Nation Building in South Korea

Abstract

This book examines American nation building in South Korea during the Cold War. Marshaling a vast array of new American and Korean sources, it explains why South Korea was one of the few postcolonial nations to achieve rapid economic development and democratization by the end of the twentieth century. The book contends that a distinctive combination of American initiatives and Korean agency enabled South Korea's stunning transformation. On the one hand, the United States supported the emergence of a developmental autocracy that spurred economic growth in a highly authoritarian manner. On the other, it sought to encourage democratization from the bottom up by fashioning new institutions and promoting a dialogue about modernization and development. Expanding the framework of traditional diplomatic history, the book examines not only state-to-state relations, but also the social and cultural interactions between Americans and South Koreans. It shows how Koreans adapted, resisted, and transformed American influence and promoted socioeconomic change that suited their own aspirations. Ultimately, the book argues, Koreans' capacity to tailor American institutions and ideas to their own purposes was the most important factor in the making of a democratic South Korea.