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RE: Muccio-Rhee
Interesting stuff John..
This
is interesting, General Chiang offered Rhee help in 1949?
Wow.
what happened? What was the USA doing at this
time.
The
Dulles Brothers already had DISSed Chiang and guess were in the process of
DISSing Ho Chi Minh.
If
Communism was the scourage why did not the USA help earlier?
Dan
Fahey
In a
message dated 1/27/2002 4:52:09 PM Pacific Standard Time,
evanhoe@arbuckleonline.com writes:
Wow! Where in the world did you come up that view of the
Muccio-Rhee
connection ? No matter because it is way off base.
Well,
according to info I
have, Rhee was under constant watch and control
by Muccio who had an open
access to Rhee at any time. Muccio
also accomplished this through close
people to Rhee too.
For instance, Rhee's Austrian wife "quite frequently
telephoned just
to tip me(Muccio) off that he(Rhee) was about to do
something...."
In addition, Rhee's American adviser, Harold Noble, an
American
intelligence officer, also reported on Rhee's moves to Muccio.
Apparently Rhee also sought Muccio's consent before he took
any
important moves. For instance, when he wanted to replace
ROK Army chief of
staff, Chae Byong-Duk, with Kim Suk-Won.
an intense anti-communist, former
Japanese military officer,
Rhee first consulted this with Muccio who
opposed the idea.
Then, Rhee backed away and did not make the change.
(See Cumings, Korea's Place in the Sun, p. 249)
Although Rhee had
a strong ego, he knew his place and
,in most cases, tried to follow
American wishes.
How could he do otherwise? As one
reporter(A.T.Steele)observed,
"only American money, weapons, and technical
assistance enable the
Republic to exist for more than a few hours."
(Cumings, p.253)
If he did as he wished, he could have started an all-out
war in 8/1949
when Chiang visited Rhee and both discussed attacking
North and
China through Manchuria. Chiang offered his troops & Air
Force.
BTW, CIA did an excellent "personality" study on Rhee in 1948:
"His intellect is a shallow one, and his behavior is often irrational
and even childish....The danger exists...that Rhee's inflated ego
may
lead him into action disastrous or at least highly embarrassing
to the new
Korean Government and to the interests of the US."
Perhaps, that's why
Muccio and other Americans tried to manage
Rhee closely. I wonder who
wrote the report. A field officer in Korea or someone working in the US?
John2