Word: rhee
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Communist China, a "monster with feet of clay," would be an easy target in Rhee's military estimate. "It is hated by the masses. Although the Reds have murdered 15 million of their opponents, thousands of Free Chinese guerrillas are still fighting in the interior of China . . . Red China's army numbers 2,500,000, but its loyalty is not reliable, as was proved when 14,369 members of the Communist Chinese army captured in Korea chose to go to Formosa, and only 220 chose to return to Red China. The return of the Chinese main land would...
American Objections. A silent Congress listened to Syngman Rhee's proposals. But when he stepped down from the speaker's rostrum and made his way from the chamber, a prolonged ovation echoed after...
...would the Russians enter such a war to save their Chinese allies? "Perhaps," said Syngman Rhee. "But that would be excellent for the free world, since it would justify the destruction of the Soviet centers of production by the American Air Force before the Soviet hydrogen bombs had been produced in quantity. I am aware that this is a hard doctrine. But the Communists have made this a hard world, a horrible world, in which to be soft is to become a slave...
This applause did not mean that many Congressmen or other influential Americans agreed with Rhee's specific proposals. The speech was widely regarded as "provocative" and "ill-timed," and the New York Times wrung its hands so hard over it that its editorial knuckles almost cracked...
...Rhee's speech did not persuade, it at least impressed. Its impact came from the realistic logic of the essential world situation, stripped of diversionary details. There are weighty objections to Rhee's plan, but its general argument is difficult to dispute: there will be no better time than the present to take the offensive against Communism, and no better place than Asia. Those who did not like the specifics of Rhee's proposal were faced by this speech with the requirement of finding other specifics that fitted the hard logic of his general theme...