2024/12/27

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President Rhee's Visit to Washington

September 01, 1954

Late in July, President Syngman Rhee of the of went to at the invitation of President Dwight D. Eisenhower to spend a few days in the American capital as the latter's guest of honor. While in , President Rhee had a series of talks with President Eisenhower on issues of mutual interest to both countries, and similar talks were, also held between Korean and American top-ranking officials. Besides, the Korean Pres­ident addressed a joint session of the American Congress and delivered quite a few speeches in other American cities. On August 13 President Rhee returned home from his strenuous 20-day visit to the . Upon his arrival in he declared that his trip "has been a great success," but he hastened to add that "the situation was unfavorable at the highest levels" for his policy of unifying by force. President Rhee's trip, therefore, was not an unqualified success. The American Government not only refused to support his policy of unifying by force but was reported to be unwilling to give as much aid as he had asked for, especially with respect to his request that the strength of the 20-division Korean army be doubled. However, President Rhee's visit to the was far from being a failure. In the first place, since he has called it "a great success," it can be safely taken for granted that the American Govern­ment must have given him assurances and promises which he regards as fairly gratifying. In the second place, the Korean President's trip to must be considered as a success because it has given him an opportunity to warn the American Government and people of the great danger lying ahead of the and the free world as a whole. In the speech he delivered before the American Veterans of Foreign Wars in he declared that the should overcome her fear of the A-bomb and prepare to roll back the Communist tides. Country after country, he said, "is going down the black pit dug by the Soviets, and the loss of each one weakens us and our cause We cannot Jose much more and remain strong I need not tell you what will happen the moment our weakness reaches a point where we cannot defend ourselves adequately." He told the VFW that its most important task was to persuade the people of the United States that "we must fight the Communists now or later and that the longer we wait, the greater the odds against us. The atomic bomb is a powerful weapon, but we cannot permit its existence and possible use to make slaves of us all without a struggle." In a most frank and outspoken manner Presi­dent Rhee pointed out what had been wrong with American foreign policy. "As leader of the free world, the should be positive and fearless in its aims," he said. But he added: "The United States does show signs of fear and this has serious psychological effects ... The United States, facing the Russian bear, does not hide its fear and this leads to vacillation and a policy of yielding a little here, a little there, and still more somewhere else. The result is a fluctuating policy of con­stantly changing ideals and actions. The free nations and peoples that are looking to the for strong leadership do not know what to do, and they begin to lose confidence in , and to lose hope of saving freedom." Soviet has not yet started World War III because she does not have a sufficient stockpile of atomic and hydrogen bombs. But the Russian Communists will surely make a sneak attack on the when they have manufactured enough of these bombs. This warning given by the Korean President is one which the United States certainly cannot afford to ignore.

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