Syngman Rhee

Syngman Rhee (In RR: I Seung-man; In MR: Yi Sŭng-man; Korean 이승만; 李承晚) (March 26, 1875 - July 19, 1965) was a Korean politician and the first President of South Korea. A professed Christian, he ruled South Korea as a dictator.

During the Japanese occupation of Korea (1910-1945), he was elected President of the provisional government in exile. After Korea was liberated, he became the first President (August 1948 - April 1960, four consecutive terms) of South Korea and led it through the Korean war.

Rhee became greatly unpopular with his allies when he refused to agree to a number of ceasefire proposals that would leave Korea divided. His hope throughout the war was that with UN help he would be made leader of a united Korean peninsula, and tried to veto any peace plan that would not eliminate the north completely. He pushed for stronger methods to be used against the People's Republic of China and was often irate at the US reluctance to bomb Mainland China.

He was an anti-communist and his rule was autocratic. His government oppressed dissent and ruthlessly treated captured communists. He engineered a change in the constitution to run for another term in 1960, and his victory seemed assured when the main opposition candidate died shortly before the March 15 elections. The real contest was in the race for vice president (a separate one under the law of the time), and Rhee's heir-apparent Yi Gi-bung won in a blatantly rigged election. This sparked off anger in the Korean populace, and the student-led April 19 Movement forced Rhee to resign on April 26. Rhee fled to Hawaii a month later.

On January 18, 1952, Rhee declared South Korean sovereignty over the waters around the Korean Peninsula, in a concept similar to that of today's Exclusive Economic Zones. The maritime demarcations thus drawn up, which Rhee called the "Peace Line", included the uninhabited islets of Dokdo ("Takeshima" in Japanese). This led to protests from the Japanese government, which claimed that the islets should be considered Japanese territoy. Minor clashes followed, but the islets have thereafter been under South Korean occupation (see Liancourt Rocks for more on the dispute).

Rhee was the co-author of the Petition from the Koreans of Hawaii to President Theodore Roosevelt, along with P.K. Yoon, which appealed to the Americans in face of Japanese aggression in 1905.