Editing Syngman Rhee (section)

===Return to Korea and rise to power===
{{Main|First Republic of Korea}}

After the [[surrender of Japan]] on 2 September 1945,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/japan-surrenders |title=Japan surrenders |publisher=[[A+E Networks]] |work=[[History (U.S. TV channel)|History]] |access-date=7 April 2014}}</ref> Rhee was flown to Tokyo aboard a US military aircraft.<ref name="Bruce">{{cite book|last=Cumings |first=Bruce |chapter=38 degrees of separation: a forgotten occupation|title=The Korean War: a History|publisher=Modern Library|year=2010|isbn=978-0-8129-7896-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/koreanwarhistory0000cumi/page/106 106]|url=https://archive.org/details/koreanwarhistory0000cumi|url-access=registration }}</ref> Over the objections of the Department of State, the US military government allowed Rhee to return to Korea by providing him with a passport in October 1945, despite the refusal of the Department of State to issue Rhee with a passport.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The Korean War|last=Hastings|first=Max|publisher=Simon and Schuster|year=1988|isbn=9780671668341|pages=[https://archive.org/details/koreanwar00hast_0/page/32 32–34]|ref=Hastings 1988|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/koreanwar00hast_0/page/32}}</ref> The British historian [[Max Hastings]] wrote that there was "at least a measure of corruption in the transaction" as the OSS agent [[Millard Preston Goodfellow|Preston Goodfellow]] who provided Rhee with the passport that allowed him to return to Korea was apparently promised by Rhee that if he came to power, he would reward Goodfellow with commercial concessions."<ref name=":0" /> Following the independence of Korea and a secret meeting with [[Douglas MacArthur]], Rhee was flown in mid-October 1945 to Seoul aboard MacArthur's personal airplane, ''The Bataan''.<ref name="Bruce" />

After the return to Korea, he assumed the posts of president of the Independence Promotion Central Committee ({{Korean|labels=no |hangul=독립촉성중앙위원회 |hanja=獨立促成中央協議會}}), chairman of the [[Representative Democratic Council|Korean People's Representative Democratic Legislature]], and president of the Headquarters for Unification ({{Korean|labels=no |hangul=민족통일총본부 |hanja=民族統一總本部}}). At this point, he was strongly [[anti-communism|anti-communist]] and opposed foreign intervention; he opposed the Soviet Union and the United States' proposal in the [[Moscow Conference (1945)|1945 Moscow Conference]] to establish a trusteeship for Korea. He clashed with the [[Communist Party of Korea|Communist Party]], which supported the trusteeship of the United States, the United Kingdom, China, and the Soviet Union.<ref>{{cite book| title = The Making of Modern Korea | last = Buzo | first = Adrian | year = 2002| publisher = Routledge|  location = London | isbn = 978-0-415-23749-9 |page=59}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title = Korea| last = Bluth | first = Christoph | year = 2008| publisher = Polity Press| location = Cambridge| isbn = 978-07456-3357-2 |page=12}}</ref> He also refused to join the US-Soviet Joint Commission ({{Korean|labels=no |hangul=미소공동위원회 |hanja=美蘇共同委員會}}) as well as the negotiations with the north.<ref name="EncyKorea" />
 
For decades, the Korean independence movement was torn by factionalism and in-fighting, and most of the leaders of the independence movement hated each other as much as they hated the Japanese. Rhee, who had lived for decades in the United States, was a well-known figure in Korea, and therefore regarded as a more or less acceptable compromise candidate for the conservative factions. Syngman Rhee was such a prominent figure in the Korean independence movement. He was not only endorsed as a leader of Korea by [[Kim Ku]] and [[Lyuh Woon-hyung]], but was even supported by [[Pak Hon-yong]], the head of the Korean Communist Party.<ref>{{citation |last1=Jeon |first1=Bong-gwan |title=Why did the Communist Party of Korea nominate Syngman Rhee as the President of the People's Republic? |date=2023 |publisher=([[The Chosun Ilbo]], 조선일보)|url=https://www.chosun.com/national/weekend/2023/09/02/34D2PAOAKVGARNCH7VGCDKKZVI/}}</ref><ref>{{citation |last1=Yoon |first1=Sang-hyun |title=The Theory of Provisional Government's Legitimacy|date=2011 |publisher=([[Encyclopedia of Korean Culture]], 한국민족문화대백과)|url=https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0073449}}</ref> He was nominated as the president of both the [[People's Republic of Korea]] and the [[Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea]].<ref>{{citation |last1=Yoon |first1=Sang-hyun |title=People's Republic of Korea|date=2011 |publisher=([[Encyclopedia of Korean Culture]], 한국민족문화대백과)|url=https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0052184}}</ref><ref>{{citation  |title=National Assembly elects Syngman Rhee as President of the Provisional Government, Kim Ku as Vice President, and by-elects members of the State Council |journal=[[The Chosun Ilbo]] (조선일보), [[The Dong-A Ilbo]] (동아일보)|date=3 March 1947 |publisher=자료대한민국사 |url=https://db.history.go.kr/id/dh_004_1947_03_03_0040}}</ref> More importantly, Rhee spoke fluent English, whereas none of his rivals did, and therefore he was the Korean politician most trusted and favored by the [[United States Army Military Government in Korea|American occupation government]]. The British diplomat [[Roger Makins, 1st Baron Sherfield|Roger Makins]] later recalled, "the American propensity to go for a man rather than a movement — [[Henri Giraud|Giraud]] among the French in 1942, [[Chiang Kai-shek]] in China. Americans have always liked the idea of dealing with a foreign leader who can be identified as 'their man'. They are much less comfortable with movements." Makins further added the same was the case with Rhee, as very few Americans were fluent in Korean in the 1940s or knew much about Korea, and it was simply far easier for the American occupation government to deal with Rhee than to try to understand Korea. Rhee was "acerbic, prickly, uncompromising" and was regarded by the US State Department, which long had dealings with him as "a dangerous mischief-maker", but the American General [[John R. Hodge]] decided that Rhee was the best man for the Americans{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}} to back because of his fluent English and his ability to talk with authority to American officers about American subjects. Once it became clear from October 1945 onward that Rhee was the Korean politician most favored by the Koreans,<ref>{{citation  |title=Who is the best leader? (November 1945) |date=1995 |publisher=([[JoongAng Ilbo]], 중앙일보)|url=https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/3040890}}</ref><ref>{{citation  |title=Two Types of Korean Nationalism: Syngman Rhee and Kim Ku|date=2010 |publisher=([[The Chosun Ilbo]], 조선일보)|url=http://monthly.chosun.com/client/news/viw.asp?nNewsNumb=201011100056}}</ref> other conservative leaders fell in behind him.

[[File:Kim and rhee meeting with Hodge.webp|thumb|Syngman Rhee and Kim Ku, leaders of the anti-trusteeship movement, meet with General Hodge to discuss the trusteeship.]]
The U.S. government, wary of anti-communist figures like Syngman Rhee and [[Kim Ku]], supported moderates such as [[Kim Kyu-sik]] and [[Lyuh Woon-hyung]].<ref>{{citation |last1=Kim |first1=Jong-sung |title=After a petty quarrel with an American, the weapon Syngman Rhee pulled out: the conflict and cooperation between Rhee and Hodge. |date=2020 |publisher=([[OhmyNews]], 오마이뉴스)|url=https://www.ohmynews.com/NWS_Web/Series/series_premium_pg.aspx?CNTN_CD=A0002685010}}</ref><ref>{{citation |last1=Jung |first1=Yong-wook |title=Hodge and Rhee had a heated argument over issues such as left-right cooperation.|date=2019 |publisher=([[The Hankyoreh]], 한겨레)|url=https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/culture/religion/906092.html#cb}}</ref> Syngman Rhee led the anti-trusteeship movement against both the U.S. and the Soviet Union, leading to conflict with the [[United States Army Military Government in Korea|U.S. military government]].<ref>{{citation |last1=Park |first1=Myung-soo |title=The Second Anti-trusteeship Campaign and Korean Political Landscapes in Early 1947 |journal=kci |date=2017 |volume=74 |pages=65–93 |publisher=[[Korea Citation Index]] |url=https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART002297403}}</ref> When the first US–Soviet Cooperation Committee meeting was concluded without a result, he began to argue in June 1946 that the government of Korea must be established as an independent entity.<ref name="EncyKorea" /> In the same month, he created a plan based on this idea<ref name="Doopedia" /> and moved to Washington, DC, from December 1946 to April 1947 to lobby support for the plan. During the visit, [[Harry S. Truman]]'s policies of [[Containment]] and the [[Truman Doctrine]], which was announced in March 1947, enforced Rhee's anti-communist ideas.<ref name="EncyKorea" />

In November 1947, the [[United Nations General Assembly]] recognized Korea's independence and established the [[United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea]] (UNTCOK) through Resolution 112.<ref>{{cite wikisource |title=United Nations General Assembly Resolution 112}}</ref><ref name="CMP">{{cite web |url=http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/od-bdo/di-ri-eng.asp?IntlOpId=266&CdnOpId=314 |title=Details/Information for Canadian Forces (CF) Operation United Nations Commission on Korea |publisher=Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces |date=28 November 2008 |access-date=8 April 2014 |archive-date=4 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210304001116/http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/od-bdo/di-ri-eng.asp?IntlOpId=266&CdnOpId=314 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In May 1948, the [[1948 South Korean Constitutional Assembly election|South Korean Constitutional Assembly election]] was held under the oversight of the UNTCOK.<ref name="EncyKorea" /> He was elected without competition to serve in the South Korean Constitutional Assembly ({{Korean|labels=no |hangul=대한민국 제헌국회 |hanja=大韓民國制憲國會}}) and was consequently selected to be Speaker of the Assembly. Rhee was highly influential in creating the policy stating that the [[president of South Korea]] had to be elected by the National Assembly.<ref name="Doopedia" /> The 1948 [[Constitution of the Republic of Korea]] was adopted on 17 July 1948.<ref name="UCA">{{cite web |url=http://uca.edu/politicalscience/dadm-project/asiapacific-region/south-korea-1948-present/ |title=South Korea (1948–present) |publisher=[[University of Central Arkansas]] |work=Dynamic Analysis of Dispute Management Project |access-date=8 April 2014}}</ref>

[[File:Korea Dignitaries.jpg|thumb|Rhee with [[President of the Republic of China]] [[Chiang Kai-shek]] in 1949]]
On 20 July 1948, Rhee was elected president of the Republic of Korea<ref name="CNNfyi" /><ref name="Cold War Files" /><ref name="UCA" /> in the [[1948 South Korean presidential election]] with 92.3% of the vote; the second candidate, [[Kim Ku]], received 6.7% of the vote.<ref name="FES">{{Cite book |last=Croissant |first=Aurel |author-link=Aurel S. Croissant |title=Electoral politics in Southeast & East Asia |place=Singapore |publisher=Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung |series=370 |volume=VI |year=2002 |chapter=Electoral Politics in South Korea |chapter-url=http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/iez/01361008.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090902073621/http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/iez/01361008.pdf |archive-date=2 September 2009 |url-status=live |pages=234–237 |url=http://library.fes.de/fulltext/iez/01361inf.htm |isbn =978-981-04-6020-4 |access-date=8 April 2014}}</ref> On 15 August the Republic of Korea was formally established in the south,<ref name="UCA" /> and Rhee was [[inaugurated]] as its first president.<ref name="Doopedia" /><ref name="EncyKorea" /> The next month, on 9 September, the north also proclaimed statehood as the [[North Korea|Democratic People's Republic of Korea]]. Rhee's relations with the ''[[chinilpa]]'' Korean elites who had collaborated with the Japanese were, in the words of the South Korean historian Kyung Moon Hwang, often "contentious", but in the end an understanding was reached in which, in exchange for their support, Rhee would not purge the elites.<ref>Kyung Moon Hwang ''A History of Korea'' Palgrave Macmillan, 2010 page 204.</ref> In particular, the Koreans who had served in the colonial-era National Police, whom the Americans had retained after August 1945, were promised by Rhee that their jobs would not be threatened by him. Upon independence in 1948, 53% of South Korean police officers were men who had served in the National Police during the Japanese occupation.<ref>Hastings (1988), p. 38</ref>