1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910299801903321

Autore

Elliott Oliver

Titolo

The American Press and the Cold War : The Rise of Authoritarianism in South Korea, 1945-1954 / / by Oliver Elliott

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer International Publishing : , : Imprint : Palgrave Macmillan, , 2018

ISBN

9783319760230

3319760238

Edizione

[1st ed. 2018.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (257 pages)

Disciplina

320.95195043

Soggetti

United States - History

Korea - History

World history

Communication

World politics

US History

History of Korea

World History, Global and Transnational History

Media and Communication

Political History

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

1. Introduction -- 2. Occupation 1945-46: Hope and failure -- 3. Occupation 1947-48: Division and independence -- 4. The ROK Problem 1948-1950 -- 5. War 1950-1951 -- 6. The 1952 Crisis: Rhee's Takeover -- 7. The Rise of the ROKA -- 8. Legacies of War -- 9. Conclusions.

Sommario/riassunto

During the Cold War, the United States enabled the rise of President Syngman Rhee's repressive government in South Korea, and yet neither the American occupation nor Rhee's growing authoritarianism ever became particularly controversial news stories in the United States. Could the press have done more to scrutinize American actions in Korea? Did journalists fail to act as an adequate check on American



power? In the first archive-based account of how American journalism responded to one of the most significant stories in the history of American foreign relations, Oliver Elliott shows how a group of foreign correspondents, battling U.S. military authorities and pro-Rhee lobbyists, brought the issue of South Korean authoritarianism into the American political mainstream on the eve of the Korean War. However, when war came in June 1950, the press rapidly abandoned its scrutiny of South Korean democracy, marking a crucial moment of transition from the era of postwar idealism to the Cold Warnorm of American support for authoritarian allies.