Presented by David P. Fields, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In the pantheon of authoritarian strongmen of the Cold War, it is tempting to think of Syngman Rhee as the one we know the best. Prior to his return to Korea in 1945—courtesy of a War Department transport plane—Rhee spent nearly forty years in the United States. He earned degrees from Harvard and Princeton, spoke English fluently, and was a dedicated Christian to boot. He seemed tailor-made for the task of assisting the U.S. Army to occupy a country that did not want to be occupied. But Rhee was not returning to Korea as an American miracle man, but as a Korean revolutionary hero who had struggled against the power structures of the traditional Korean state and the Japanese occupation. Back on Korean soil he would lead a third revolution against both the last vestiges of the Chosun state–which the Japanese had largely left in place–and what he believed was a Soviet effort to subjugate the entire peninsula. This lecture will examine Syngman Rhee’s role as a revolutionary and what it can teach us about the Korean Independence Movement, the Division of Korea, and the Korean War.

Presented at the Center for Historical Research in the Department of History at The Ohio State University. The talk was co-sponsored by the Institute for Korean Studies and a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant to The Ohio State University East Asian Studies Center.

The Ohio State University Center for Historical Research provides a stimulating intellectual environment for studying important historical issues around the world. Each year the Center brings together scholars from various disciplines to examine issues of broad contemporary relevance in historical perspective. The annual program of the Center is organized around a central theme, which will be explored through a series of seminars. For more information about CHR, visit [ Ссылка ].

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