Prelude to the "History War": the Making history Right of the Kim Young-sam regime

Abstract

Kim Young-sam administration formalized historical liquidation through the review of modern history for the first time at the government level through ‘making history right.’ The historical liquidation work of the Kim Young-sam administration needs to be positioned as the beginning of the government-level liquidation of past history. Kim Young-sam’s insistence on ‘making history right’ and liquidation of the 5th and 6th governments was also a political choice to solidify his political position. In the process, there was a backlash from conservative forces inside and outside the Democratic Liberal Party(New Korea Party), which also led to the reorganization of the conservative political forces. And in the end, due to the reality of the Kim Young-sam regime and the economic crisis, a reaction to the historical liquidation work called ‘Park Chung-hee Syndrome’ appeared. This article connects the context of ‘making history right’, one of the reform policies developed during the Kim Young-sam administration with the 5.18 special law enactment, the trial of Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo, and amnesty. It examines how historical awareness functions in the process of compromise and is selectively used for political purposes. It also describes the process in which conservative forces were reorganized as a reaction to the Kim Young-sam regime’s work to clean up history and finally ‘the Park Chung-hee syndrome’ emerged.