Word: syngman
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Through Seoul's dusty streets, Syngman Rhee hustled from meeting to meeting in his big, blue-black Lincoln. The car was almost the only civilian vehicle moving in South Korea. As the U.S. ban on petroleum supplies took effect (TIME, Nov. 15), buses halted, fishing boats lay idle, politicians bicycled to work. Rice piled up on the farms for lack of trucks, while in town 25,000 factory workers were unemployed and hungry. In Seoul's tearooms the word went round: "The old man is beaten...
...midweek stubborn old Syngman Rhee gave up, asked U.S. Ambassador Ellis Briggs for his terms to restart the flow of U.S. oil and dollars. Said Briggs in effect: "Do what you promised to do four months ago in Washington." Rhee meekly agreed...
...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 the U.S. military in Korea millions of dollars in unnecessary expense, and gave many South Koreans lush windfalls. In holding to 180 to $1, Rhee also broke his 1953 agreement with the U.S., by which the hwan is supposed to be pegged...
...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 began paying its 100,000 Korean employees and contractors in greenbacks, not at the 310-to-$1 rate...
...commander in the Far East, replied firmly that he now needed 800 million, Rhee's men hastened to offer the additional amount-although they knew the U.S. would not repay at better than 500 to $1. The U.S. is still willing to reach a new exchange agreement with Syngman Rhee, but first wants it well understood that unilateral flouting of agreements must stop...