• who trained for these very dangerous missions. Ambassador Gregg’s eyes
would sometimes mist over when he spoke of those days, especially when
he recalled that many of the brave men he trained never returned. I think
all the ambassadors with whom I served enjoyed the company of their Ko-
rean friends and valued their friendship, but with Gregg it was a truly genu-
ine and emotional relationship. He was a very pro-Korean ambassador,
determined to take direct action whenever possible to counteract anti-
Americanism.
As part of this effort, Gregg decided to pay an official visit to Kwangju.
This would be the first such visit by an American ambassador since before
the events of –. The Political Section was lukewarm on this idea, and
the Public Affairs Office and the security officer were strongly opposed. They
were especially concerned over the ambassador’s safety. Special Assistant
Jim McCullough (who had replaced John Stein in the summer of ) and
I believed that there was certainly a security concern, but it was not so seri-
ous as to advise the ambassador not to go. No one in the embassy strongly
supported the idea, however, since we did not believe such a trip would make
much difference in countering hostility toward the United States.
Kim Dae Jung personally called Ambassador Gregg and advised him not
to go to Kwangju. Because of this advice, Gregg again carefully considered
canceling his trip but then decided to go ahead regardless of Kim’s advice.
Before departing, he put a personal handwritten note in his office safe stat-
ing that he was making the Kwangju trip against the advice of his staff and
that, in the event he came to harm, he alone shouldered the blame. The trip
went as scheduled, and I think can be considered a success, even though it
did not significantly reduce anti-American sentiment.
A second incident occurred only three weeks after Gregg’s September,
, arrival at the embassy.^5 This involved several radicals who entered the
ambassador’s compound early one morning and broke into his residence
while he and his wife were sleeping. Being an old field-intelligence man, the
ambassador had considered his escape plan previously, and he and his wife
were able to slip out a rear bedroom window while the radicals were search-
ing for them. The intruders occupied the residence for two hours or so, dur-
ing which they destroyed the entire living area, including some personal
items of sentimental value to the Greggs. They were finally evicted by em-
bassy security personnel and arrested by the Korean police.
Some embassy staff, such as the security officer, were angry at what they
considered lax security by the Korean police in this incident and thought was
a late and ineffective response after the radicals had occupied the residence.