Abstract
The United States strove to implement the trusteeship plan and unify the two zones of occupation, while dealing with the difficulties arising from its unprepared occupation of southern Korea. But by early 1947, due to its limited resources and the complex political development in Korea, it had to make a clear choice regarding its costly military occupation of South Korea.
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Notes
Morita Yoshio, Chousen Shusenno Kiroku [The Record of the End of the War in Korea] (Tokyo: Gannando, 1964), 70;
Guksapyeonchan Wiwonhwoe, Shtykov Diary (Gwacheon, 2003), 180.
George M. McCune, “Occupation Politics in Korea,” Far Eastern Survey XV, 3. (February 13, 1946), 33–34. McCune had been in charge of Korean affairs in the Department of State before writing this article.
Baek Nam-hun, “Hangukminjudang Changdang Bihwa” [The Hidden Story behind KDP’s Inauguration], Jinsang (April 1960), published in Hangukminjudang Yeongu, I, ed. Sim Ji-yeon (Seoul: Pulbit, 1982), 143–49.
Song Nam-hun, Haebang Samnyeonsa [History of Three Years after Liberation], I (Seoul: Kkachi, 1985), 65–66, 121–23.
The 8th US Army, History of the US Armed Forces in Korea (HUSAFIK), II, pt. 2, ed. Dolbegae (Seoul: 1988), 48–49,
Song Nam-hun, Haebang, 127–29: G-2 Weekly Summary, no. 11 (27 November, 1945), 4.
Kim Ku, “Imshi Jeongbu Dangmyeon Jeongchaek” [KPG Policies], September 3, 1945,
Guksa Pyeonchan Wiwonhwoe, Jaryo Daehanminguksa: I (1968), 46–47; Incl. #2 to G-2 Weekly Summary, 9 (November 7, 1945), No. 2; “Announcement of Kim Ku,” Jaryo: I, 463;
Robert T. Oliver, Syngman Rhee and American Involvement in Korea, 1942–1960: A Personal Narrative (Seoul: Panmun Book, 1978), 29.
See Bruce Cumings, The Origins of the Korean War, I: Liberation and the Emergence of Separate Regimes, 1945–1947 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981), chapters 9 and 10.
G-2 Weekly Summary, No. 58 (October 25, 1946); G-2 Periodic Report, No. 373 (November 5, 1946); JoongAng Ilbo-sa, Birok: Joseon-minjujuui Inmingonghwaguk [Secret Record: D.P.R.K.] (Seoul: Joongang Ilbosa, 1992), 263.
I.M. Chischakov, “Je 25-gunui Jeontu-haengro,” [The 25th Army’s Road of Combat], in The Soviet Academy of Science, Leningradrobuteo Pyongyangk-kaji [From Leningrad to Pyongyang: Memoirs of the Soviet Generals in liberating Korea] (Seoul: Hamseong, 1989), 56–60; I.M. Lebedev, “Suhaenghal Uimureul Jagakhamyeo,” ibid., 91.
Langdon to Byrnes, August 23, 1946, FRUS: 1946, VIII, 728; George M. McCune, Korea Today (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1950), 214–16.
Seo Jung-seok, Nambuk Hyupsang: Kim Kyu-sik-ui Gil, Kim Ku-ui Gil [South-North Negotiations: Roads taken by Kim Kyu-sik and Kim Ku] (Seoul: Hanwul, 2000), 24–29.
See, Dokrip Sinbo, October 13, 1946; Sincheonji I, 8 (August 1946): 17, 30–31; Simjiyon, Hanguk Jeongdang Jeongchisa [History of Korean Party Politics] (Seoul: Baeksan, 2004), 40–42.
HUSAFIK, II, chapter 4, 43; Jung Yong wook, Haebang Jeonhu Miguk-ui Daehan Jeongchaek [US Policy toward Korea before and after Liberation] (Seoul: SNU, 2003), 478. For US efforts to encourage the inauguration of a moderate coalition, see Cummings, The Origins, I, 255–59.
For broader aspects of US occupation of Korea, see Bonnie Oh, ed., Korea under the American Military Government, 1945–1948 (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2002).
AMG had high regards about Kim Kiu-sik and Lyuh Woon-hyung in 1946. General Arnold wrote, “Kim Koo has lost out completely. Syngman Rhee, while powerful, is completely self-seeking.” FRUS: 1946, VIII, 743. See also, Yi Chong-sik, Kim Kyu-sik-ui Saengae [Life of Kim Kyu-sik] (Seoul: Shinku Munhwasa, 1974).
Lee Cheol-seung and Pak kap-dong, Daehanminguk Ireokke Seweotda [R.O.K. was founded in this way] (Seoul: Gemyeong-sa, 1998), 267–68, 339–42. When Lyuh inaugurated his Laboring People’s Party in April 1947, a British diplomat reported, “his [Lyuh’s] declaration brings disappointment to the moderate Right and Center” and “leaves his attitude to Communism sufficiently vague to permit him at any moment to jump in the direction that discretion may require.” Seoul (Kermode) to FO, May 6, 1947 (F8110/54/81), FO 371/ 63845, PRO.
See Chong-sik Lee and Robert Scalapino, Communism in Korea, pt. I (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972), 233–312.
Joongang Ilbosa, Birok (Seoul: 1992), 254–56;
Kim Nam-sik, Namrodang Yeongu (Seoul: Dolbegae, 1984), 358–61.
Rhee to Goodfellow, November 9, 1946, Goodfellow Paper, Box 1; Lim Byeong-jik, Imjeong-eseo Indokkaji [Diplomatic Memoir] (Seoul: Yeowonsa, 1964), 280, 299–301. For Rhee’s ambition and popularity in South Korea, see Diary entry, Robert Oliver, July 18, 1946, quoted in Oliver, Syngman Rhee, 38. Citing a US colonel in the AMG, Oliver claimed that the communists did not receive more than 21 percent of the vote in the local elections. For Rhee’s critique of AMG’s soft approach to communists, see Rhee to Goodfellow, October 16, 1946, Goodfellow Paper, Box 1.
Seoul Shinmun, February 27, 1947; US Armed Forces in Korea, G-2 Weekly Summary, Institute of Asian Culture Studies, Hallym University ed. (1990), 76 (February 27, 1947), 77 (March 6, 1947), 78 (March 13, 1947).
Michael Schaller, The United States and China in the Twentieth Century (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), 111–16.
May, The Truman Administration and China, 1945–1949 (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1975), 8, 14.
US Congress, Senate, Committee on Armed Services and Foreign Relations, Hearings on the Military Situation in the Far East, 82nd Cong., 1st session, 1951, 465. This was based on Marshall’s recollection.
“Minutes of a meeting,” November 3, 1947, FRUS: 1947, VII, 911. See also, “Wedemeyer Memorandum,” October 13, 1947, ibid., 893; Marshall to Ambassador Stuart, November 28, 1947, ibid., 923. In November 1945, the flamboyant US ambassador to China, Hurley, resigned, openly criticizing the China hands in the State Department as supporting the Communists in China. See Russell D. Buhite, Patrick J. Hurley and American Foreign Policy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1973), 253–81.
See PPS/10, October 14, 1947, FRUS: 1947, VI, 540–42; Schaller, The American Occupation of Japan: The Origins of the Cold War in Asia (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), 98–140.
See Gaddis, Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of Postwar American National Security Policy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982), 59.
James Schnabel, The History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: 1, 1945–1947 (Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1979), 204–47;
Laurence Radway, Liberal Democracy in World Affairs: Foreign Policy and National Defense (Atlanta: Scott, Foresman, and Co., 1969), 31;
Henry Nash, American Foreign Policy: Response to a Sense of Threat (Homewood, IL: The Dorsey, 1973), 19–20.
David Alan Rosenberg, “US nuclear stockpile, 1945 to 1950,” The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 38, 5 (May 1982): 25–28; Nash, American Foreign Policy, 19–20;
Alan R. Millett and Peter Maslowski, For the Common Defense: A Military History of the United States of America (New York: Free Press, 1994), 499.
Kenneth W. Condit (Historical Division, JCS), The History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, II, 1947–1949 (Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, Inc, 1979), 191–212;
Samuel Huntington, Common Defense: Strategic Problems in National Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963), 33–47.
Hilldering, “Korea-House Divided,” Department of State Bulletin, 16 (March 23, 1947), 544–47.
See also, G-2, “The Evolution of the Armed Forces of North Korean Peoples Committee,” enclosed in G-2, US Army Forces in Korea, ISNK (Intelligence Summary Northern Korea), ed. Hallim Taehakkyo Asia Munhwa Yeonguso (Chuncheon, 1989), no. 39, June 30, 1947, 17.
See Charles M. Dobbs, The Unwanted Symbol: American Foreign Policy, the Cold War, and Korea, 1945–1950 (Kent, OH: Kent University Press, 1981), 91–98.
Walter Millis, ed, Forrestal Diaries (New York: Viking, 1951), 273.
Paul H. Nitze, Hiroshima to Glasnost: At the Center of Decision (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1989), 101–2; Alexis Johnson, Oral History, HSTL, 35.
Stueck, The Road to Confrontation, 78. Some military officials also thought that China was much more important than Korea, and did not want the limited funds diverted to Korea. See, Bruce Cummings, The Origins of the Korean War, II: The Roaring of the Cataract, 1947–1950 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990), 59–60.
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© 2009 Seung-young Kim
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Kim, Sy. (2009). Uncertain Strategic Situation and Rise of Competing Recommendations toward Korea. In: American Diplomacy and Strategy toward Korea and Northeast Asia, 1882–1950 and After. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230621688_9
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