Home › Books & Reviews › Capsule Reviews › Massive Entanglement, Marginal Influence: Carter and Korea in Crisis

Massive Entanglement, Marginal Influence: Carter and Korea in Crisis

William H. Gleysteen, Jr.
Reviewed by By Philip Zelikow
September/October 2000
Print Email
Login or Register to leave a comment.

Sign-up for free weekly updates from ForeignAffairs.com.
William H. Gleysteen, Jr.
Brookings Institution Press
2000
242 pp.
0815731701
$29.95

Jimmy Carter became president intending to pull American troops out of South Korea and push its authoritarian government toward genuine democracy. He failed on both counts. Indeed, the United States is often accused of complicity in the brutal 1980 suppression of a student uprising at Kwangju. Gleysteen, Carter's ambassador to South Korea, has now written a concise and lucid account that is rich with lessons about U.S. relations with imperfect partners. Although he criticizes Carter and some of his colleagues on the withdrawal issue, he defends the administration's effort on human rights. Contemporary Korea watchers may especially enjoy reading the chapter on the man who became South Korea's president in 1997, aptly entitled "The American Effort to Save Kim Dae Jung's Life." A valuable memoir, written with care.

Related

Essay, Mar/Apr 1997
Hastening Korean Reunification: The Writing on the 38th Parallel
Nicholas Eberstadt

Pacific powers would like Korea to reunify slowly, but the North is soon likely to implode, its economy deteriorating as its weapons of mass destruction accumulate. Rapid reunification would spur economic growth, as in Germany, and reduce regional tensions. South Korea's liberalization of its own economy and strengthening of its civic institutions will prepare it to assist the North. China and Russia may not go along, but Western governments should stop coddling Pyongyang. America should underwrite a united Korea's security, and Japan its finances.

Read
Essay, Mar/Apr 2001
Time To Leave Korea?
Selig S. Harrison

After the historic summit between Pyongyang and Seoul last June, the Koreas could be on their way to eventual reunification. To ensure such progress, Washington should consider making military and economic concessions -- including the possible withdrawal of U.S. forces -- to formally end the Korean War.

Read
Essay, Jan/Feb 2001
The New Face of Northeast Asia
Kent E. Calder

After more than 50 years of dominating Northeast Asian diplomacy, Washington must now accommodate the fallout from the historic rapprochement between North and South Korea. As regional leaders take the reins of diplomacy, they face an uncertain future and lack the institutions that could guide the transition. The next U.S. administration can help, but not until it rethinks its own regional policies.

Read