Quote:Originally Posted by
KarateMomUSA 
Gen Park suspended the constitution & canceled elections. he took over by military coup & never surrendered the govt to the people, never, he was killed & that was how he left office. Often or at times dictators have elections, but they are not elections in a democratic sense, like Castro & even Dr Kim & Gen Choi, who opposed them, what elections did they have.
To say Gen Park or his successor were elected in any fair use of the term democratic elections is just not reflective of what happened in Korea during the military dictatorships. I am not sure how or why you would say that
Well, that is your opinion. My opinion is that characterizing President PARK Chung Hee as a dictator when failing to recognize that General Choi derived his power from a worse dictator named President RHEE Syngman is quite disingenuous. Also, we need to also highlight the fact that General Choi became a traitor and went to North Korea, which is run by, a dictator.
No this is fact! It happened! Gen Park, the military dictator did suspend the constitution & cancel elections. Like most dictators he manipulated & changed the rules unilaterally to preserve his regime. It was only ended more that 18 years after he took power by a military coup when he was shot by his own KCIA director. He ruled with an iron fist & is loved by those that benefited by his brilliant leadership. He is rightfully credited with setting up south Korea as the world's 10th largest economy. No doubt about it, they are rich today because of him. This is why he is loved by many. Many of his admirers will say he did what he had to do, as their country was & is still under constant attack from a far more brutal regime to their north. to them the ends justified the means. I won't argue that point, as it is from the standpoint of those people living there at the time that best judges this. of course those living there at that time, do & will have differences of those opinions. But it is to ignore reality to not see how brutal the regime was. There are still political prisoners being released each time a new civilian president took office. There was no freedom of speech or of the press. There were many criminal laws & policies put in place to limit & control, due to the never ending threat of super communist invasion. However anyone who spoke out against the govt for any reason was simply labeled a communist & dispatched in some way, shape or form. Even overseas Koreans, like Gen Choi. The long strong arm of Gen Park's regime reached them to, even if they lived in the west, as south Korea was aligned with the west. This long arm was the KCIA, one of the most notorious national intelligence agencies to ever have such a strong international reach. Ask experts of your own national intelligence service (FBI), they will tell you. Read their reports & Congressional records from Koreagate etc.
Your second point is most valid. Mr Rhee was a puppet of the US govt because he was a fierce anti-communist. The independence movement around the end of WWII was center-left & leaning communist. The US did not want to lose their half of Korea. Mr Rhee was also brutal & Gen Choi was a major-general in his army. Mr Rhee was forced out of office with protests in the streets after 12 long years of corrupt rule. His policies adversely affected GM Lee Won Kuk. He was beaten & arrested on charges of being a Japanese collaborator. You are aware of stories that the govt tried to his his large group of kwan members to further that regime's ends, did you not?
I am not sure which of these 1st 2 leaders was more brutal. I am sure historians that specialize in this area can weigh in on it, providing statistics to support their contentions. This is beyond me & my research. For purposes of its influence on TKD & the period & context of the time that is was developed, that is not as important. What is more important is how these factors influenced TKD's history & the lives of those that developed it. 2 wrongs never make a right. I can even concede just to silence this unneeded debate, which is a distraction from the important points, that Mr Rhee was worst, even if I don't know that to be accurate. but even if I did, that has nothing at all to do with what Gen Park did & how it impacted our collective TKD!
Your 3rd point is also most valid. Gen Choi in the eyes of many south Koreans & others around the world was a traitor. He did go to north Korea which was against the law in south Korea. Although he did it as a Canadian citizen & they could not do anything to him legally, they did up their work to destroy him & his "private organization" the ITF, which funded Gen Choi's worldwide travel, which not only allowed him to teach & spread his TKD, but also gave him a global stage to denounce the military dictators. He was 1 of the most vocal, highest profile political dissidents that the military dictatorships had. Once he gave "aid & comfort" to the enemy in the north, by handing them a powerful propaganda tool & system of placement of their NK KGB agents around the world, he really sealed his fate of doom, from south Korea. Even his most loyal instructors left him, except 1, as the pressure from the KCIA became too much to bear! I will add in that I do not think any fair minded person will disagree that the dictators in the north win the prize for the worst dictators by a super wide margin.
None of this however changes what Gen Choi did with his TKD & how this art he created, along with his followers have done good & impacted lives around the word, just as Kukki TKD did. Gen Choi did what he did. He created a system that he called TKD. While it was not Kukki TKD, it has a true global following. He also did good things for people & made their lives better in some ways. He also did things that hurt many people, was egotistical, a dictator himself in many ways & can be considered a criminal or traitor for his anti-nationalist acts. But then again, this does not change what he did for TKD, especially his style or form of TKD. Just as the crimes & corruption of Dr Kim does not & can not change his great work which Korea & the TKD world owes to him a debt of gratitude. I for one am not shy to say thanks. Nor am I consumed by the partisan divide that has plagued our beloved TKD, in part contributed by Gen Choi himself. To me, we are obligated to thanks those that have made what we do possible & credit them for their gifts that they gave to the world.
Personally, I don't think talking about dictators really adds much to the conversation. Do you?
Talking about dictators is needed if we are to understand the political factors that have hurt TKD & the TKD leaders.
To put it simple: We know from our gut that people can not speak out against dictators. We know from our gut if they do, they suffer. Gen Choi spoke out & suffered. Sadly many innocent students & Korean masters suffered as well & they were not political. This to me is not fair. So unless we understand the nasty Korean politics, we simply we never more fully comprehend the complexities of TKD's confusing history & real source of the TKD divide.
