Word: rhee
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...last spring, Arthur Dean, President Eisenhower's special envoy to South Korea, sat in Syngman Rhee's presidential mansion, discussing Korea's galloping inflation. Dean thought the solution was to let the hwan find its own level (i.e., free-market dollar value), then siphon away the excess hwan currency that was drowning the country. Said Syngman Rhee: "Nonsense. The best way to fight inflation is to say that the hwan is worth 180 to the dollar and then keep it there." At that time the hwan was worth less than that and fast losing ground...
...strolled out to a wisteria-covered arbor. Arthur Dean looked up at the cloudless sky and said: "Mr. President, make it rain." "You know that's impossible, Mr. Dean," Rhee answered. "Only the laws of the universe can make it rain." Dean smiled and said: "The exchange rate of the hwan is the same thing. Only the laws of economics can keep it steady...
Lush Windfall. Rhee chuckled with appreciation-but refused to budge from the, official rate of 180 hwan to $1. Thereafter, the Korean presses went on printing currency, and the value of the hwan dropped (on the black market) to 500 and even 750 to $1. Rhee himself showed what he. thought of the sanctity of the official rate by allowing the Bank of Korea to auction off a hoard of accumulated U.S. greenbacks (mostly to Korean importers). The prices paid were around 500 hwan to $1. Still Syngman Rhee would not change the official rate. His decision cost...
...longer. The U.S. held up wage payments in hwan to Korean employees of the U.N. forces (a more than $1,500,000-a-month payroll). Moreover, the U.S. refused to allot any more oil to South Korea unless it was paid for at 310 to $1. When Rhee balked at this, fishing boats stayed in port, buses ground to a halt, some 300 factories closed down for lack of fuel, and seven desperate Koreans, trying to tap a U.S. pipeline for gasoline, were killed in an explosion. Still stubborn old Syngman Rhee stood fast. A fortnight ago the U.S. Army...
...hours he talked with Rhee, answered hundreds of questions about building and operating power plants. Rhee wanted hydroelectric plants, since "water power is free." Bechtel told him that South Korea's small lakes and streams were not suitable for such plants, and that thermoelectric plants could be built more cheaply and faster, burn Korea's own coal. As Bechtel left, Rhee put his arm around him and said: "All right, if you will come over and build thermoelectric plants, I will approve them." For fear that Rhee would change his mind, Ty Wood promptly declared it an emergency...