Syngman Rhee

Syngman Rhee or Lee Seungman (March 26, 1875 – July 19, 1965) was the first president of South Korea. His presidency, from August 1948 to April 1960, remains controversial, affected by Cold War tensions on the Korean peninsula and elsewhere. Rhee was a strong anti-Communist, and led South Korea through the Korean War. His presidency ended in resignation following popular protests against a disputed election. He died in exile in Hawaii.

Early career

He was the co-author, with P.K. Yoon, of the Petition from the Koreans of Hawaii to U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, which appealed to the Americans in face of Japanese aggression in 1905.

Rhee graduated in 1907 from The George Washington University, where he was a member of the prestigious Enosinian Society, and from Harvard University in 1909 with a Master of Arts. Rhee enrolled at Princeton University in September of 1909, and apparently obtained a Ph.D. in Politics on June 14, 1910 at the age of 35.

During the Japanese occupation of Korea, he was elected president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in exile in 1919. Rhee was impeached from the presidency in 1925.

In 1934, he married Francesca Donner in New York.

Presidency

After Korea was liberated, Rhee returned to Seoul and pushed for a government presiding over only the southern part of the Korean peninsula. Because of his strong anti-Communist views, it was virtually impossible for him to negotiate with Soviet-influenced leaders of the north to establish a united government. The United States was under McCarthyism, an intense anti-Communist movement from 1950 to about 1956.

Rhee was elected the first president of South Korea on 10 May, 1948 by a parliamentary vote, defeating Kim Koo, the last president of the Provisional Government by a count of 180-16 after left-wing parties boycotted the election. On 15 August 1948, he formally took over power from the US military and de jure sovereignty of Korean people from the Provisional Government.

He governed in an authoritarian manner and allowed the internal security force to detain and torture suspected Communists and North Korean agents. His government also oversaw several massacres, the most notable being on the island of Jeju in response to an uprising by leftist factions. While massacres did occur under the regimes that succeeded Rhee, they were fewer in number and less widespread.

When the Korean War broke out in 1950, Rhee further damaged his reputation by encouraging the citizens of Seoul, the nation's capital, to remain in the city while he himself was already on his way to refuge. His decision to cut the bridges on the Han River prevented thousands of citizens from escaping Communist rule. When UN and South Korean forces fought back and drove the North Koreans north towards the Yalu River only to retreat to a line around current DMZ because of Chinese counterattack, Rhee became unpopular with his allies for refusing to agree to a number of ceasefire proposals that would have left Korea divided. Hoping to become the leader of a united Korea with U.N. assistance, he tried to veto any peace plan that would not eliminate the northern government completely. He also argued for stronger methods to be used against China and often expressed annoyance at the reluctance of the U.S. to bomb it.

On January 18, 1952, Rhee declared South Korean sovereignty over the waters around the Korean peninsula, in a concept similar to that of today's exclusive economic zones. The maritime demarcation thus drawn up, which Rhee called the "Peace Line", included Tsushima Island and the uninhabited islets named Dokdo. This led to protests from the Japanese government, which claimed that the islets should be considered Japanese territory. Minor clashes followed, but the islets have thereafter been under South Korean administration. Throughout his rule, Rhee sought to take additional steps to cement his control of government. He founded his party, the Liberal Party, in 1951. In May 1952, when the government was still based in Busan due to the ongoing war, Rhee pushed through constitutional amendments which made the presidency a directly-elected position. In order to do this, he declared martial law and jailed the members of parliament whom he expected to vote against it. Rhee was subsequently elected by a wide margin. He regained control of parliament in the 1954 elections, and thereupon pushed through an amendment to exempt himself from the eight-year term limit.

Rhee's prospects for reelection during the presidential campaign of 1956 initially seemed dim. Public disillusionment regarding his attempt to seek a third term was growing, and the main opposition candidate Shin Ik-hee drew immense crowds during his campaign. Shin's sudden death while on the campaign trail, however, allowed Rhee to win the presidency with ease. The runner-up of that election, Cho Bong-am of the Progressive Party, was later charged with espionage and executed in 1959.

Resignation

By 1960, Rhee already served three terms in office. His victory seemed assured when the main opposition candidate, Cho Byeong-ok, died shortly before the March 15 elections. The real contest was in the race for vice president (held separately under the law of the time), and Rhee's heir apparent Yi Gi-bung was declared the victor in an election that the opposition claimed was rigged. This sparked off anger among segments of the Korean populace, and the student-led April 19 Movement forced Rhee to resign on April 26.

On April 28, a DC-4 belonging to the CIA operated Civil Air Transport swiped Rhee out of South Korea and away from the clutches of a lynch mob that was closing in. Kim Yong Kap, Rhee's Deputy Minister of Finance, revealed that President Rhee had embezzled $20 million in government funds. Rhee, his wife and adopted son lived in exile in Honolulu, Hawaii. On July 19 1965, Rhee died of a stroke. His body was returned to Seoul and buried in the National Cemetery on July 27 of the same year.

Legacy

Rhee's legacy has been in considerable dispute. While he may be considered as the founding father of South Korea, his administration of autocracy fueled by anti-communism was just as notorious as his reputation. In general, conservative circles regard Rhee as the patriarch of the nation, while liberals tend to be critical of him. This mixed assessment of Rhee's legacy is evident in the way he is addressed posthumously: instead of president, he is usually called with the honorific Baksa (박사, meaning "Doctor"), a modest prefix for the first leader of South Korea. His political rival, Kim Koo, is commonly called with the honorific Seonsaeng (선생, "Teacher" or "Sir"), a title considered superior to Baksa.

Rhee's former residence in Seoul, Ihwajang, is currently used for the presidential memorial museum, and Woo-Nam Presidential Preservation Foundation has been set up to honour his legacy.

Trivia

He's mentioned in Billy Joel's history themed song "We Didn't Start the Fire".

He is mentioned numerous times in Robert Altman's film MASH (1970) which is about a team of American army medical officers during the Korean War, although this setting is a thinly disguised allusion to the Vietnam War, then raging.

When the lights go out in the operating room during surgery and then come back on a short time later one of the doctors says "Syngman Rhee paid the electric bill."

When Hawkeye (Donald Sutherland) takes the young Korean mess hall boy, and his friend, Ho-Jon, to get a medical checkup, he tells the South Korean guards that "This is Sygnman Rhee's son, he goes right in" to get him better treatment (he also gives him a dose of drugs to make him appear to have a bad heart to get him out of Korean military duty).

External links

Syngman Rhee

Presidents of South Korea | Korean War people | 1875 births | 1965 deaths | Methodists