President park and his learned friends

In 1969, eight years after his armed usurpation, President Park Chung Hee of South Korea had his country's constitution amended so that he could seek a third term. Three years ago, in October of 1972, as he was serving his last term under the new rules, Park declared martial law, dissolved the National Assembly and suspended the constitution. He did all this, as we were then told, in order that he might better cope with the “stark realities of a rapidly changing international situation.” He was referring to East-West détente, which he viewed as a deadly threat to one of the twin pillars of his legitimacy: anti-communism and economic modernization

Communism · Constitution · Economic history · Economics · Legitimacy · Martial law · Modernization theory · Order (exchange · Political science · Politics · Asian Industrial and Economic Development · History · Japanese History and Culture · Korean Peninsula Historical and Political Studies · Law