Confidential Memorandum on the political Situation
When the Government declared martial law and arrested seven Assemblymen on charges of entering into a conspiracy to vote for a President who would effect a Communist Coalition, the members of the United Nations Commission called upon the President in a group a requested him to lift martial law and free the Assemblymen. Then came letters from President Truman, Trygve Lie, and the British, French and Australian Governments, all calling for the same things in strong language and some with veiled threats. Foreign comments carried on the press and radio intimate that if the President does not accede to these demands, all aid and assistance may be withdrawn.
Inside Korea the principal opposition to the Government centers in an influential group of leaders, many of whom occupy positions that bring them into frequent intercourse with the diplomatic and foreign military circles. These men make frequent opportunities to entertain the foreign representatives and are, in turn, often entertained by them. In these circles the story was spread that the diplomatic notes sent to President Rhee would force him to yield. They also spread the story that General Clark called upon President Rhee specifically to tell him that the Eighth Army would assume full command over all Korean forces, if the President failed to not according to U. N. instructions. Particularly when Ambassador Muccio was flying back to Korea from Washington, and when Defense Minister Earl Alexander and Minister of state Selwyn Lloyd called on the President, the story spread that President Rhee would be forced to do whatever they proposed. Thus political opposition to the President was encouraged.
These opposition leaders, worked hard to influence the foreign representatives and the many foreign newsmen (who were in Pusan, clamoring for news, because nothing of note was happening on Koje Island, at Panmunjom, or on the battlefront). They asserted that the United Nations is trying to safeguard democracy, and if the President destroys democracy in Korea there would be no further reason for the U. N. to maintain its defense of the country. They charged that the President was trying to crush the National Assembly by military power in order to make himself dictator. They charged the president is so ruthlessly ambitious that he was willing to overthrow the Constitution to gain personal advantage for himself.
What actually happened is that the Government unearthed a plot in which a number of Assemblymen were bribed to help elect a president who would organize a coalition Government which, in turn, would enter into negotiations with the Communist northern puppet regime aimed at peacefully unifying the country through political means. The Government revealed this plot, but the foreign representative a ignored the Government allegations and continued to demand the lifting of martial law, the freeing of the Assemblymen, and strict adherence to the letter of the Constitution.
It appears that influential representatives of the United states and United Nations are cooperating in a plan to accomplish through the National Assembly a program of “peaceful political re-unification” of Korea, thereby accomplishing through this method what they have failed to accomplish at Panmunjom. We do not wish to appear ungrateful to the United States. We have swallowed everything and have kept silence while we have been criticized and condemned. We do not want to make public the fact that Mr. Lightner, Counsellor of the U. S. Embassy, has shielded and hidden two of the principal conspirators, Sunoo Chongwon and Kim Yung Seun, so that they cannot be arrested.
Just as part of the real story of what has happened has remained unknown, so has a great more of it been misrepresented. When General Clark and General Van Fleet called upon the President they did not, as our enemies charged, threaten to place Korea under a United Nations trusteeship, assume command of our armies, and take charge of the enforcement of martial law. General Clark did all the talking, and he said, “Mr. President, you know we are soldiers. We are not interested in politics or even in diplomacy. We feel deeply concerned over the situation. If the guerrillas make sufficient trouble in the rear areas, that will mean that some of our fighting men must be withdrawn from the frontline, which would create a grave situation. We want to know whether you can handle this situation without the withdrawal of any forces from the battlefront?” The President assured him that there was no such danger at present and said he would do all he could to avoid such a difficulty. That was all that was said.
When Earl Alexander and Minister Selwyn Lloyd arrived, the President explained to them the falsity of the charges being made in the press. He told them the details of the Communist conspiracy case. He said the basic principle of the Constitution is that all governmental power derives from the people. The clause providing for election of the President by the National Assembly was recognized as being merely temporary when it was adopted. If the National Assembly should be allowed to proceed under conditions that would result in election of a President who would open the way to coalition with the Communists, what then would happen to the democratic Constitution of Korea? He declared he was trying to save the roots of democracy, rather than, in saving the branches, let the root and the whole tree die. He explained that the Korean democracy differs from that in Great Britain. It does not have the long British tradition in which certain methods have become sanctified in practise. It is based on the theory that all power derives directly from the people and that the rights of the people are supreme above the Government and above the Constitution. The people are now demanding that the election of the President should be placed in the hands of the people themselves, not left in the National Assembly. The people want to know why the chief representatives of the world’s democracies do not accept this method as being the more democratic of the two?
Earl Alexander asked the President if he were to dissolve the Assembly, would he order an election of new Assemblymen? The President replied that the order for a new election would be simultaneous with the order of dissolution, and that the election would be held under the strict observance of the United Nations.
The President has been pleading with the people not to send any more delegations to Pusan. Many thousands have come, bearing petitions from their local communities demanding that the National Assembly be dissolved. The President has been endeavoring to solve the problem without going that far. He fears that with such large numbers of aroused people in Pusan, the opponent a of the Government may foment disorders and blame them on the people.
Many hundreds of people gathered before the President’s residence and asked him to dissolve the National Assembly. He told them that he is still trying to persuade the Assembly to bow to the will of the people and adopt the amendments providing for popular election of the president. He told them he would be willing to accept the responsibility of insuring that the will of the people shall be done.
The Assemblymen are working in several groups, trying to work out solutions favorable to the aims of each. It is reported that they have need of only eight or nine more votes to achieve the two-thirds majority required to elect a President. In the meantime, Chairman Shin Icky and Vice Chairman Kim Dong Sung issued a statement saying there is no hope of adoption by the Assembly of the amendments proposed by the president. The people are getting restless and are complaining openly that even the president is ignoring the wishes of the people. If the general public gets out of hand, a situation of disorder will be created which will be extremely advantageous to the Communists.
It is significant that while the Voice of America carried stories extremely derogatory to the president, similar stories were also carried by the Japanese press and radio. The Soviets and the north Korean and Chinese Communist radios have kept conspicuously silent about the controversy all this time.
What the president is seeking to do is to give the Assembly a little more time in which to weigh its actions and to heed the will of the people. If the Assembly continues to refuse to act, the only recourse will be to dissolve the Assembly and to elect a new one which will heed the will of the people by amending the constitution to give to the people for all time the power to elect their own president. Only in this way can future similar deadlocks be prevented. No government can function if it persists in ignoring the will of the people. No democratic government would attempt to do so.
While the Communists are trying to seize Korea with military power, and while the Japanese are demanding return of their pre-war rights in Korea to eighty per cent of our property, many people are spreading the story that Korea was better off under Japanese rule. They are saying that Korea was better off under a Japanese Governor General than under the control of a National Assembly of 200 men who can be bought with Russian or Japanese bribes. We have full evidence of Communist and Japanese funds having been brought into Korea for this purpose.
Our Whole aim is to see the foundation of this Republic laid on a firmer ground than it is at present.
