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The Korea Story
https://archive.org/details/koreastory0000cald/page/n5/mode/2up
By John C Caldwell
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The Korea Story
John C. Caldwell
Camphor Press | December 2020 (first published 1952) | 220 pages
$2.99 (e-book) | ISBN 978-1-78869-230-4
$14.99 (paperback) | ISBN 978-1-78869-231-1
$24.99 (hardback) | ISBN 978-1-78869-232-8Description
This is nation-building made riveting, the largely unknown story of the years between the end of Japanese rule in 1945 and the surprise Communist invasion of South Korea in the summer of 1950.
Outspoken author John Caldwell recounts his adventures and frustrations in South Korea with the U.S. Information Service from 1947 until his resignation in early 1950.
Caldwell played a vital role in the landmark constitutional assembly and presidential elections of 1948, Korea’s first experience of democratic elections. His missions took him throughout the country; along the way he ran clandestine propaganda operations into the North, came under machine gunfire, battled State Department bureaucracy, and married his translator, the daughter of American missionaries in Korea.
Caldwell, born and raised in the southern Chinese province of Fujian, was himself the son of missionaries, and had fought in China against the Japanese (tales told in American Agent and the superb China Coast Family).
Caldwell, born and raised in the southern Chinese province of Fujian, was himself the son of missionaries, and had fought in China against the Japanese (tales told in American Agent and the superb China Coast Family).
The Korea Story was written as the truce talks were bringing the Korean War to an end, and it sizzles with an impassioned intensity directed at what Caldwell saw as American blunders. He describes the resources and opportunities squandered, and the mistakes made and not corrected during the late 1940s as the U.S. government applied an ill-informed, top-down approach to fostering the new democracy. His arguments for a more localised, sympathetic approach to nation-building are convincing, and remain as relevant today.
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This is nation-building made riveting, the largely unknown story of the years between the end of Japanese rule in 1945 and the surprise Communist invasion of South Korea in the summer of 1950. Outspoken author John Caldwell recounts his adventures and frustrations in South Korea with the U.S. Information Service from 1947 until his resignation i
Asia
LanguageEnglish
PublisherCamphor Press Ltd
Release dateDec 1, 2020
ISBN9781788692304
Read now
===
This is nation-building made riveting, the largely unknown story of the years between the end of Japanese rule in 1945 and the surprise Communist invasion of South Korea in the summer of 1950. Outspoken author John Caldwell recounts his adventures and frustrations in South Korea with the U.S. Information Service from 1947 until his resignation i
Asia
LanguageEnglish
PublisherCamphor Press Ltd
Release dateDec 1, 2020
ISBN9781788692304
Read now
Displaying 1 of 1 review
Peter A
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August 8, 2021
A first-hand account of some events in Korea between January 1948 and June 1950, when North Korean troops invaded South Korea. The author was part of the US government’s mission in Korea; when he arrived, he was part of the Office of Civil Information of the Occupation Forces in Korea, responsible for overseeing many aspects of the May 1948 elections. He initially worked to help prepare the Korean population, below the 38th parallel, for their first elections in May 1948. In this phase of his work, the US mission was under the authority of the US military. After elections, the authority in what was becoming South Korea shifted to the US State Department.
The strength of the book comes from his description and personal experiences working with the Korean population, to give a sense of what life was like. He lived in Chuncheon (Chunchon), east and slightly north of Seoul, near the 38th parallel, and would hear about conditions in the north. From his description, he had to be very creative to solve many cultural and logistical problems caused by lack of resources and needing to work outside the system.
One story he relates is how he had created a pathway into the north to provide information to Koreans living north of the 38th parallel, by using smugglers and partially filling cigarette packages with flyers. It was relatively easy, with bribes, to move back and forth across the boundary.
As background, the post-war agreement was that the Russians would administer the UN mandate north of the 38th parallel, and the US would do so in the south. During this administration, which started in the August/September 1945, there would be UN discussions of how to create an independent Korea. Those discussions produced no agreement by 1948, and each side set up different governments.
Unfortunately, as the flyers were being found in the north, the ability to get across the border was more difficult, and in the final crossing to the north, the smuggler was caught and executed.
The author himself had a missionary background (his parents in China), and his wife was also the daughter of a missionary. His chapter on Missionary Story in Korea provides information about several US missionaries and their contributions to the Korean society.
Also, the final chapter, covering the day before the invasion to a few days afterwards, gives a description of the disbelieve of chaos resulting from the invasion. It also relates how several South Korean officials were communist cell leaders, how the US State Department officials did not destroy records of the Koreas working for the US (leading to their deaths when the North Koreans arrived), and of different groups efforts (and failures) to escape.
The author does a service by relating his first-hand experiences, including the assassination attempt on his wife. The other theme of the book is a condemnation of the US State Department’s administration of South Korea, by the choice of individuals sent to Korea (not speaking the language), the central control by Washington of all public relations materials, of the lack of understanding of the needs of the Korean people, of the desire to spend big when small spending would work (with one story about saying it would be impossible to convince Congress to fund $75 solutions), and its dismissal of the network of American missionaries to Korea who had in-depth knowledge of culture, geography, and people.
This second theme seems to be an attempt at telling “his own story,” somehow vindicating various actions he took. His actions had angered some in DC, and he was ordered back to DC. Rather than return, he retired, as did his wife, who was asked to stay on (State refused to have him stay). I do not know more about his story.
FB: On balance, a valuable eyewitness account of several events in Korea between January 1948 and June 1950, the failings of the State Department in understanding Korea and of burdensome red-tape, the utter lack of valuing of Korean employees of the US State Department, and ultimately of US intelligence for not expecting the invasion.
Additional Notes:
• The author was also involved with the failed mission of George Marshall to stop a civil war in China in 1946. He was part of the U.S. Information Services in China. He has opinions about the bias in the State Department at that time regarding China.
• Lesley Frost, collaborator in this effort, also served in the State Department, and is the daughter of Robert Frost.
• The book includes photographs, and some pre- and post- the North Korean invasion (1950 and 1952)
history
korea
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