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CHAPTER 4
To Korea Again
P
revious to my assignment, there had been only a single mili-
tary attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, and his duties had
been largely ceremonial. In contrast, since the army had by now
invested a considerable amount of time and training in devel-
oping my skills as a Korea expert, I was expected to function primarily as a
reporting officer. My duties were to inform the U.S. Defense Intelligence
Agency of all appropriate matters concerning the Korean military situa-
tion and to keep the Washington intelligence community informed on the
Korean situation in general. My immediate boss was the embassy’s defense
attaché, but I was also expected to work closely with all other members of
the embassy team, especially the Special Assistant’s Office and Political Sec-
tion, and with U.S. Forces Korea.The Embassy StaffThe embassy in Seoul, like most embassies around the world, was organized
around the “country team” concept. Each agency had its own representa-
tive who was responsible to report back to Washington items of interest to
his particular agency or department and to serve as his department’s rep-
resentative to the government in Seoul. Accordingly, the commercial attaché
reported to the Department of Commerce, the political counselor to the State
Department, the defense attaché to the Defense Department, and so on. Each
had their own staff and budget, and though they all were responsible to the
ambassador as well, most tended to put the requirements of their home
agency ahead of their embassy staff duties.
Nonetheless, the embassy functioned well, for the most part, without fric-
tion between its members. The State Department, which had the most staff
members and therefore the most influence, tended to dominate some of the
other sections, but the Defense Department and the Special Assistant’s Office
were both very strong in their own right. They had good support from their
Washington headquarters, so their officers in Seoul tended to operate inde-