"Absolute Futility"

Only one prominent South Korean dared to challenge Syngman Rhee's position: "It is absolute futility to attempt to drive to the Yalu," Chough Pyung Ok told a group of Korean and U.S. newsmen. "The go-it-alone policy of President Rhee will bring disastrous results."

Chough Pyung Ok is a balding, tough-fibered economist (Ph.D. Columbia University ) who heads the only permitted opposition party in South Korea. As Rhee's national police chief (1946-48) and Home Minister (1950-51), Chough has done his own part in silencing dissident voices. Knowing what to expect now, he slipped out of his house to the home of a friend. While he was away, his own house was looted and the windows and furniture smashed. Then two dozen young hoodlums stormed the friend's home, demanding to see Chough. Four broke into Chough's bedroom, found him in his silk underwear, beat him unconscious with fists and clubs. With cuts on his head, arm and right ear, Chough was whisked off to a hospital at Suwon.

Rhee was not finished with Chough, however. Within a few hours, ROK M.P.s, under the command of Rhee's provost marshal, bundled Chough from the hospital to a jail cell in Seoul. Official reason: "He indiscriminately misled the public by words and deeds, resulting in a very, very difficult situation . . . Because of his disturbance of public sentiments . . . public antagonism became so serious he needed protection." Actually, in a land where Syngman Rhee controls not only the police but the press, only a tiny fraction of South Koreans knew of Chough's audacious stand.

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