1 December 1983, in which he announced the United States and other Allied countries will immediately "respond to violence with aggressive force and energy to pursuing peace in the Asian Pacific." The logistical deployment of military personnel troops to North Korea was the trigger of Operation BootStick.
-Wikipedia entry "Operation BootStick".
......There are reports that a full-scale massive barrage of violent airstrikes have taken out all of North Korea's infrastructure, water supplies, roads, bridges and several key government buildings including majority of North Korea's nuclear weapons facilities. The death toll has escalated into nearly a million or more. ABC News will keep you informed on the latest developments of this Special Report....."
-ABC News Special Report by Ted Koppel
Thursday, 1 December 1983
......"the experiences of Vietnam really colored our response. That we'd been attacked by an enemy foreign state, which all but muted all anti-war sentiment, and almost immediately there was a strong rally-around-the-flag effect. That the 373rd took less than three days to secure the DMZ border was a good sign, despite the casualties being sustained on our side. Thankfully, the Navy and Air Force had strong air superiority over North Korea within a matter of hours on the 2nd and 3rd of December 1983, and I know President Bush thought it grimly worrisome that the presidency fell upon his shoulders under violent and tragic circumstances. The initial push of "Operation BootStick" or "Operation Payback" at least helped relieve those besieged at Fort Howard and we next started to draw up plans to put substantial boots on the ground....into North Korea......"
-United States Army General John William Vessey, Jr.,
10th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
18 June 1982-30 September 1985.
....."we formed three groups: Task Force Seoul and Task Force Chosun. We along with Japan and other countries participating in the joint military operations, had one to each side of North Korea, a full occupation, while we heavily secured the DMZ borders with more deployment of military personnel troops along with the United Nations Forces Command, who were heavily involved. We had an agreement in place by late on the 4th to using air bases in Japan as a forward operation position into North Korea, coming in low over the Sung Gap to deploying the remainder of the 102nd east of Pyongyang, and on the 5th, it was both Taiwan and the Philippines, who agreed to let us stage out of there. On the 6th, the war went even hotter when Soviet and Chinese civilian planes that were nonetheless carrying irregulars into the City of Sariwon in the southern part of North Korea was shot down by a Tomcat in Hong Kong airspace; suddenly, the Chinese and Soviet militaries aggressively mobilized too, right on the edge of the southwestern part of the DMZ Borders. The decision by Colombia to participate in Operation BootStick was popular on the Colombian street despite the leftist Quintero's so-called "independent foreign policy" shtick. It seemed like the entire Asian Pacific was bound to explode in massive fire at once......"
-Chun Doo-hwan
11th, 12th, 13th President of the Republic of Korea
MBC Special Interview at the Blue House with President Chun
Monday, 12 March 1984