curious about your sources for the Rhee rant when he could not talk
to MacArthur... inflammatory stuff, it is.
If
my memory serves me right, Muccio was the one who drew up Plan Everready
in the late 40's (before the war). Operation Everready was presumably
based on Muccio's Plan. The Operation
has three options:
(1) ROK troops refuse to follow UN commands,
(2) ROK troops go alone, and
(3) ROK troops and civilians turn hostile to UN forces.
Under (1), US forces would occupy major cities and military
installation and place ROK units under increased (they were already being
watched) surveillance. Under (2), ROK units would be disarmed and the ROK
government would be taken over by US personnel, and under (3) Rhee and
other Korean leaders would be eliminated and the trusted ROK commanders
would be put in charge (many Korean generals, including the Chief of Staff,
Gen. Kim Paik Il, were on the US payroll at the time).The
big general (MacArthur) and little Rhee had a love-hate relationship.
When the war broke out, Rhee phoned the general with the bad/good news
but the general's aid told Rhee to call back later because the general
was resting. Rhee went crazy and raved that he would kill every American
in his Korea, unless he got to talk to the general then and there. Rhee
wept openly on hearing that the general was fired. Sometime later,
the general said of Rhee: "Rhee
will be killed in a few weeks, when the Korean people find out the truth"
about him. In 1960, the Korean people did find the truth and the
CIA sent in a CAT plane and spirited Rhee out of Korea before the Korean
people could kill him. There is a life story
of Francesca Donner (Rhee's Austrian wife) at:http://monthly.chosun.com/html/200102/200102210021_1.html
- written by a Rhee admirer for Chosun Ilbo.The
Princeton University Library has a long file on Rhee, including his "doctoral"
thesis and documents on how he managed to get a Ph.D. without earning
it. ysk
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2002 8:08
AM
Subject: Re: Muccio-Rhee