The Rhee Story
DONLEVIN, ROBERT
The Rhee Story Syngman Rhee. By Robert T. Oliver. Dodd, Mead. 380 pp. $5.00. Reviewed by Robert Dorilevin Associate Editor, "Pageant"; former INS correspondent in Paris The might of American...
...former INS correspondent in Paris The might of American arms has twice rescued Syngman Rhee from the fate of death in exile...
...Watching the Indo-China story move toward its tragic climax, it is difficult to disagree with the brilliant editor of Paris-Match, France's biggest-circulation magazine, that the truce in Korea will go down in his-torv as the Munich of World War III...
...Yet, Rhee chose to resist...
...The Republic of Korea was set up in 1948...
...had written him off, and he recalled the tragic fate of Poland in 1939...
...General William Roberts told him sharply: "There is not a tank in all of Asia...
...Instead of being punished, the policemen were commended by Hodge, and Korean welcomers were elbowed aside while Japanese officials took over the role of official hosts...
...Once again, Rhee watched the U.S...
...Two weeks later, a State Department official described as a "direct representative of Secretary Hull in discussing many Far Eastern questions" gave Rhee what was no doubt considered a more plausible reason: The Kremlin might take offense...
...There have been many fine hours in Syngman Rhee's life, but surely the finest was when he decided to fight the Communist invasion a full 24 hours before he had any inkling of American aid...
...Stanley Hightower, chief of the State Department's Office of Far Eastern Affairs, told Rhee that the Department felt he was totally unknown inside Korea...
...Robert Oliver's biography of the wise, tough little Oriental whose life and career prove that East and West can meet, though democracy and totalitarianism cannot, makes one wonder if our statesmen are not setting up a third conflict...
...adopt the policy of not giving offense—this time toward Communist China, just as earlier toward Japan and the USSR...
...But it was American statesmanship, or lack thereof, which twice helped make recourse to arms inevitable by putting Korea on the imperialist chopping block...
...This he was just as consistently denied...
...It would be foolish to contend that democratic processes in Korea are as highly developed as in the West, but the worst the United Nations Commission could say about the 1951 elections was to comment on "the short time between the date when nominations closed [July 26] and polling day [August 5...
...The official's name...
...On the day the Americans arrived, Japanese police, supposedly keeping order, fired on a crowd of 500 Koreans who had gathered on the docks at Inchon waving Korean flags and bearing gifts and flowers for General Hodge and his staff...
...None came until 24 hours after the Communist attack, when President Truman decided to intervene...
...1950 that Korea lay outside America's defense perimeter...
...recognition for his government-in-exile failed...
...Yet, when he returned after the war, after many humiliating delays, he was wildly-acclaimed by his people and offered the leadership of every political party in the country, including the Communist party...
...Meanwhile, in the North, the well-organized Communists were making hay...
...There undoubtedly was some [police] interference, but it didn't make any significant difference as far as the choice of the President was concerned...
...When Acheson told the National Press Club on January 12...
...All of Rhee's subsequent attempts to gain U.S...
...Five Koreans were killed and nine wounded...
...But the Korean problem remained...
...He knew the weakness of his own dispersed units...
...forces pulled out...
...They had moved in with a read) -made government, quickly formed an army, and held singleslate "elections" in the fall of 1946...
...With victory in their grasp and the Chinese armies defeated, the UN forces halted in their tracks in 1951 and let the Communists regroup and build up their forces...
...American intervention, plus the material and moral support of the UN, kept South Korea free at a frightful cost...
...Alger Hiss...
...Rhee pleaded consistently for arms to build up a South Korean defense force capable of taking over when the U.S...
...Rhee wanted a united Korea, but he decided that half a country with its freedom was better than a whole one enslaved...
...Probably the most difficult thing for Rhee to comprehend in the United States, where he spent many years studying and earned his PhD, was the inability of our policymakers to see beyond the ends of their noses...
...The American general compounded the follies of that unfortunate day by announcing that, for the time being, all Japanese officials would be retained in office until a military government could be established...
...He knew the strength of the Communist armies...
...Rhee's suggestion of a Pacific Pact in 1949 was labeled "premature" by Dean Acheson...
...In 1905, Korea's fate as a Japanese protectorate was sealed with American support in the Treaty of Portsmouth...
...It would be premature to raise any political questions concerning Korea, he explained, because the Soviet Union could not enter into such discussions, not yet being at war with Japan...
...In spite of strong American pressure, Rhee steadfastly refused to enter a coalition government with the Communists...
...Not only did they refuse recognition of his government, but they also rejected his suggestion that the Allies equip an already formed army of 30,000 Koreans in Free China for use against the Japanese...
...Rhee pleaded for a re-vision of the perimeter...
...As late as December 18, 1941, when three Japanese armies were converging on Manila, Senator Guy M. Gillette (D.-Iowa) informed Rhee of the reasons for the State Department's negative position: It would "arouse resentment which might find expression in abuse or misuse of Americans still resident in the Japanese Empire...
...At first, Rhee was elected by the Legislature, but in 1951 popular elections were held in which he received 5,238,769 votes out of a total 7,033,633 cast...
...He should have added: "south of the Thirty-eighth Parallel...
...General Hodge told the author in 1946: "Syngman Rhee is so much the greatest Korean statesman that he may be the only one, but because of his persistent attacks upon Russia he never can have a part in any government which the United States may sponsor in Korea...
...When he asked for tanks for his constabulary units...
...He knew that the U.S...
...Rhee's troubles continued under the occupation regime of Lieutenant-General John R. Hodge, who was a brilliant soldier but no statesman...
Vol. 37 • July 1954 • No. 30
