U S South Korean Relations Essay
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Twenty Years: 1970-1990
Changing Levels of American Influence on South Korea Amidst Fluctuating Relations
President Carter stated in a secret memorandum at the beginning of his administration that U.S.- Korean relations as determined by Congress and American people are at an all time low. This statement, coupled with his iron determination to withdraw forces from South Korea, reflected the end of what is often known as the Golden Age of Korean-American relations. During Park Chung Hee s 18-year authoritarian reign over South Korea, the late 1970s portray a complex web of alliance relations and tumultuous security commitment that threatened the overall strength of the two allies. Constant U.S. intervention and attempts to influence Korea s political process were met with massive resistance and did not deter then president Park from steadfastly continuing his Yushin system of authoritarian rule until his sudden assassination in 1979 (Gleysteen 4). However, the decades following the 1970s portray yet another shift in Korean-American relations. Once opposed to Western style democracy, the government of the 1990s (namely, Kim Dae Jung) has shed its authoritarian foundation and now supports a policy that reflects the ideals of Western democracy. South Korea has effectively put into place a system of democracy that will now be difficult to overturn, if anyone should ever again try. Although unsuccessful in the 1970s, the U.S. has finally realized its primary goal of political liberalization in South Korea. In this paper, I will discuss the relations between Korea and the U.S. in the late 1970s and the factors that led to tensions in alliance; mainly, differing political ideologies. Then, I will elaborate on the great strides Korea has made in achieving democracy, therefore lessening the political gap between Korea and the Western nations. I will do so by presenting Kim Dae Jung s strongly democratic vision of Korea among opposing viewpoints. By analyzing his response to Lew Kwan Yew s generally anti-Western democracy stance, one is able to discern the similarities in political thought that bridged the seemingly irreparable gap rendered during the Park Chung Hee rule. The differences in these two political leaders effectively portray the opposite ends of the political spectrum and show the changes in government Korea has made during the governments of Park and Kim.
Upon Park Chung Hee s rise to power following the military coup of 1961, it was inevitable that Korea would not follow a trend towards democracy. Given Park s military background, Confucian heritage and Japanese education, there was nothing in his history to suggest that he would embrace democracy American-style. In fact, he considered this practice to be inconvenient and unproductive (Oberdorfer 32). A U.S. military assessment noted:
From the time he led the 1961 coup, it has been evident that President Park had little admiration for or interest in the craft of politics. His approach to his stewardship as ROK head of state has remained that of a general who desires that his orders be carried out without being subjected to the process of political debate (Oberdorfer 33).
Although heavy U.S. pressure influenced Park to return to nominal civilian rule following his coup, one can see that from the beginning there were prominent factors that foreshadowed the clash of ideologies to come.
Park began his most anti-democratic line of rule in 1972 with the advent of his Yushin system that disbanded the National Assembly, declared martial law, discarded the existing Constitution and prepared for indirect election of the president. To silence opposition, Park arrested many of the senior political leaders of the country. He justified this radical line of rule by declaring that they were revitalizing reforms that were necessary to strengthen and unify the nation to prepare for possible Northern invasion and maintain national independence (Oberdorfer 38). All pretense of a civilian government was thus ended by this blatant grab for complete authoritarian power. Following a policy that encouraged gradually lower levels of U.S. engagement with Korea, the U.S. responded to this maneuver by stating that they had not been consulted or involved in Park s actions and would seek to avoid involvement in Korea s internal affairs (Oberdorfer 41). In effect, the U.S. was attempting to not endorse the Yushin plan as a whole by following a policy of disassociation that diminished the role of the U.S. in Korea s political system.
U.S. involvement, while always present, became significantly more intrusive with President Carter s rise to office in 1976. At this time, America s reaction against military commitments abroad were seen for the first time since the Vietnam disaster when President Carter advocated the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Korea almost immediately following his inception into office. Korea was, of course, adamantly against this maneuver and Carter s own government displayed opposition to such a drastic move. However, for undetermined reasons, Carter remained steadfast in this course of action for almost the entire duration of his office. Although the administration and Congress opposed the immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces, they were not against the idea of using the issue to induce a process of liberalization. However, they had to be careful in their suggestions so as to not provoke a nationalist and regressive reaction. The U.S. sought to do this by attempting to recover strained relations with Park, hoping it would lead to gradual democratization by a friendly and understated counsel. Park too hoped to end the awkward relations with the U.S. but sought to maintain U.S. support without changing his ruling style. He proposed a summit with Carter in January 1979 but rejected Western style democracy as unsuitable to Korea. Although both sides wanted to return to the friendly relations of the past, misperceptions regarding the other s government led to escalating tensions (Gleysteen 6). The political interplay was such that Park believed that the U.S. policy toward Korea would shift from human rights and democratization to security, whereas the Carter administration gradually adopted a flexible status quo policy linked to a strategy of offensive intervention. These exchanges in misperceived intentions and mutual suspicions spiraled into political turmoil that culminated in the shocking assassination of Park in 1979. There can be no doubt that although the U.S. apparently had not direct involvement in the assassination, its public statements and support of the opposition helped to fuel and enhance the struggle for Park s demise.
The fall of the Park regime and the Carter Chill are interdependent, and the decline of the Triangular Alliance Security System (TASS) is apparent as Korean politics continued to deviate from U.S. interests. There is a fundamental lack of compromise and miscommunication between the Carter and Park administrations that led to the detrimental effect of unsteady alliance. With this level of tension and uncertainty, relations can only be strained and self-defeating, for they are only encouraging instability in the very region that both are trying to maintain peace in. Judging by the transition of Korean-American relations and the dismal conclusion in 1979, neither side was entirely successful in securing their interests and maintaining a cohesive alliance management.
However, the shift to democracy (and consequently, united Korean-American interests) came in 1987 when Korea held its first popular ballot since Park Chung Hee s narrow victory in 1971. Since then, Korea has been on a sometimes shaky but determined road to continue democracy that appears to have no end. We see this commitment to democracy in current President Kim Dae Jung, who has had a long and remarkable history in advocating democracy. Throughout his long and volatile political career, Kim has remained staunchly dedicated to his belief in democracy despite constant threat and repression. Kim came very close to winning the popular ballot in 1971 against Park Chung Hee and it was no secret that Park despised and feared him. He was abducted by Park s KCIA in Tokyo and brought back to Seoul bound and gagged, after which he was placed under house arrests and later imprisoned. After Park, Chun continued the vengeance by having Kim arrested and sentenced to death. It was only with the influence of the Reagan administration that Chun reluctantly allowed Kim to live. Prior to 1987, there had been only 2 months since his kidnapping fourteen years earlier when he had been free of house arrest, prison, exile, or some other serious official restriction. In these years of adversity, Kim has had the opportunity to strengthen his convictions and answer major questions facing Korea (Oberdorfer 177).
When Kim Dae Jung assumed power as President in 1997, many thought finally. After a political career that has spanned more than 4 decades, Kim was finally able to implement his democratic ideals. Kim was also a U.S. favorite for the presidency for it meant that Korea...
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