In 2013, the founding father of the Republic of Korea, Rhee Syngman has become a hot issue again. A documentary, “Hundred Years’ War in Korea,” filmed by leftists’ group of the Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities spurred controversy over him, with over two million viewers on YouTube. The film criticizes Rhee as a man of an adulterous affair, embezzlement, and a false hero of the Independence Movement. Yet, the film was hit by a hard blow as it turned out that it was a fabricated claim, based on doctored photos. Nevertheless, the group’s definition of the Korean Modern History as the Hundred Years’ War in Korea and their circulation of the film to the public reflect the importance of historical awareness. History of Korean War is not a matter of the past, but it is the war of today, the 21st century.

What would have happened if it weren’t for Rhee?
As soon as World War II (WWII) ended on August 15, 1945, the Soviet Union and the U.S. stationed themselves in the Korean Peninsula. However, the two countries took quite different stances on the peninsula.
While the U.S. military showed much later, about three weeks after Korea’s liberation, the Soviet Union had a clear goal to spread communist revolution to the Korean Peninsula which was within their proximity. “The Soviet Union considered the Korean Peninsula to be geographically important much more than the U.S. did. The reason the Soviet Union entered into WWII in the later stage was to secure its hegemony in the Korean Peninsula they had lost in the Russo-Japanese War.” (William Stueck, professor at the University of Georgia, U.S.)
Of course, the leftists took control in North Korea under the Soviet Union military occupation, but the leftists also took the leadership in South Korea as well. On the very next day after Korea’s independence (August 16, 1945), Yuh Woon-Hyung’s leftist force launched the Preparatory Committee (for the Establishment of the Korean State). After that, communist Pak Hon-Yong pushed Yuh Woon-Hyung out and seized power, declaring the establishment of the People's Republic of Korea on September 6, 1945.
The Korean Peninsula was so close to being communized in 1945. At this time, it was Rhee, who played an important role in stopping Korea from being communized. He was a hardcore anti-communist.
“Why should we allow the Soviet Union to establish a communist government in Korean Peninsula and to plant seeds of bloody civil war?” (In a letter that Rhee sent to General MacArthur right before Korea’s Independence) “If your brother is educated by communists, then he is no longer your own brother.
Communists will try to turn your country over to the Soviet Union.” (Rhee’s comment immediately after the National Independence)

Was Rhee the main instigator of the divided nation?
Leftists still criticize Rhee as “an instrument of the U.S. that caused a division in our nation by establishing a single independent government.” However, it was actually Kim Il-Sung regime that first founded an independent government. In February 1946, Kim established People’s Committee of North Korea.
It was a de facto government which had the power to make law, execute its power, and to punish. From this point, the People’s Committee of North Korea actually began to execute national functions. The US-Soviet joint commission met intermittently but went deadlocked over the issue of establishing a national government. It was four months after this, on June 3, 1946, when Rhee spoke in Jeung-eup (known as his Jeung-eup Statement): “We have longed for a unified nation, but since it is not going smoothly, at least the South alone should organize a provisional government or a committee to appeal to the international community so that the Soviet Union will pull out from North above the 38th parallel.”
Upon his return to South Korea, Rhee asked for a grand alliance from all political groups and had long hours of negotiation with Pak Hon-Yong to find a way to establish a unified government. However, he quickly learned that negotiation is impossible with communists, who dreamed of a communist revolution.
Nationalist Kim Gu also attempted to cooperate with Pak Hun-Yong but failed, as Pak denied the legitimacy of Kim Gu’s provisional government. Kim Gu later visited North Korea to join a banquet meeting in April 1948 in a continued pursuit of joint efforts between the rightists and the leftists. But he was exploited during this trip and only ended up providing pretext for Kim Il-Sung’s establishment of North Korean government.

The U.S. was na?ve, but Rhee saw the reality
The Soviet Union demanded to exclude all anti-trusteeship organizations in Korea from the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Joint Commission. By then, the leftist organizations had already changed their position from ‘anti-trusteeship’ to ‘pro-trusteeship’ in compliance with the order from the Soviet Union. The fact that the Soviet Union insisted on establishing a government solely with the pro-trusteeship groups revealed their desire to communize the Korean Peninsula. Rhee’s notion of a single independent government was a desperate countermeasure to stop the South from becoming communized in such pressured circumstance.
The U.S. did not decide to establish a single government in South until the spring of 1947.
Hence, the actual establishment of the government in South was on August 15, 1948, while North Korea had already proclaimed the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea and adopted the constitution 6 months earlier, on February 6, 1948. On September 9, 1948, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) was officially established; but Korean People’s Army (KPA) had already been organized about 7 months earlier (on February 8, 1948). Thus, from the beginning, the North disregarded its economic development to focus on increasing its military power to attack South Korea.

Who was the puppet? Rhee Syngman or Kim Il-Sung?
At the time, Kim Il-Sung, a former lieutenant in the Soviet Union military, was 33 years old. Although he claimed to have fought in an anti-Japanese movement, his few “accomplishments” such as Bo Chun Bo battle were unfoundedly exaggerated to deify him once he took power. Objectively, he was no more than a battalion commander under Eighth Route Army of China, a communist guerilla that fought against Japanese.
Then who was Rhee Syngman? Let us take a look at the list of the cabinet officials announced by the People’s Committee backed by the left-wing parties on September 7, 1945: Rhee Syngman, Chairman; Yuh Woon-Hyung, Vice Chairman; Hur Hyung, Prime Minister; Kim Koo, Minister of the Interior; Cho Dong-Ho, Deputy; Kim Gae-Rim, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Choi Keun-Woo and Kang Jin, Deputy; Cho Man-Sik, Minister of Finance. Rhee was clearly a national leader whose name was nominated even by the communists as their front. When he came back to Korea, a grand national welcoming ceremony was held (October 20, 1945) and even his political rival Kim Gu said, “If we unite, we are for Rhee Syngman. If we are scattered, we are nothing but just 30 million. We must unite to Rhee Syngman to survive.”

Which side was a puppet government?
North Korean government led by Kim Il-Sung and the leftists in South were indeed a puppet government, suddenly changing from anti-trusteeship to pro-trusteeship by the orders of the Soviet Union (January 1946). It has also been revealed through Khrushchev’s memoirs that they waged the Korean War (June 25, 1950) under the support and royal consent of the Soviet Union. Rhee was a skilled politician who at times opposed and antagonized, or used and persuaded, the U.S. military government.
Although the U.S. did not like him much, since it detested communism even more, it had to work with Rhee. Hodge, the minister of the U.S. Military Government Office said, “Rhee Syngman will never be able to join any government that the U.S. will install later in Korea, due to his anti-Soviet speeches and conducts.” In fact, once in 1947, the U.S. military government placed Rhee under a house-arrest and prohibited him from making phone calls. Rhee was not a puppet working for the U.S.; in fact, he was a realist who used the U.S.

Without Rhee, where would the Republic of Korea be now?
Indeed, as the leftists claim, without Rhee?“the main instigator of the divided nation”?it is highly likely that the Korean Peninsula today would be a unified nation, that is, a unified “communist” nation.
That means we would now be living, not as citizens of the Republic of Korea, but as that of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea under the power of Kim Jong-Un. Some of the leftists, who could be just “ignorant” or “blinded by a false ideology,” must honestly answer to the question: should a unified communist nation have been established, or was it inevitable for us to protect the liberal democracy at least in South?

Rhee’s achievements and mistakes
Rhee should be rightfully condemned for some of his mistakes, including not being thoroughly prepared for the North Korea’s invasion on June 25, 1950 and amending the constitution three times with his poor judgment in his latter years which weakened democracy. Nevertheless, we shouldn’t deny his accomplishments. He preserved free democracy in the Korean Peninsula which was so close to being communized; He founded the Republic of Korea and protected the nation from the Korean War. Denying them equals to denying the legitimacy of the Republic of Korea. The first scene of the documentary “Hundred Years’ War in Korea” craftily shows the pictures of Rhee Syngman, Park Chung-Hee, and Paik Sun-Yup, along with those of An Jung-Geun, Kim Gu, and Yuh Woon-Hyung, as the people who staged the Hundred Years War in Korea.
In fact, the real faces that should’ve been there are those who are still waging the Hundred Years’ War in Korea: Stalin, Mao, and the three generations of the Kim dynasty, and pro-North groups who are still following orders from the dynasty. The Hundred Years’ War in Korea is still going on.