Nation Building in South Korea: Koreans, Americans, and the Making of a Democracy

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments In the years that I have spent working on this book I have acquired a great number of intellectual, economic, and personal debts. I first became interested in American diplomatic history as an undergraduate at Amherst College, where I had the good fortune to study with Gordy Levin, who set an example as a teacher and scholar that I have long sought to emulate. At Cornell University, where I earned my Ph.D., my interests in American foreign policy in general and U.S.-Asian relations in particular were further nourished by Tim Borstelmann, Sherman Cochran, and J. Victor Koschmann . Professor Borstelmann helped me develop a more expansive view of U.S. foreign relations and see the significance of my own work. Professor Cochran taught me to approach the question of how Asians have responded to American and European influences with greater nuance and sophistication . Professor Koschmann stimulated my interest in intellectual and cultural history and helped me understand the connections between these areas and America’s relations with Asia. As I completed this book, my colleagues in the History Department and the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University provided me with a stimulating environment in which to work. Kirk Larsen and Ron Spector, in particular, read parts of this manuscript and pointed me toward some useful sources. My codirectors of the George Washington University Cold War Group, Hope M. Harrison, Jim Hershberg , and Jim Goldgeier, have not only been a source of scholarly inspiration but also, by including me in their numerous conferences, seminars, and meetings, have continuously prompted me to think about many of the issues addressed in this book. At the University of North Carolina Press, Chuck Grench and Katy O’Brien have helped shepherd the book through the various acquisitions and editing processes; Paul Betz and Stevie Champion have assisted greatly with copyediting the manuscript. I was very fortunate that the Press chose William Stueck at the University of Georgia as one of my readers. Professor Stueck went far beyond his role as a reader in helping me improve this manuscript and has become a valued friend. It is an honor to have this book included in John Lewis Gaddis’s New Cold War History series. Professor [xii] Acknowledgments Gaddis’s comments on drafts of this manuscript induced me to make a bolder and, I hope, more persuasive argument. I could not have completed this book without the generous financial support of several organizations. A grant from the Eisenhower World Affairs Institute enabled me to spend several months doing research in the Washington, D.C., area in 1999. A grant from the Lyndon B. Johnson Library made possible a two-week trip in 1999 to Austin, where I discovered many valuable materials. In 1999–2000 I received a Fulbright Scholarship from the U.S. Institute for International Education, which allowed me to spend a year in South Korea. While conducting research in Seoul I was affiliated with Korea University’s Asiatic Research Center, whose director, Choi Jang-Jip, and other faculty members and fellows offered a stimulating intellectual environment. During the summer of 2003, I was able to return to South Korea for additional research through funds provided by the Association for Asian Studies, the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, and the George Washington University Cold War Group. As a Kluge Fellow at the Library of Congress for the 2003–2004 academic year, I benefited from the opportunity not only to do research in the library’s collections but also to interact with the other fellows at the Kluge Center. Finally, I would like to thank my mother, stepfather, and sister for being constant sources of comfort and support. My mother, Carol Weiner, in particular, has always had faith that I would complete this project and her encouragement has been indispensable. Nation Building in South Korea This page intentionally left blank ...