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1 The American occupation, september 1945–December 1946 At the end of the second World War, the United states began an openended political and military commitment in Korea. here the United states experienced its shortest and least successful postwar occupation while it engaged in its first major confrontation with communism—ideologically, economically, and militarily. The first shots of the war for Korea, the first conflict of the Cold War, were fired south of the 38th parallel in september 1945, just days after the surrender of the Japanese empire to the Allies.1 from liberation Day on August 15, 1945, until the signing of the armistice agreement of July 27, 1953, which resulted in the permanent division of the peninsula between a Communist north and a capitalist south, the conflict over Korea was symbolic of America’s global commitment to confront communism following the most destructive conflict ever known. The first American soldiers who debarked from their transport ships at the port city of inchon in september 1945 did not arrive as liberators, as many Koreans expected, but as a military occupation that many foresaw would last five to ten years.2 They found a land that was inhospitable, unknown , and very far from home.They did not know or understand how important their occupation mission would be for the security of the peninsula south of the 38th parallel and for the United states during the first military clash of the Cold War. Most important, the Americans were ill prepared to fill the political,economic,and social vacuum created by the collapse of imperial Japan. Consequently, military power, whether American or Korean, became the sine qua non for stability and occupation success on the one hand, and liberation and social revolution on the other. not surprisingly,then,the American occupation started in many respects as a failure. By January 1946, U.s. authorities in seoul were exasperated by the difficulties in establishing law and order, basic public services, a stable economy, and political legitimacy. soviet intransigence on the subject of reunification merged with popular impatience led by nationalist-minded Ko- The American occupation / 15 reans, of whom the Western-oriented (and -educated) syngman Rhee was the most visible, to produce a dizzying vortex that quickly spun out of the Americans’control, resulting in political violence, labor strikes, and general antipathy toward the occupation. eventually, the Americans gave up and turned the “Korea problem” over to the United nations. nevertheless, by the end of 1948, the occupation had turned into something of a good news story for Washington’s political aims.south Korea’s first president,syngman Rhee, the bête noire of every American official from seoul to Washington (Douglas MacArthur excepted) inaugurated a republic that suppressed rebellion , mutiny, and indigenous guerilla groups supported by the Communist north. Although tottering, it looked like the Rhee regime might avoid the disaster then befalling Chiang Kai-shek and the nationalist Chinese. At the center of this renaissance were a handful of Americans who gave the Koreans the figurative room they needed to survive militarily, economically, and politically. it is historical irony that their success shaped the conditions leading to the cataclysm that we know as the international Korean War. The environment and structure of the American Military occupation Known to its inhabitants as “the land of the morning calm,”Korea is a severe country dominated by climatic and topographic extremes.A peninsula situated between 34 degrees and 43 degrees north latitude,Korea’s weather fluctuates between a southern monsoon that produces hot, wet summers and a continental monsoon bringing cold,dry winters.Average temperatures vary between winter lows of −20 degrees fahrenheit in the central and northern mountains to summer highs in the low 80s with high humidity and rainfall.3 Physically, the land is a rugged peninsula jutting into the ocean between Japan and China, which measures 215 miles across at its widest point, and 600 miles in length. nearly 70 percent of its 86,000 square miles of land is mountainous, a characteristic that leaves an indelible impression on those having to cross it on foot or even by motor vehicle.one geographic observer remarked: “iron it flat and Korea would cover the earth.”4 The eastern backbone of Korea,the Taebaek and nangnim mountain ranges (sanmaek in Korean ) rise gently from the western coast before dropping off suddenly on the east coast.These peaks can reach heights of 1,500–2,000 meters. other ranges,such as the sobaek Mountains...

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