[K-Women Talk]If "The War of Foundation" Documentary 2 Is Released...

A Reevaluation of President Syngman Rhee We Never Knew
Beyond Black-and-White Logic, Striking a Balance Between Merits and Faults

Eunha Park, Former Ambassador to the United Kingdom

‘The War of Foundation,’ a documentary film that has recently attracted public attention, was produced to provide a historical reevaluation of the first president, Syngman Rhee. Although ‘The War of Foundation’ has several shortcomings in terms of the credibility of the interviewees and the completeness of its content, it is refreshing in that it raises doubts among most citizens who have been educated to view President Rhee not as the founding president who established the foundation of a liberal democratic country, but only as a dictator associated with rigged elections, corruption, and pro-Japanese collaboration. It suggests that what we have learned about him may not be the whole truth.

There are several reasons why President Rhee has been harshly judged until now. These include the national background of the division between North and South Korea, the political background of successive military coups and democratization movements, and the pervasive black-and-white ideological tendencies in our society. The regret of failing to achieve a unified independent nation, the longing for unification, and the justification of power by both the military and democratization forces have made it convenient and effective to blame and deny Rhee.

If previous evaluations of Syngman Rhee were one-sidedly disparaging, it is now important to objectively assess both his merits and faults while fully considering the historical context. To do this, the greatest trap we must overcome is black-and-white thinking.

Looking at founding presidents of many countries, no leader is perfect. In the case of Chairman Mao Zedong of China, the Great Leap Forward, purges, and the Cultural Revolution caused the deaths of millions and destroyed thousands of years of Chinese cultural heritage, which are clear faults. However, the Chinese government and people do not deny his achievements in dismantling feudal China and founding a new China, and there is a national consensus that his merits outweigh his faults by a ratio of seven to three. This consensus has been the foundation of support for the People's Republic of China.

Consider the United States. Thomas Jefferson, the founding father, was a leader who established the framework of America through civil liberties, separation of church and state, and the Bill of Rights. However, he limited human rights to white middle-class citizens, owned over 200 slaves, sexually exploited Black female slaves, and was involved in the persecution of Native Americans. Despite these dark aspects, Americans do not dismiss him as a racist. Singapore’s founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, was an authoritarian ruler who implemented developmental dictatorship and controlled the media and society, but he is respected by the people as the leader who transformed Singapore into Southeast Asia’s leading economic power. Similarly, the evaluation of President Rhee should not dismiss all his achievements as the father of the Republic of Korea just because of his flaws. We must move beyond our near-obsessive black-and-white logic.

An objective evaluation based on an understanding of President Rhee’s entire life and era is necessary. He was a descendant of the royal family during the Korean Empire but opposed monarchy and was imprisoned by the royal family rather than Japan as a young reformer; he was the era’s greatest intellectual who practiced education as the strength of the nation; a strategist who led the Shanghai provisional government as its first president, bridging China and the United States; the greatest diplomat who saved a country on the brink of collapse against the United States and laid the foundation for security; a visionary who announced the Syngman Rhee Line in the wartime capital, surprising Japan and China and foreseeing the future. Now, we want to know the founding president Syngman Rhee, whom we have not fully understood.

Of course, it would be problematic if the evaluation of President Rhee became one-sided glorification. If this documentary ‘The War of Foundation’ had significance as a reaction against the denial of Rhee’s achievements, the newly produced second documentary is expected to serve as a balancing act, the third stage of thesis-antithesis-synthesis. Our people deserve to have a founding president whom they can respect.

Eunha Park, Former Ambassador to the United Kingdom