The Park Chung Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea

by Byung-Kook Kim (Editor), Ezra F. Vogel (Editor), Chang Jae Baik (Contributor)

In 1961 South Korea was mired in poverty. By 1979 it had a powerful industrial economy and a vibrant civil society in the making, which would lead to a democratic breakthrough eight years later. The transformation took place during the years of Park Chung Hee's presidency. Park seized power in a coup in 1961 and ruled as a virtual dictator until his assassination in October 1979. He is credited with modernizing South Korea, but at a huge political and social cost.

South Korea's political landscape under Park defies easy categorization. The state was predatory yet technocratic, reform-minded yet quick to crack down on dissidents in the name of political order. The nation was balanced uneasily between opposition forces calling for democratic reforms and the Park government's obsession with economic growth. The chaebol (a powerful conglomerate of multinationals based in South Korea) received massive government support to pioneer new growth industries, even as a nationwide campaign of economic shock therapy-interest hikes, devaluation, and wage cuts-met strong public resistance and caused considerable hardship.

This landmark volume examines South Korea's era of development as a study in the complex politics of modernization. Drawing on an extraordinary range of sources in both English and Korean, these essays recover and contextualize many of the ambiguities in South Korea's trajectory from poverty to a sustainable high rate of economic growth.

Genres: History, Politics, Economics, Nonfiction, Biography, Asia, Government

752 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2011

Reviews

[Marcel Patulacci · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me almost a month to get over this massive work about one of the most contradictory period of the modern Korean history: the Park Chung Hee era. For the progressists, Park represents an era of unnecessary and ignoble dictatorship, whereas the conservatives consider him as the architect of the modern South Korean state. Frankly speaking, the reading of this book was sometimes really unpleasant (some chapters are more readable than others): a dry style, a large amount of datas and of technical words. It is however extremely precise and rich in informations. Divided in five axes, this work stretched from History to Politics, Economy and International Relations.

The first part is of historical nature, stretching from the preparation of the May 16th military coup by Park Chung Hee until the securization of power by the junta. Unfortunately, it will be the only biographical part of the work. Therefore, this work offers very scarce informations on Park's life before and after this momentum.

The second part handles the political aspects. The doctrine of Park could be resumed by the formula "puguk kangbyon" (rich nation, strong army), a leitmotiv retaken from the Meiji era in Japan. After all Park was the product of the japanese colonial apparatus and a former officer of the imperial army. In this respect, Park named his new constitution, introduced during his third terms "Yushin", the Korean translation of "Ishin", the japanese constitution under Meiji. This part also explains in the one hand how Park dealt with the different South Korean Institutions (army, police, intelligence) to ensure himself both political basis and power and in the other hand how he succesfully eliminated potential rivals, playing the different factions in his political apparatus against each others, enabling him to stay in power until his assassination in 1979. More importantly, this second part also shows how Park structured his "apparatus" both with officers and technocrats. The first group was supposed to emulate a "militarist" ethic in the different sectors of the new South Korean state while the second group was meant to offer their expertise.

The third part handles the economic and societal aspects of this era. The notorious "Chaebol" are of course an unavoidable topic when talking about South Korean Economy. Those large family-owned industrial structures pre-existed Park's coup but gained a new meaning in this era. Strictly repressed at the begining for their supposed corruption and greed, they later became Park's best allies in his politic of rapid economic growth. It would be false to believe that they were pawns in the hand of Park, as it would be false to believe that Park was at their mercy. In fact, we should speak of an interdependent relation: Park needed the Chaebol to fulfill his economic programm while the Chaebol needed Park for state-fundings. Another important point approached in this third part is the construction of a steel mill in Pohang. This step was crucial to supply the growing industry (and especially the young automobile industry) in a country poor in ressources. This system based on hypergrowth and irrational measures (such as the sudden change of currency, the recurrent devaluations or state-financing of low-profit industries) could have had irremediable consequences and ruined all the efforts and sacrifices South Koreans endured during this time. Luckily for them, this risk-taking policy paid off. This part also deals with the countryside and the opposition called "chaeya". The countryside paid the price for this fast unbridled industrialization, wages were casually sunk and Park did little for the agricultural sector. Paradoxally, this is not in the countryside but in the city that the Chaeya opposition emerged, denuncing the illegitimacy of Park's system (especially after the introduction of the Yushin constitution). They had however little tools for their actions and had to rely mostly on collaborations with the "Democratic Party" (one of the few political parties allowed by the junta) and occasional american support.

The fourth part was at my opinion the most interesting of all, exploring the international relations of South Korea at that time. First of all with the Vietnam war and the reasons why Park decided to involve his country in this conflict in Southeast Asia. Unlike what we might believe on first sights, the motivations were far from those of a "crusade against communism" (the outcome of this war little mattered to him) but much more on the occasion to do the Americans a "favor", to obtain modern equipments and to train and professionalize the South Korean military forces. Also, it offered the South Korean Industry an occasion to expand and make benefits with the South Vietnamese ally, demanding in materials. Another axis of this part is the reconciliation politics with Japan. Due to the conflictual past between Korea and Japan, this step was not easy to take and provoked discontentment in both countries. It was however necessary for South Korea to access Japanese capitals and technical support, especially in a time when western nations were not eager to invest in the poor and unstable South Korean market. For Japan, the development of South Korea was crucial, as Japan was demilitarized, South Korea represented its last barrier against the communist world. Of course, Japanese elites would not have imagined that South Korea would grow out to the point of becoming a challenger in the economic sector. The last topics approached in the international affairs are the relation with the USA and the development of a nuclear programm, both topics being intertwined. Obviously, the USA were not satisfied of the establishment of a dictatorial regime, about which they knew little and that they did not choose (unlike the previous regimes, Park and his accomplices had been educated at the "Japanese school" and not the american one). However, Americans were forced to recognize, that Park seemed more capable than his predecessors to initiate the necessary economical growth, that would make of South Korea a sustainable country. Due to the existence of a richer and more powerful North Korea at that time, those issues were prioritary and overthrowing Park would have been in any case too risky. As the domestic opposition had little possibilities of expression, the USA filled the bill, taming Park's excesses. The USA disposed of the most persuasive leverage to stop Park: the financial support and the US-Army guarantee. After the American defeat in Vietnam, the strategy of disengagement in Asia also affected Korea and reinforced Park in his doctrine of "self-relient country". In this respect, South Korea engaged in the development of a nuclear programm with the technical support of France, Belgium and Canada. However, America could enforce the interruption of this programm using their tools of persuasion: the possible complete removal of American troops from Korea and the end of American financial support. This event tells us more about the US-Park relation. Park Chung Hee was not an obedient pawn but the limits of his "room de manoeuvre" were fixed by the Americans.

The fifth and last part offer different comparisons with other systems, regimes and developmental strategies. First of all, Park is being compared to other significant "Modern Nation Builders" such as the Singaporean Lee Kuan Yew, the Chinese Deng Xiaoping and the Turk Mustapha Kemal Attatürk. Of course, due to the different period, scale, system, all of them proceeded differently, but all were inhabited by a will to build a strong nation after painful humiliations (colonization for Korea, dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire for Attatürk, the "almost colonization" of China for Deng Xiaoping and the exclusion of Malaysia for Lee). The second comparative perspective propose a parallel analysis of Park Chung Hee in Korea and Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines. Both were dictators in the same period and in american "client states". This chapter demystifies the common assumption that South Korea owes its unexpected and spectacular development to American financing. Certainly, American support played a role but the counter-example of the Philippines (that also enjoyed American financial support) proves that it is far of being sufficient to ensure a sustainable development. This chapter suggests that Park used his absolute power to build a modern state whereas Ferdinand Marcos used it for personal gains, being considered as one of the biggest "Kleptocrat" of Human History. The third chapter compares the South Korean junta with contemporary Latin American dictatorships. I found this chapter less relevant and less interesting than the previous ones, as those dictatorships took place in a different context and appeared for different reasons. The last chapter compares the industrial development of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Those three countries were the first nations in East Asia to become modern states and all shared a common past: they all were core state of the former Japanese Empire. They mostly follow similar patterns (establishing of a steel mill, focus on heavy and chemical industries, export economies, focus on automobile industry etc) but still differed in some respect. Taiwan, disposing of a smaller market, proceeded more carefully than South Korea, mostly relying on small and medium scale firms, whereas South Korea bet on the "Chaebol" and their large structures. Japan having started its industrialization earlier and being way more advanced than the two others mixed both small/medium and large structures. Japan also provided investments and expertize to both South Korea and Taiwan, participating thus in their development. South Korea was also the only dictatorship among those three countries. Unlike the democratic Japan and the Kuomintang-ruled Taiwan, Park's junta disposed of very little legitimacy and could only rely on raw oppression to reach its ends.

Though the massive amount of informations and analysis this extensive work offers, it says little on the everyday experience and mostly focuses on the elites. A question remains therefore unanswered: "How did the life of the average South Korean citizen look like ?". However, this book is a must read for whoever wants to overcome basic assumptions on "South Korea's miracle" and study in details this crucial moment of contemporary Korean History.

[Hadrian · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Not because I did not love Caesar, but because I loved Rome more."
-Kim Chae-gyu, director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, quoting Shakespeare

Park Chung-Hee's tenure as President of the Republic of Korea from 1961 to 1979 was one of the most consequential periods in the history of that state. In 1961, Seoul was a shantytown and South Korea was an impoverished, war-torn backwater, with no running toilets and shantytowns in Seoul. By 1979, when the head of Park's own intelligence service shot him in the head, it was industrialized and well on its way to becoming one of the wealthiest countries in the world and a regional power in its own right. His supporters would say his advocacy of economic development saved South Korea from obscurity and poverty, in what is now called the Miracle on the Han River; his opponents say he crushed civil society and left behind a stunted social order. These debates were revived with the election of his daughter, Park Geun-hye, to the presidency in 2013 and her removal from office following a bribery and influence scandal in 2017.

The Park Chung-Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea is an edited compilation of some twenty-one separate chapters. Although the front matter lists both Kim Byung-kook (former national security advisor to president Lee Myung-Bak and the late Ezra Vogel as co-editors, Vogel modestly gives Kim the bulk of the credit for assembling this volume. While the book has a stated purpose of presenting a more objective presentation of Park Chung-hee's life and political career, this is harder to do over the book's length and the wide ranges of opinion between authors - but if there is a common research direction, it is a study of political company of the Republic of Korea, as well as the biography of Park himself.

Part 1, "Born in a Crisis", covers the period of Park's rule from the military coup in 1961, and the tenuous legitimization of his rule through elections in 1963. The outcome of the coup was not assured, and the early descriptions of the Korean CIA and early assessments of the regime are also of note.

Part 2, "Politics", is one of the most interesting sections of the whole book, and is so rich in detail that I could think of it as a reference for later. Chapters cover modernization strategy, the use of executive power, the military, the government bureaucracy, and the ends of power - that is, to keep Park in power.

Part 3, "Economy and Society", continues to be informative, discussing the origins of the modern chaebol, the development of the domestic automotive industry, the Pohang Iron and Steel Foundry, rural areas, and dissident intellectuals (the chaeya). Park again emerges as a complex, even contradictory figure. These chapters present a complicated and shifting relationship between Park and the government bureaucracy, as well as the heads of major companies. He also had a more contentious relationship with rural areas, and had to continually renew promises made to them in order to rely on their continued support.

Part 4, "International Relations", returns to a closer view at the top, with the decisions to send troops to the Vietnam War and normalize relationships with Japan, with economic interests (US aid) and political interests taken in mind. The last two chapters are on the more contentious relationship with the United States during the Carter administration and the abortive decision to pursue a nuclear weapons program.

Part 5 is a collection of comparative studies - to Latin America, the Philippines, and Vogel draws comparisons to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Lee Kuan Yew, and Deng Xiaoping - Nation Rebuilders.

I have found very little academic work on Park in English, and I have no way of engaging with the scholarship in Korean. That said, I found this a valuable study on his life and tenure, and likely the basis for many further years of future research.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Park Chung Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea, is a series of essays covering various topics on the political climate in South Korea during the reign of autocratic leader Park Chung Hee. Park took power in the early 1960's in a military backed coup, and set about consolidating his power over the South Korean state. He used economic reform, and a divide and conquer strategy to pacify the public and remove any obstacles to his own power.

The book covers a variety of topics in Park's South Korea, and transcends a biography to offer a more in-depth political analysis of the intricate systems of control Park used to stay in power in South Korea. The book begins by analyzing the coup background. The various actors involved were often forced to retire by Park soon after the coup, to ensure no other locus of power emerged within the South Korean armed forces. Park's control over the military is also examined throughout his reign, as he used a two tranche system of promotion, one in the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) and one for the Korean Armed Forces (PSS). This divide and conquer strategy allowed a division of the security apparatus of the state, and the states armed forces to ensure no one General could achieve a large following. Park's political control was similar, as he divided the various state ministries into task groups with little political clout. The Economic Planning Board (EPB) and the Ministry of Finance (MoF) became the most powerful, and PArk used them to control the economic hyper growth that South Korea experienced.

The chapters on the economy were also fascinating. Monetary and fiscal policy are analyzed through a political lens. focusing not just on economic growth, but on the underlying reasons why Park enabled certain policy initiatives. His focus on heavy and chemical industrialization (HCI) throughout his reign had ulterior political motives. Economic growth helped to shift his support from rural to urban, thus allowing him to win elections held in 1963 and retain power. HCI also contributed to a rearmament of South Korea, and reduced its dependence on US military aid. The Pohang Steel company, auto makers like Hyundai, and Chaebol groups like Samsung are examined in detail, as are the conflicting ties that the large business groups and the Korean state had. Both were reliant on each other, the Chaebol receiving state subsidies, tax breaks and favourable policies and licenses, in exchange for taking on the risk involved in rapid financial growth and industrialization.

Park's foreign diplomacy initiatives are examined. He opened up relations with former colonial master Japan, just 20 years after they lost WWII, and secured reparation payments and technological patents for South Korea's growing steel industry. He also used the Vietnam War as a pretext to open up South Korea to diplomatic relations in Asia, with common minded (ie. anti-communist) states. South Vietnam was a good spot for Park to test out his growing military arsenal, and to secure funds for weapons and weapon manufacturing from the US. Park's relationship with the US changed with the US government, sometimes being warm, and sometimes feeling the cold sting of betrayal from his guarantors. Even so, Park navigated the tricky waters of Cold War diplomacy, all while holding autocratic power and cementing his grip on the South Korean state.

Finally, the book compares South Korean development to other areas of the world. While similarities between an autocratic Korea and Latin American states at the time exist, Park was adept at holding power, building the economy and playing his allies for benefits, all at the same time.

Park's reign is controversial to this day. He took power in a coup, centralized control over the South Korea state, and engaged in painful hyper growth, while stamping out opposition from student groups, opposition politicians, and labour unions. He brought South Korea into the modern world, and changed the country from third world to a developing state in his 19 or so years of rule. His assassination at the hands of his own KCIA director was a shock, and many still think of Park as the father of South Korea. Even so, he always thought of political power first, and would do whatever it took - whether it be purging friends and allies, or violently suppressing protest movements, to forcing economic reform and threatening martial law - to hold power. Park's vision of "Rich Nation, Strong Army" was key to his success, and his "can do spirit" was political policy during his reign.

This book was a fascinating look at an era of hyper growth almost unseen in world history. And it was all started by one autocratic leader, as he tried to cling to power in a world torn apart by Cold War ideology and political upheaval. Park was a masterful politician, and "The Park Chung Hee Era" shows all of hi Machiavellian machinations in all their terrible glory. This was a wonderful read, and I would highly recommend it to those interested in world politics, Korea, and political theory.

[Mostafa Bushehri · Rating 2 out of 5]

کتاب 700 و اندی صفحه‌ای که در 119 صفحه خلاصه شود صرفا به مثابه یک ویکیپدیای مبهم، و مملو از اسامی و وقایع و تاریخ، خواهد بود؛ نه چیزی بیشتر!

[اویس قرنی · Rating 3 out of 5]

این کتاب یکی از مجموعه پنج جلدی پیشگامان نوسازی آسیا است."

همیشه دوست داشتم بدانم که ماجرای پیشرفت کره جنوبی چیست! یک اتفاق که در کره افتاده بود برایم جالب بود.
در این کتا خواندم که ژنرال پارک، متمولین و تاجران بزرگ را به بهانه "از کجاآورده اید" بهزندان انداخت و 10 برترشان را از زندان بیرون آورد و تهدید کرد که اگر در صنایع مشخصی که دولت میگوید، سرمایه گذاری نکنند، اموالشان را مصادره میکند. در این صورت است که میتوانند خلاصی یابند

در این کتاب دیده میشد که چطور قهر آمریکا بر کره، مانع اجرای اصلاخاتی که در نظر هیئت حاکمه بود، میشد. نمونه اش قانون اصلاحات ارزی که با انتقاد آمریکا لغو گردید

در واقع اگر آمریکا نبود کره بسیار پیشرفت بهتری داشت. این برداشت من است.
بر خلاف آنچه در عموم به اشتباه رایج شده است که کره جنوبی به خاطر وابستگش اش به آمریکا توانست به خوبی پیشرفت کند.

البته با مقایسه ای که بین تصمیمات کره جنوبی و ایران در فرآیند پیشرفت میتوانیم انجام دهیم، میبینیم که ایران به مراتب پیشرفته تر از کره جنوبی عمل میکند. البته باید برخی تجارب آنها را هم در تصمیم به پیشرفت در برخی صنایع، مورد توجه قرار دهیم.

ولی این کتاب طوری نوشته شده بود که ارتباطات اشخاص با یکدیگر به طور واضحی مشخص نبود! گیج کننده بود. اسامی کره ای ...
برای خواندن توصیه میشود.

[Barack Liu · Rating 4 out of 5]

241-Park Chung-hee-Cho Gab-je-Biography-2013
Barack
2019 / 10 / 26
2020 / 06/27


- 2 019/ 1 0 /2 6, Park Chung-hee was killed 40 years.

"President Park Chung-hee" (Park Chung- hee ), first edition in South Korea. It outlines the ruling experience of South Korean President Park Jung-hee (1959-1978). From the military coup to his assassination, Park Jung-hee has always been a controversial and iron-fisted president. Regardless of criticism, he pushed forward various reforms. Although it was military politics, he knew how to make South Korea's economy take off quickly, and he also understood diplomacy . He mediates between big countries, and his unique leadership temperament has influenced him to this day.

Cho Gab-je was born in Saitama Prefecture, Japan in 1945. Studied at Busan Fisheries University (today's Pukyong University). Representative works: "The Biography of President Park Zhengxi", "The Fifth Republic", etc.

Part of the catalog
1. It's so easy to seize power
2. The officer governs the country
3. The resurrection of Korea
4. Send troops to Vietnam
5. The extremely dangerous South and North Korea
6. Oil ruined the world and saved South Korea
7. The president who dares to challenge intellectuals
8. Assassination: the last high decibel of the movement of life

Park Jeong-hee was born in North Gyeongsang Province in 1917 (an administrative division established in North Korea when Japan ruled North Korea), and was shot and killed by the Central Intelligence Minister Kim Jae-gyu on October 26, 1979. In 1961, Park Jeong-hee launched a May 16 military coup to overthrow the Second Republic of Korea and ruled South Korea for 18 years. Representative works: "A Leader's Method", "The Road of Our Country" and "The Country, Revolution and Me".

Kim Jae-kyu was born in North Gyeongsang Province in 1926. He shot and killed Park Jung-hee and Cha Ji-cheol, the head of the presidential police guard who attended the banquet on October 26, 1979. After his arrest, he was hanged by the Chun Doo Hwan government on May 24, 1980. It is said that the reason for Kim Jae-gyu's attack was that he was dissatisfied with Park Jeong-hee and Cha Ji-cheol that he was not tough enough to handle the demonstrations in Busan.

Park Geun-hye was elected the 18th president of South Korea in 2012, and was impeached by the South Korean National Assembly in 2016. When Park Geun-hye was elected, there were many comments from the outside world. What impressed me most was the name given to her by the outside world—"the strongman's daughter". At that time, I became interested in Park Jung-hee's life. Before this week started reading, I do not know the exact date of his assassination, only to find today, take notes on this day happened to be the 40th anniversary of the assassination of President Park Chung-hee of his death.

This book has a clear tendency to stand on the side of Park Jeong-hee. Readers can only feel the side of Park Jeong-hee’s contribution to South Korea, but they can’t feel the drawbacks brought about by Park Jeong-hee during his administration.

Although we are talking about the "conclusive conclusion", in fact, for many important historical figures, the evaluation of them by later generations may appear to be very different in different eras. So I think these historical figures are more or less psychologically prepared to "just let others comment on merits and demerits" when they promote the great wheel of history.

People often amplify what they don’t have and ignore what they have. Therefore, people in the era of Park Jung Hee are easy to complain about the dictatorship of the government and the decline of democracy, but ignore the economic take-off; and those who are suffering from economic fatigue today miss the golden age of rapid economic growth in the past, but ignore the current Undesirable freedom and democracy.

I think it is very interesting to study the history of the country, and it is even more enjoyable to study the lives and deeds of the core leaders in the critical period of the country’s development.

From 1948 to 1960, Rhee Seungman was the first, second, and third president of South Korea;
From 1960 to 1962, Yin Yun (pū) Shan was the fourth term;
From 1963 to 1979, Park Jung Hee was the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th term;
From 1979 to 1980, Choi Gyu-ha was the tenth;
From 1980 to 1988, Quan Doo-hwan was the 11th and 12th;
From 1988 to 1993, Lu Taiyu was the 13th term;
From 1993 to 1998, Kim Young Sam was the 14th term;
From 1998 to 2003, Kim Dae-jung was 15 positions;
From 2003 to 2008, Roh Moo-hyun was the 16th term;
From 2008 to 2013, Li Mingbo was the 17th;
From 2013 to 2017, Park Geun-hye was the 18th;
From 2017 to present, Moon Jae-in is the 19th.

If we study the outcome of every leader in South Korea after World War II, we find that most of them have no good destinations; I think this is the reason why the national political situation is not stable enough. If the country is stable, political liquidation should rarely occur.

In the Asian region, China, Japan and South Korea are very important. If we can have a clear understanding of the development of these three countries after World War II, I think it will be very helpful to understand many real problems today and predict some future situations.

" If the revolution succeeds, the regime must be immediately handed over to politicians with novel ideas and conscience, and the army will return to their duties. However, after the army returns to the barracks, it must supervise politics like a big brother. If it is not satisfactory, it must Re-enter politics."

Mutiny is one thing, but things can be done later, came to power is another matter. What these two things require are two different abilities and rely on power from different sources. For whatever reason , Park Jeong-hee later failed to fulfill his promise. Not only did he not leave the government and return to the military camp, but instead took charge of the government for 18 years . This made the Korean government he later led also had obvious military control by the military government. Colors.

" On the afternoon of May 14, 1961, a strange scene occurred at Major General Park Zhengxi's house. Park Zhengxi called the counterintelligence captain Colonel Li Xiyong and Lieutenant Colonel Fang Ziming of the 15th Criminal Investigation Team directly under the Army to his home. These two had already arrived before they came. I guessed that Park Zhengxi might be plotting a revolution. The night before, the two of them went back and forth between the chief prosecutor and the chief of staff to discuss whether to detain Major General Park Zhengxi. At this time, Park Zhengxi dared to call these two people, if nothing happened. He told them about the coup: "The army will go out and do a cleanup, and then the army will return to the barracks to monitor politics. If it is not satisfactory, it will go out again. This is the way of Niwin in Myanmar. "

Except for not mentioning the date, Park Zhengxi released all the information that the matter was approaching. At the same time, it was hinted to the two that "the Chief of Staff Zhang Duying has also clearly explained the situation." After hearing these words, Fang Ziming felt that Park Zhengxi seemed to regard himself and Li Xiyong as revolutionary comrades, which made him feel a sense of rejection, "Where did he have the courage to do this?" "

Mutiny is a very serious matter, and the insiders can only be confined to a few extremely loyal comrades. Therefore I am extremely skeptical of the author's statement . Where is there to tell people with doubtful loyalty to the news of the mutiny in advance ?

"The Chief of Staff, Colonel Li Jiarong and Colonel Park Changxun, the commander of the 90th regiment, are revolutionary comrades that Li Bairi won over. At about one in the afternoon, Li Jiarong led Park Changxun to the wild mountain in the division area, and confided his dissatisfaction with Li Bairi: waiting for the order from today. Judging from the urgent dispatch order, this is clearly an action for the revolution, but why not discuss it with us or notify us. Colonel Park Changxun went to Li Bairi’s office. As soon as he entered the house he expressed dissatisfaction: "I heard Is it true to be dispatched today? Why don't you tell me? I quit. " Li Bairi also broke out: "If you can't do it, don't do it. This is not a trifle. At 10 o'clock in the evening, the army headquarters will come, and then everything will be clear. If you don’t want to be a combat leader, give me a clear answer before 5 pm. "

When Park Changxun returned to his office and sat in meditation, Chief of Staff Li Jiarong came in. "Report the situation to the teacher." After hearing this advising him to inform him, Park Changxun said, "Wait until 10 o'clock in the evening." Li Jiarong went to the office of the teacher Li Xiangguo. "Your Excellency, Commander Park Changxun has a personal matter to meet with you." "I have an agreement with someone to get off work soon. Let him come here." After hearing the call, Colonel Park Changxun walked across the training ground to the commander's office, outside the door. The Chief of Staff Li Jiarong, who greeted him, urged him: "Report everything to the commander." Head Changxun Park and Chief of Staff Li Jiarong entered the division's office. "Your Excellency, do you know how our troops were dispatched in accordance with the combat order tonight? Today, combat staff Li Bairi asked me to be the commander of the combat regiment." "No, how come I don't know about this dispatch?" Li Xiangguo angered. To be forced to ask, Park Changxun had to confide all the truth.

"This dispatch is not a drill, but a military-revolutionary transfer of troops. The previous drill in the name of the Type B combat group was also to prepare for the revolution." When Li Xiangguo lost his temper, Chief of Staff Li Jiarong coaxed him: "Leader, rely on our preparatory division with less than 1,000 people to carry out the revolution? If you don't want to be called an eternal thieves, you will listen to my orders from now on!" The head of the regiment, Park Changxun, is here to tell the revolutionary plan he knows. Told the teacher to the ground. Li Jiarong, who followed, walked up to him and said: "Tonight, the Revolutionary Army has also formulated a plan to surround the houses of the division commander and commander and imprison them. "

Many Chinese history occurred twice revolution . Many defeat of the revolution, was forced to launch or advance large because of leaks. According to the author’s description , Park Jeong-hee’s actions were also leaked , but it turned out to be successful. And the actual force used does not seem to be much. It is a bit weird. Probably due to the small size of Korea itself . The larger a country , want to mobilize human and material resources required for the more mutiny , and thus the more variables, Mutiny more likely to fail.

" Li Xiying, the captain of Unit 506, said that he received the instruction from Zhang Duying to "track Park Jung Hee" when the chief came to the 506 office for the first time. He said that he had expedited the dispatch of Captain Jin Yingrui and several others on the order of the chief. The investigator took two jeeps equipped with radios to Park Chung-hee’s private house in Sindang-dong. Captain Kim Young-seo parked the car outside of Park’s home and began to monitor the situation in the house. After a while, he reported to Colonel Lee Hee-young: "There are now Several people were drinking in the house. " At this time, if Chief Zhang Duying ordered Colonel Li Xiying to "arrest General Park Zhengxi immediately", it would be easy to catch Park Zhengxi. That night, Zhang Duying finally did not give the "order to arrest the coup leader" as a matter of course. Park Jeong-hee is arrested, the coup d’état may be stifled in the bud and history will be rewritten. "

This is indeed strange. The news of the rebellion has been received in advance , and the army has indeed changed. The chief of staff did not order the arrest of the planner . And Park Sung Hee did n't hide it, but stayed in his own home with integrity . There is no mercy for political actions and military actions. So, what factors prevented the authorities from arresting Park Zhengxi immediately?

History of many ins and outs like dominoes, ring interlocking , even the party , it is difficult to know the whole picture. After all, there is no one who has opened the perspective of God . When all these internal conditions that constitute an event's inevitable or non-occurrence disappear with the passage of time , later generations will come back to see and only see the results , naturally prone to all kinds of confusion.

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Park Chung Hee Era is a spectacular, continuous collection of essays on the evolution of modern South Korea under its autocratic bellwether. This volume unites broad perspectives to cover many complex dimensions of Park's regime. Scholars and readers across disciplines will find an indispensable guide to Park Chung Hee and a detailed panorama of the political economy behind South Korea's ascent.

The volume is split up into sections coinciding with the key themes of the Park Era--from international relations to industrial policy--and the political details of each. Beyond these core sections, that final essays examine Park from a comparative politics perspective. While the comparative essays establish the peculiarity of his autocracy, they establish the importance of this book: understanding the leader helps us understand parallel experiences across Asia (e.g. Philippines under Marcos).

While many of the chapters are relatively self-contained, there are interwoven themes. From the first collection of essays detailing the rise of Park's junta, it is hard to ignore the power of the leader's vision in shaping the South Korean trajectory. Much more than pursuing a single, coherent development strategy, a picture emerges of a regime "zigzagging"--with marked successes and failures--between five year plans and pushes to embody Park's mantra of "rich country and strong military." Politics, leadership, and autocratic imagination reign supreme.

A study of Park's autocracy cannot avoid the development strategy that he is known for. Because this volume is keen on the political historical details of Park's state, it analyzes South Korean development policy more convincingly than other works--more so than many pure economic treatments of South Korean growth or more sociological theories of his developmental state. One gets a full picture of the alphabet soup (i.e. the EPB, MCI, MOC, HCIPC, etc.)) of planning agencies and the many centripetal political forces behind South Korea's economic transformation.

A wonderfully sweeping book that captures the complex, messy political experience of South Korea's ascent under Park. The essays of The Park Chung Hee Era focus on everything from nitty gritty policy details to the broader political economy of the regime. Much more than a biography, it is a finely curated work on the nuanced relationship between an autocrat and national development. Indispensable for Asian scholars and social scientists with a stake in understanding South Korea's experience.

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must say, I haven't read the whole book, but those chapters I picked up, dealing with economics and Park's comparative analysis with other leaders, were very interesting and 'robust'.

His (Park Chung Hee's) strategy of concentrating resources in the hands of a few companies, leveraging international relationships to get funding, maintaining a healthy competition between conglomerates, while at the same time giving them incentives to be bold and go for international markets worked very well.

The best chapter for me dealt with comparison between successful Asian leaders. Lee Kwan Yew, Den Xiaoping and a leader from Turkey (forgot his name). As you will see there are some similarities between all of them.

Anyone interested in Korea and how it became such a success in half a century, should read this book, covering, probably, the more controversial period in the history of the country.

[Hamid · Rating 3 out of 5]

آيا براي توسعه بايد حداقل تا مدتي دمكراسي را به تعويق انداخت؟ آيا استبداد بهايي است كه بايد تا مدتي براي توسعه پرداخت؟ آيا وجود يك مستبد نيكخواه و وطن پرست براي بعضي كشورها به منظور توسعه اقتصادي و ايجاد حداقل هايي از رفاه و آموزش عمومي و بالاتر و مهمتر از آن ايجاد ثبات، مبارزه با فساد واستقرار يك نهاد حاكميت مركزي ضروري است؟ تجربه توسعه كره جنوبي مثال دم دستي است كه مي تواند كمي براي يافتن به پاسخ اين سوالات راهگشا باشد

[Oliver Go · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone who wants to learn anything about South Korea should read this book. The Park Chung Hee Era is an authoritative book that covers honestly every part of Park Chung Hee's reign from 1961 to 1979. Despite there being a lot to unpack Kim and the other writers do a great job in dissecting the major themes and recurring patterns of Park's presidency (and later dictatorship). A full portrait is given of Park Chung Hee and his impact on South Korea. Economics, politics, international relations, and the military is all covered in this book which feels like a below average length given the period and depth that Kim et al. are covering. I also felt like (being someone without any major knowledge in economics) the writers are able to establish a firm understanding of making sense of Park's economic successes and failures without any prior knowledge in economics required.
Park Chung Hee is a relatively unknown figure in the world of autocrats and dictators, however just from glossing through his Wikipedia page and gathering some basic information one can sense that he is not a greedy kleptocrat and seems to lean more in the direction of a "benevolent dictator" like Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore. From the introduction to the conclusion, Kim et al. establish Park Chung Hee as a strange anomaly, a paradoxical figure on the political compass. He had fond memories of his service in the Imperial Japanese Army but led South Korea's economic development with the intent of beating Japan economically; he ran a bureaucracy administered by citizens but ultimately ordered around by military officers; and he was both a lackey and an occasional opponent of the United States. Park is a strange figure because his regime stands as a rejection of most stereotypes of autocrats we have today. He was not really much of a personalistic narcissist like one knows of Mussolini or Hitler, but he did slowly centralize more and more power around himself over the timespan of his regime. Kim et al. is able to craft a portrait of Park as an individual with a unique motive and ideology, mixing Korean tradition, Japanese militarism, and United States technocracy. His ideology is shown to play a central role in his economic projects even when traditional economic theories argued against his plans, such as his development of an integrated steel mill or the immediate skip to the automobile industry in assembly and production despite being a developing country (going against Rostow's theory of development). One gets a sense that Park genuinely cared about South Korea advancing to greatness as a nation and perhaps really did act believe that his autocracy was the best tool to advance the country economically.
Aside from all the great details on South Korea under Park, a large portion is spent discussing South Korea on an international level. Park's fragile and capricious relationship with the United States is delved into depth while South Korea's economic development is compared to the development of other East Asian countries (and compared politically to Latin American dictatorships) in the same time period, giving a view not only of South Korea but of other countries around the world as well in the period of the sixties and seventies. Of course, pages are also devoted to the hostile relationship with North Korea and its crucial role in Park's foreign and domestic policy. Being an American, it was hard for me beforehand to comprehend the very nature of South Korean society knowing that a hostile enemy is the only state that shares a border with them.
The major flaw I would say that this book has is that it completely glosses over most human rights abuses. What I mean is that while there is a lot of time spent on the opponents of Park's regime on the basis of his human rights abuses, there is very little spent on the actual atrocities and abuses that the Park regime undertook. All we know is that he killed and tortured some people, but it feels glossed over, especially because a great amount of the book is spent on the controversial legacy of Park's presidency with the ultimate argument revolving around whether his economic development justified the human rights abuses that happened to keep the machine going (but the latter isn't really delved into at all).
While the authors may seem a little biased in terms of the humanistic side of Park's rule, this doesn't mean that they take an overly positive stance of Park overall. On the contrary, Kim et al. devote plenty of time to the negative aspects of Park's career. Park is proven to be a man who gets easily trapped in cycles of escalation in political confrontations and of boom and bust in economic cycles. His hypergrowth strategy is shown to yield results on one hand but also bring South Korean country and society to its extreme limits, nearly plunging the country into recession before surging back towards extreme GDP growth. Aside from some whitewashing of his human rights abuses, Kim et al. provides a full picture of Park Chung Hee as an individual, as a visionary, and as a leader, and how his policies laid the foundations for the wealthy, capitalistic, and mercilessly soulless and corrupt South Korea we are familiar with today.

[Jedd Ong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worthwhile read that I find compelling enough to jot down some (wayward) thoughts on.

Good companion/complement piece to Ezra Vogel's Deng Xiaoping biography if you're into that sort of thing; dense and heady collection of scholarly essays that dive deep into the various aspects of modern South Korea's transformation from US-dependent, underdeveloped, war-torn backwater into late 20th and 21st century industrial power (albeit still not a little bit US-dependent militarily).

Framing the study into modern South Korea's psyche around the rise and fall of Park Chung Hee makes for a compelling hook, if only because Park really makes out to be quite the awkward, ballsy, technocratic dictator-type that continues to resonate/be seen in the types of "success" figures and narratives that emerge from the country. Strong, capable, surprisingly forward-thinking and (sort of) economically inclusive institutions + weak grasp (or valuation?) of personal ties and relationships + repressive, will-driven mafia politics + stunted civil society = this Jay Caspian Kang quote, reproduced below:

"...the specific brand of [modern] Korean crazy, which is really just the same as Irish crazy, because both peoples come from small countries oppressed for hundreds of years by assholes across the way. Both peoples grew up under the eye of the crown or the fucking emperor and learned to suppress everything, especially anger, until they no longer could distinguish what was what, and could walk around angry without recognizing anger as anger."

Angry, but forward-thinking (if only due to obligation), economically mobile (within very narrow bounds of competence), progressive (materially), and secure (if primarily guaranteed only using the state's jealously guarded monopoly on violent, coercive force). A deal with the devil? With how other dictatorships around the world have turned out, perhaps. Love BTS and Epik High too.

[Douglas Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obligatory one star docking for its myopic view of the DPRK and its nauseating liberalism and its deliberate omission of South Korea's use of mass prostitution to the US Military in contribution to the "Miracle of Han River".

Otherwise, for those who want to understand the early economic history of South Korea, this is a great primer to how Park gained political power, how he worked with and balanced power with the chaebols and how he managed the ROK's relations with the United States. From an economic perspective, it gives you an idea as to how Park used the fear of the North to exact concessions from America including operating protectionary industries and solidifying trade relations as well as monetary reparations from Japan.

From a political perspective, however, it glosses over the fascist dictatorship as "no pain, no gain", describing Park's decision to send troops to Vietnam as "smart and ambitious" while saying nothing about the war crimes they were responsible for. This is the neoliberal playbook, attempting to say that the ends justify the means, since now Korea is "wealthy" over the North, while life for much of the country is horrific due to the oligarchy now squeezing the Korean public.

[Corey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book consists of a series of essays that focus on Park Chung-hee, the architect of Korea's industrial renaissance. The essays are written primarily by Korean scholars. Most of the essays are very good, but some suffer for poor foreign language academic tropes that make them hard to read.

Though most of the essayists seem to have a pr0-Park leaning, they do a good job of highlighting his imperfections and noting the terrible things he did in the name of progress. There doesn't appear to be much sugar coating, which is a positive.

Park was a very shitty human, that's for sure. But, he was a pretty remarkable steward of Korea's unprecedented rise from nothing to prominence. He's, rightfully, one of the more controversial personages of the past 50 years. Here is a man who almost single-handily changed the fortunes of his entire country from one of the world's poorest to one of its richest. He did so by going against nearly all of the perceived economic wisdom of the time. However, he was a dictator who repressed his people and murdered and kidnapped to get his way.

How do we judge such a man?

[Tuan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The research done for this book is very thorough, and the analysis is very insightful. The author stays neutral about Park Chung Hee by providing arguments from different perspectives. This book shows us a complex image of Park and his contribution to modern Korea, in terms of politics, society, and economics. The book also provides some excellent comparison between Park and Singapore's Lee, Philippines' Marcos, and China's Deng, from which we gain some understanding about what it takes to modernize and develop an Asian country in the 20th century, and why other countries didn't succeed in this same time period. One issue I find with this book is that due to its argumentative essay format of each chapter, there is a lot of repetition of facts, which adds to the length of the book. But overall, this is probably the best book about Park Chung Hee.

[Meanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I wouldn't have read this book at once because it was A LOT of informations and I sometimes had a hard time remembering every acronym, that might have been one of the most interesting read I had on Korea's history so far.

Each chapter being cut in small parts makes it fairly easy to read and keep track of what is happening. I also like to have finally read such a book written mostly by koreans.

I especially liked the comparison with other authoritarian regimes, which I think was on point as a last part.

[Katy McCallion · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive analysis of the various aspects of Park Chung Hee's rule. Includes comparison with the development of Turkey, China and Singapore under authoritarian rulers Atatürk, Deng and Lee; and the development of industrial policy in Japan and Taiwan. Also includes a comparison of dictatorial styles in the Philippines, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Chile at around the same time of Park Chung Hee's rule.

[Zoltan Pogatsa · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only really good part is the last section where they compate Park to Atatürk, Deng, Lee Kwan Yew, Marcos, and others.

The preceeding chapters do not go deep enough. It's historical storyteling rather than any theory or systematisation. Far too many unnecessary Korean terms, most of which could simply be used in the English version. Far too may abreviations, you lose track.

[Gaucho36 · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this impossibly dense and bailed after a few chapters ….. very curious about the general arc of South Korea over the past 75 years… but this was dry, dense and not at all engaging.

If you have South Korea books to recommend please do!!

[Adam Dayan · Rating 5 out of 5]

academic but penetrating study of the 20th C's most underrated political leader. Puguk kangbyeong!

[nlam · Rating 5 out of 5]

comprehensively written, right when a question came up in your mind kim or his colleague would solve it right in the next chapter.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars for informational content; three for style. This was a densely written tome, some chapters read more or less fluidly than others. Lots of great information on many aspects of how Park's political system affected many aspects of Korean politics, economy, etc.

[Jonah Lo · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent edited volume with well-researched explorations of an enormously underresearched time and place.

Good thematic organisation.