Syngman Rhee

His Excellency Syngman Rhee
이승만
Official portrait, 1948
1st President of South Korea
In office 24 July 1948 – 26 April 1960
Prime Minister	See list Lee Beom-seok Shin Song-mo (acting) Chang Myon Yi Yun-yong (acting) Chang Taek-sang Paik Too-chin Pyon Yong-tae
Vice President	Yi Si-yeong Kim Seong-su Ham Tae-young Chang Myon
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Yun Po-sun
Speaker of the National Assembly
In office 31 May 1948 – 24 July 1948
Preceded by	Kim Kyu-sik[a]
Succeeded by	Shin Ik-hee
Chairman of the State Council of the Korean Provisional Government
In office 3 March 1947 – 15 August 1948
Deputy	Kim Ku
Preceded by	Kim Ku
Succeeded by	Office abolished
President of the People's Republic of Korea
In office 6 September 1945 – 19 February 1946
Vice President	Lyuh Woon-hyung
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Office abolished
President of the Korean Provisional Government
In office 11 September 1919 – 23 March 1925
Prime Minister	Yi Donghwi Yi Dongnyeong Sin Gyu-sik No Baek-rin Park Eunsik
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Park Eunsik
Personal details
Born	Rhee Syng-man (1875-03-26)26 March 1875 Nungnae-dong, Taegyong-ri, Masan-myon, Pyongsan County, Hwanghae, Joseon
Died	19 July 1965(1965-07-19) (aged 90) Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.
Resting place	Seoul National Cemetery
Citizenship	Korea (until 1910) Stateless (1910–1948) ROK (1948–1965)
Political party	Liberal (1951–1961)
Other political affiliations	National Association (1946–1951) People's Joint Association (1897–1899)
Spouses	Seungseon Park ​ ​ (m. 1891; div. 1909)​ Franziska Donner ​ (m. 1934)​
Alma mater	George Washington University (BA) Harvard University (MA) Princeton University (PhD)
Signature
Korean name
Hangul	이승만 / 리승만
Hanja	李承晩
Revised Romanization	Yi Seungman / Ri Seungman
McCune–Reischauer	Yi Sŭngman / Ri Sŭngman
Art name
Hangul	우남
Hanja	雩南
Revised Romanization	Unam
McCune–Reischauer	Unam
Syngman Rhee's voice Syngman Rhee discusses with the U.S Congress about the Korean War Recorded 28 July 1954

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Syngman Rhee (Korean: 이승만; Hanja: 李承晚, pronounced [iː.sɯŋ.man];^[b] 26 March 1875 – 19 July 1965), also known as Rhee Syng-man, or by his art name Unam, (우남; 雩南)^[1] was a Korean politician who served as the first president of South Korea from 1948 to 1960. Rhee was also the first and last president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea from 1919 to his impeachment in 1925 and from 1947 to 1948. And he was also the president of the People's Republic of Korea from 1945 to 1946. As president of South Korea, Rhee's government was characterised by authoritarianism, limited economic development, and in the late 1950s growing political instability and public opposition to his rule.

Born in Hwanghae Province, Joseon, Rhee attended an American Methodist school, where he converted to Christianity. He became a Korean independence activist and was imprisoned for his activities in 1899. After his release in 1904, he moved to the United States, where he obtained degrees from American universities and met Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. After a brief 1910–12 return to Korea, he moved to Hawaii in 1913. In 1919, following the Japanese suppression of the March First Movement, Rhee joined the right-leaning Korean Provisional Government in exile in Shanghai. From 1918 to 1924, he served as the first President of the Korean Provisional Government until he was impeached in 1925. He then returned to the United States, where he advocated and fundraised for Korean independence. In 1939, he moved to Washington, DC. In 1945, he was returned to US-controlled Korea by the US military, and he led the anti-trusteeship movement against both the U.S. military government and the Soviet military administration.^[2] On July 20, 1948, he was elected the first president of the Republic of Korea by the National Assembly, ushering in the First Republic of Korea.

As president, Rhee continued his hardline anti-communist and pro-American views that characterized much of his earlier political career. Early on in his presidency, his government put down the Jeju uprising on Jeju Island, and the Mungyeong and Bodo League massacres were committed against suspected communist sympathisers, leaving at least 100,000 people dead.^[3] Rhee was president during the outbreak of the Korean War (1950–1953), in which North Korea invaded South Korea. He refused to sign the armistice agreement that ended the war, wishing to have the peninsula reunited by force.^[4][5]

After the fighting ended, South Korea's economy lagged behind North Korea's and was heavily reliant on US aid, despite successful efforts to battle illiteracy. After being re-elected in 1956, he pushed to modify the constitution to remove the two-term limit, despite opposition protests. He was reelected uncontested in March 1960, after his opponent Chough Pyung-ok died from cancer before the election took place. After Rhee's ally Lee Ki-poong won the corresponding vice-presidential election by a wide margin, the opposition rejected the result as rigged, which triggered protests. These escalated into the student-led April Revolution, in which police shot demonstrators in Masan. The resulting scandal caused Rhee to resign on 26 April, ushering in the Second Republic of Korea. Following his resignation, he spent a month at the Ihwajang House and departed for exile in Hawaii by plane on 29 May.^[6][7] However, according to Rhee, he went to Hawaii for medical treatment. He says he was never in exile — he simply wasn’t able to return to his homeland.^[8] He spent the rest of his life in exile in Honolulu, Hawaii, and died of a stroke in 1965.

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