At the same time, the tremendous sacrifices made by older Korean workers combined with free access to US markets has gone a long way toward closing the economic gap between the two countries. Young Koreans simply take this new prosperity as a birthright without much thought about where it came from. They greatly underestimate how hard their parents had to work to raise their economic level so dramatically, and they underestimate how helpful the open US mark et was to them, so they treat US attempts to finally close the trade loop as a terrible injustice. They don't admire America or Americans nearly as much now that they are almost as rich themselves, but then they act as though they are poor when it comes to trade negotiations. They feel perfectly safe, so the Americans must not really be there to protect them, but for some other sinister reason.
Nutty theories spread like kudzu.
Everything good about life in Korea was created by Koreans. Imagine these GIs, many of whom signed up expecting to make sacrifices in the context of battle, genuinely wanting to save people and be respected as heroes, and give them mind-numbing cleaning chores instead. Clean the toilets. Clean the floor. Move thos e boxes over there.