may r'klf 'aiqu I- SECDEF HAS SELN ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE 1 5 WASHINGTON 203cm 1 DEC 58255 emCh I Eal a55Ei ddeema I 15 seven-we -- - A 52 MEMORANDUM IFOIR THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE I I I seem I II I Developments in Korea U II ffig 2 3You asked for my VIews on recent deyeiopmentseinthore Generally agree with JaCk Vessey - We should wait until more of the dust settl es it o_ draw firm conclusionsu We know that Chon Tu-wan is calling the h9t$ 'for Ihe mement we know thatI the Army controls the real instruments of j power through the new Cabinet selections- the military forces Defense the police Home AffaIrs and the surveillance of corruption General IAdmInIstratIon But the avaIlable intelligence reveals relatIvely thtle aboUt the extent of Ghon' network of cronies the sources of- cohesion among them the polItIcal ide logy they share and the lInks they have with promInent polItICIans and technocrats I Nonetheless I suspecL that then is going to find that it is easier to draw t he mIlItary dIrectly i nto the politiCal sUCcession struggle than to limit or control the scope and consequences of its involvement -As both Bill GleysteIen Iand John Wickham -have pointed out the precedents- the fdisIruption of the orderly movement- -toward a wider political process the Open invitation to clan politics and the settling of old scores within the military thIe readiness to defy constitutional methoIds and I - the apparent indifference of the Young Turks to American reactions--are - Iominoustortents fer the future I Both Bill and John have already made strong representations to President i4 ChoT General Lew and the new Army Chief ofCStaff General Lee Gleysteen moreover met with MG Chun yesterday and emphasized our con- cerns about the dangers of disunity within the military and its impact on IposSible North Korean reactions progress toward constitutional liberal- Aization and economic and political stability Bill went out of his way to warn that the ROK d-epends on good relations with our military and our businessmen and both are disturbed by what has happened Chon accepted Bill's _comments and acknowledged that he is also concerned about the ramifications of recent events HisI explanation of the events It Ti 'i 58 - C nt NT 95 I '6 I'V'fp denial r Wit-9e is a was - tment of December 12 l3 is self serving but not entirely implausible pursuit of the investigation-escalated when Gen cChong refused tovcooperate Chon insisted that his actions were neither a coup nor a revolution and ill he mentioned that he has no personal ambitions Supports President Choiion tog camber-id gexpje 13- it'll le 9f Till to be reestablished within a month Nevertheless Chon recognizes Supporters may seek vengeance and as the fair haired boy of the Class at the Korean Military Academy the Pete Dawkins of the ROK Army Chou knows that his meteoric rise has stimulated envy and resentment even among his peers In short he realizes mm in- 13 The most worrisome aspect of all this of course is precisely the danger Of fUrther Struggle our help in containing counteractions While we can easily stress the importance of unity in the military we will probably be faced with extremely tricky choices in the next few weeks i _It would be useful for you to reinforce the themes Bill developed with Chen and there is a natural b e sran tor it 'With thE appointME t of a new Defense minister it is appropriate for yOU'to send a brief congratu- latory note to Tiger Chu Ro's replacement Given the circumstances there is no reason for dispatch such a message immediately By waiting several days we can get a better fix 0n the nature of the new i military leadership and fine-tune your message accordingly The basic I signal of course must be-that recent actions set a dangerous precedent 54VVau within the ROK military run great risks_in light of the North Korean threat and raise questions about future ROK progress toward political liberalization inevitably Such developments are of concern to us becau they affect our ability to_hon0r commitments to ROK security i i 3 - I Micheal H Armacost Deputy Assh ent Secretary 1 L DECLASSIFIED BY a 2D gas DATE ll'ocr tall 1 a 1 FOIACAser aggFr 2640                     National Security Archive    Suite 701  Gelman Library  The George Washington University    2130 H Street  NW  Washington  D C  20037    Phone  202 994‐7000  Fax  202 994‐7005  nsarchiv@gwu edu