220. Memorandum From Acting Secretary of State Bowles to President Kennedy 0
SUBJECT
- Background of Statements by American Representatives in Korea
On the morning of May 15 during the early hours of the Korean coup, General Carter Magruder, Commander in Chief, UN Command, Republic of Korea, issued a statement calling on all military personnel under his command to support the Government of the Republic of Korea headed by Prime Minister Chang Myon and restore order in the Korean armed forces. This statement was made in collaboration with our Chargé d’Affaires, Marshall Green, whose parallel statement fully concurred in General Magruder’s position and emphasized that the United States supports the constitutional government of the Republic of Korea as elected by the Korean people and duly constituted under legal procedures.1
These statements were not authorized in advance by the Department of State; but in the Korean context, they were justified as affirmations of established policy for the purpose of strengthening and maintaining democratic institutions. The United States enjoys an unusual role in Korea because of our long association with the country as liberator, defender, and source of economic and military support. The Korean people and government, since the founding of the Republic, have continued to look to the United States for guidance in hours of crisis. Public statements by our Embassy at Seoul during the April 1960 revolution were extremely important in preventing further bloodshed during the student demonstrations and preparing for an orderly transfer of power from the Rhee administration to that of the interim government under Korean constitutional procedures. The Department of State believes that it is especially important that the Republic of Korea maintain its adherence to democratic procedures and constitutional processes, which are among the Republic’s chief assets in its struggle against Communism. In these circumstances, it was a proper decision to throw our influence on the side of the legitimate government, in the belief that the domestic forces supporting this government would be strengthened. Not to have done so would have strengthened the revolutionists’ hand.
General Magruder has also informed us that his statement and that of the Chargé d’Affaires were made on the advice of General Lee Han [Page 464] Lim in order to help hold the First ROK Army in its position on the demarcation line and in an effort to prevent those neutrally inclined from joining the insurgents’ case. General Magruder has noted that these statements emphasized the need of the ROK to return to civilian constitutional government as soon as possible and remove the Army from any political power struggle. General Magruder has also commented that apparently these statements had some effect, which could not be expected, however, to endure indefinitely.
Our representatives in Korea also felt that it was necessary for the United States Government immediately to make clear that it was not involved in a revolutionary group, in order to forestall speculation such as the rumors prevalent in France following the abortive coup of rightist forces in Algeria.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 795B.00/5-1861. Secret. Drafted by James A. Klemstine of NA and cleared by Bacon, McConaughy, William Bundy, and Lemnitzer.↩
- See Document 213.↩
- Printed from a copy that indicates Bowles signed the original.↩