NOVEMBER 21, 2014
Allan R. Millett, Ambrose Professor of History and Director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies,
The University of New Orleans; Raymond E. Mason, Jr. Professor Emeritus of Military History, The Ohio State University
“A Death Warrant for Our Nation”: Syngman Rhee and South Korean Opposition to the Armistice, 1951-1954
Faculty host: Carter J. Eckert
Bio:
The Director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies and the Ambrose Professor of
American History at the University of New Orleans since 2006 and the Raymond E. Mason, Jr. Professor
Emeritus of Military History at The Ohio State University, Allan R. Millett is a specialist in the history of
American military policy and twentieth century wars and military institutions.
Millett is the author of eight books:
- The War for Korea: They Came from the North, 1950-1951 (2010)
- The Korean War (Historiography & Bibliography) (2007)
- The War for Korea: A House Burning 1945-1950 (2005)
- Their War for Korea (2002
- In Many a Strife: General Gerald C. Thomas and the United Stated Marine Corps, 1917-1956 (1993)
- Semper Fidelis: The History of the United States Marine Corps (1980; revised edition, 1991)
- The General: Robert L. Bullard and Officership in the United States Army, 1881-1925 (1975)
- The Politics of Intervention: The Military Occupation of Cuba, 1906-1909 (1968)
Millett co-authored with Williamson Murray, A War To Be Won: Fighting the Second World War
(2000), which has won international acclaim and has been translated into Spanish, Chinese, and Hebrew.
In collaboration with Dr. Peter Maslowski, he also wrote For the Common Defense: A Military History of
the United States, 1607-1983 (1984; revised edition, 1994). He was co-editor (with Williamson Murray)
and a contributor to Military Effectiveness, an acclaimed three-volume history of military affairs, 1900-
1945 (1988; rev. 2010). Again working with Murray, Millett was co-editor of Calculations: Net Assessment
and the Coming of World War II (1992) and Military Innovation (1996) to which he contributed two
essays. As co-editor and contributor, Millett organized Commandants of the Marine Corps (2004), an anthology of twenty-eight essays.
The Marine Corps Heritage Foundation awarded Millett the General Wallace M. Greene Prize in 1994 for the best original book on Marine Corps history and the General O. P. Smith Prize for the best edited work on Marine Corps history in 2005. Four of Millett’s books are on the required
reading lists for officers of the U.S. armed services. Millett has contributed original essays to seventeen
books on the Korean War, World War II, World War I, American historiography, foreign and defense policy,
and military history. He has written thirty articles for Military Affairs, International Security, The Americas, Parameters,
Armed Forces and Society, The National Interest, Joint Forces Quarterly, Strategic Review, Journal of Strategic Studies, Military History Quarterly, Marine Corps Gazette, the Naval Institute Proceedings, and other publications.
In the past decade, Millett has become a specialist of international stature on the history of the Korean War.
He began his work on the war as a Fulbright Distinguished Professor at the Korean
National Defense University in 1991 and as a fellow of the Korea Foundation in 1996. In addition to his
own original work, Professor Millett served as an editorial consultant for the Ministry of Defense of the
Republic of Korea for the revised and translated Korean official history, The Korean War, 3 vols. (1998-
1999) for which he arranged an American edition (2000-2001). He then served as co-editor of Mao’s
Generals Remember Korea (2001) in collaboration with Professor Yi Xiaobing and Yu Bin. Professor
Millett has published thirty-two essays, articles, encyclopedia entries and commentaries on the Korean
War and was instrumental in the Department of Defense’s revision of the American death (all causes)
statistics in the war from 54,246 to 36,574. The first volume of The War for Korea, entitled A House
Burning: The War for Korea 1945-1950, was published by the University Press of Kansas in 2005. The
second volume, They Came from the North, 1950-1951, appeared in 2010.
Millett has lectured at the National War College, Army War College, Air War College, U.S.
Air Force Academy, U.S. Military Academy, U.S. Naval Academy, Naval War College, Marine Corps
University, Virginia Military Institute, Korean Military Academy, the German Military History Institute,
the Japanese National Institute of Defense Studies, and the Belgian Royal Military Academy. A fourterm
trustee and two-term president of the Society for Military History (1985-1989), he is a former
council member of the Inter- University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society, a former chairman of
the International Security Studies Section of the International Studies Association, a former three-term
trustee of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, and an associate editor of Armed Forces and Society.
Millett was chair of the Bibliography Committee of the U.S. Commission on Military History and was
a member of the Council and Bibliography Committee of the International Commission of Military
History, 1986- 1996. He is a former president of the U.S. Commission of Military History (1999-2003).
From 2005-2010, Millett served as a board member and vice president of the International Commission of Military History.
A colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, Millett retired from the Ready Reserve in July,
1990. His military experience included fourteen years of service in infantry units, including command
of a reserve infantry battalion. For ten years he served as an adjunct faculty member at the Marine
Corps Command and Staff College. He completed educational and training assignments at the Marine
Corps Amphibious Warfare School, the Marine Corps Command and Staff College, the Atlantic Fleet
Amphibious Staff Planning Course, the Naval War College Strategy Course, the U.S. Army Jungle
Operations Course, and the National Defense University Reserve Officers Course (second in class). For
his military service, Millett received the Legion of Merit in 1989. He is former national president of the
Marine Corps Reserve Officers Association (1987- 1988).
In 2008 the Pritzker Military Library awarded Millett the Pritzker Prize for lifetime achievement
in writing American military history. His contributions to military history have been cited by the City of
Columbus, the State of Ohio, the State of Wisconsin, and the Republic of Korea. In 2006, the Secretary
of Defense awarded Millett and Williamson Murray a Civilian Distinguished Service Medal for their
contributions to the professional military education of the U.S. armed forces. In 2008 the Royal Military
Academy of Belgium awarded him the degree of Doctorate Honoris Causa.
A 1959 graduate of DePauw University, Dr. Millett’s graduate degrees (1963, 1966) are from The
Ohio State University, which honored him with three awards for distinguished teaching in 1983-1996
and one for distinguished scholarship in 1994. DePauw University awarded Millett the honorary degree
Doctor of Letters in 2001. The Society for Military History in 2004 gave him the Samuel Eliot Morison
Prize for lifetime achievement in military history.
In December, 2005, Millett became a professor emeritus at The Ohio State University, where he
directed sixty-eight doctoral dissertations to completion since 1969, a national record in his specialty. In
January, 2006, he began an appointment at the University of New Orleans as the Ambrose Professor of
American History and the director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies. He is also the senior
military advisor to The National World War II Museum.
?About the Lecture:
A Write-Up by Wenjiao Cai, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of East Asian Languages and
Civilizations, Harvard University
On November 20 the Korea Institute’s Kim Koo Forum on Korea Current Affairs hosted
Professor Allan Millett as he delivered a lecture on Syngman Rhee and South Korea’s opposition to
the Korean War Armistice between 1951 and 1954. A distinguished American military historian,
Professor Millett has published seven books and numerous articles on wars and U.S. military policies
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| and institutions, including two recent volumes on the history of the Korean War. The lecture was chaired by Professor Carter Eckert,
Yoon Se Young Professor of Korean History at Harvard University,and drew participation from scholars and students throughout the greater Boston area.
Professor Millett began the lecture by emphasizing the importance of examining the period from 1951 to 1954, which has thus far been understudied in English language literature on the Korean War that focuses primarily on the major battles fought in 1950 and 1951. In particular, he stressed the significant role of the 1951-1954 armistice negotiations in shaping the end of the war and the post-war development of Republic of Korea.
Based on an analysis of the domestic and international concerns of all parties involved, Millett concluded that both sides of the coalition were inclined to reconcile at the time armistice talks were initiated. Leaders in both North and South Korea hoped for a peaceful environment for reconstruction and economic development. China wanted to withdraw its troops in order to concentrate on broader plans regarding Taiwan. Both the Soviet Union and the United States were increasingly burdened by the war’s material demands the latter, for example, allocating one third of its defense budget to fight the war and found their long-term strategic plans in jeopardy.
The lecture focused on Syngman Rhee’s opposition to the armistice and his vision for the ROK’s survival. Professor Millett reminded us that despite his awareness of the big powers’ hope for a cessation in hostilities, Rhee held firm to his goal of reunification. Rhee’s June 1951 position statement on the Republic of Korean Army (ROK Army) reaffirmed his unyielding stance on the territorial integrity of Korea and his
demands for a firm American commitment to the military defense of and economic aid for South Korea.
Millett also revealed Syngman Rhee’s scheme of creating a personal military force separate from the ROK Army, which fell under the command of the Eighth United States Army. Additionally, Millett demonstrated how the contested repatriation of North Korean Prisoners of War including Rhee’s adamant opposition further obstructed armistice negotiations.
Professor Millett interpreted Syngman Rhee’s signing of the Armistice Agreement in July of 1953 as a compromise, driven by the threat of the withdrawal of U.S. troops. Nevertheless, Rhee’s lobby remained undeterred by the conclusion of the armistice. In July of 1954 Syngman Rhee visited Washington, where he met with President Eisenhower and spoke before Congress. Professor Millet detailed Rhee’s interactions with
American political and military personnel, including President Eisenhower, General Clarke, and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, and was generally sympathetic to Rhee’s efforts toward securing benefits on behalf of the ROK.
Professor Millett concluded his lecture by highlighting the significance of Rhee’s 1954’s mission to Washington, where he successfully forced U.S. officials to reconsider South Korea’s strategically importance and forged a U.S.-ROK alliance that ensured the survival and future of South Korea.
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