for not sending him or someone else to Kwangju as soon as I learned about the
severity of the crisis.” See Gleysteen, Massive Entanglement, pp. –. Actually
Richardson was on home leave from roughly the beginning of May to early June.
Spence Richardson, telephone interview by the editor, Mar. , .
. Vance had resigned late in April over President Carter’s decision, against Vance’s
recommendation, to use force in an attempt to rescue American hostages at the
U.S. Embassy in Teheran.
. Wickham, Korea on the Brink, p. .
. Wickham returned on the nineteenth. For a description of the general’s meetings
with Korean military officials May –, see ibid., pp. –.
. Ibid., p. .
. In their memoirs both Ambassador Gleysteen and General Wickham also
downplayed the American role in this matter. See Gleysteen, Massive Entanglement,
pp. –; and Wickham, On the Brink, p. . For the official U.S. position, see
Wickham, Korea on the Brink, pp. –.
. Wickham, Korea on the Brink, p. .
. Ibid., p. ; Gleysteen, Massive Entanglement, p. .
. Ibid., pp. –; Wickham, Korea on the Brink, p. .
. Wickham, Korea on the Brink, p. ; Gleysteen, Massive Entanglement, pp. –.
. This was done in the document reprinted in Wickham, Korea on the Brink, pp. –
.
. Severe gaps remain in the records currently available to scholars. The editor’s search
of records at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library confirms the author’s conclu-
sion. The documents available in Box , Country File, National Security Files, BM,
indicate that Donald Gregg was the National Security Council staffer most atten-
tive to the Korean issue during the period and that he followed Gleysteen’s sugges-
tions in his advice to Brzezinski.
. Wickham, Korea on the Brink, pp. –.
. Gleysteen, Massive Entanglement, pp. –.
. For a historian’s account of the Iran crisis, see James Bill, The Eagle and the Lion
(New Haven: Yale University Press, ), pp. –. That the Iranian situation
influenced the U.S. handling of the Korean case is clear in Donald Gregg’s assess-
ment for Brzezinski, May , , Box , Subject File, DHM.
. For the editor’s analysis of the various pressures facing the Carter administration
in May, , and a comparison with the circumstances of , when democrati-
zation in South Korea did occur, see Stueck, “Democratization in Korea,” pp. –
.
. For a summary of this issue, see Oberdorfer, Two Koreas, pp. –. For Gleysteen’s
coverage, see Massive Entanglement, pp. –, –, . For Carter adminis-
tration efforts, see various correspondence, Box , Country File, National Secu-
rity Affairs, BM.
. Gleysteen, Massive Entanglement, pp. –.
. Wickham left for Washington on May , , and did not return until the nine-
teenth. For his explanation of circumstances, see Wickham, Korea on the Brink, p.
.
Chapter 10. Return to the United States. Armitage was appointed to the position of deputy secretary of state in January,
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