• unhealthy and a very poor choice of export. U.S. attempts to push tobacco
products became a sort of renewed cause for anti-Americanism; as a re-
sult, we were really less than enthusiastic about this issue and did not push
it very hard. Still, in July, , the ROK government lifted longstanding
restrictions on foreign tobacco imports, and during the first eleven months
of , U.S. companies sold . billion packs of cigarettes in South Ko-
rea.^7 Many Koreans believe that the embassy and U.S. government made
tobacco a top priority, but in reality it was only one of many products we
were to encourage Koreans to buy. Tobacco always had less importance
to us than other items, including electronic components, aircraft and
parts, industrial process controls, household items, medical equipment,
and others. Fortunately my own responsibilities in this commercial area
were primarily in the defense sector, and I was able to avoid the tobacco
controversy.
There were some other issues between South Korea and the United States
during this period that were misunderstood. An example was Roh Tae Woo’s
policy of improving relations with Communist countries, particularly the
Soviet Union, sometimes referred to as “Nordpolitik.” Some Koreans believed
that the United States was opposed to these overtures because we wanted
the ROK to remain solidly anti-Communist as an obstacle to Soviet expan-
sionism, particularly in East Asia. This was not true. As a matter of fact, we
encouraged these contacts and even worked behind the scenes to facilitate
the success of Nordpolitik. An example was the meeting between Roh and
Mikhail Gorbachev in San Francisco in June, , which could never have
been possible without American assistance. We worked to assist this improv-
ing relationship because we believed it was in the interest of both Korea and
the United States, and a better relationship would tend to lessen active So-
viet support for North Korea.^8
Other Military AttachésMost of my duties during this period were quite pleasant and not very con-
troversial. The military attachés in South Korea had an association to which
we all belonged, and we had monthly lunches together and a monthly din-
ner for the attachés and their wives. We saw each other frequently and so-
cialized often, making many friends in the international community. Many
of these officers were later promoted to general, a few reached the very se-
nior ranks of their service, and one even became prime minister of his
country.