Pot Shards: Fragments of a Life Lived in CIA, the White House, and the Two Koreas by Donald P. Gregg

Author:Donald P. Gregg [Gregg, Donald P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biographies & Memoirs
ISBN: 9780990447184
Publisher: New Academia Publishing/Vellum Books
Published: 2014-09-13T18:00:00+00:00

PART THREE: WHITE HOUSE YEARS

17

The White House Years with Reagan and Bush

The transfer of presidential power from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan did not proceed in a particularly smooth or friendly fashion. Carter’s staffers did not seem interested in imparting their collective wisdom to the incoming Reaganauts, who, for their part, seemed uninterested in listening.

I was not at all sure what my fate would be. The CIA had let me know that it would be perfectly happy to have me stay in place at the NSC, but I knew no one in the incoming administration and had no idea how they would feel about keeping me on.

One specific issue on which the transition worked well was that of keeping Korean political leader Kim Dae-jung alive. Kim had been accused of treason by hardline President Chun Doo-hwan, the former general who’d seized power in a coup following the assassination of President Park Chung Hee in October 1979. Chun falsely accused Kim of stirring up social unrest in response to the coup and of secretly supporting North Korea. In May 1980, an uprising took place in the city of Kwangju, Kim Dae-jung’s hometown, in response to Chun’s draconian actions. Chun crushed this uprising with great brutality, killing more than two hundred citizens. Kim was quickly put on trial, convicted, and sentenced to death by a military tribunal in Seoul.

President Carter was well aware of the situation in Korea, as early in his presidency he had strongly considered pulling all U.S. troops out of that country. Carter and Park Chung Hee had had a difficult relationship on that issue. Carter was no fan of the military establishment in Seoul and strongly admired Kim Dae-jung, who had been a staunch supporter of democracy and human rights for many years.

In early December 1980, Carter sent Secretary of Defense Harold Brown to Seoul specifically to caution Chun not to execute Kim and to seek his release. I accompanied Secretary Brown on this trip and developed great respect for him. I found him erudite but approachable, and a good traveling companion. Brown wondered how we best could raise the subject of Kim’s incarceration, in case Chun was reluctant to discuss it.

We need not have been concerned. Chun, a very direct and outspoken Korean, immediately raised the issue in our private meeting with him and an interpreter. He said he knew that Kim was popular in the United States and that his execution would be strongly condemned. Chun went on to say that virtually every Korean general wanted Kim dead, seeing him as a constant source of political unrest and a strong supporter of policies favored by North Korea.

Brown forcibly countered Chun’s presentation, citing the American intervention that had kept Kim alive in 1973, and Kim’s growing importance as a civilian political leader, whose execution would be devastating to South Korea’s international image.

This made no impression on Chun. I was equally unsuccessful in raising the point that we knew through intelligence that North Korea expected Kim to be executed, and that they planned to make an effective propaganda issue out of his death.

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