ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the South Korean military which in 1961 staged a successful coup, led by Brigadier General Park Chung Hee. American military aid and investment played a significant role in the rapid growth of the South Korean military during and after the Korean War. The military, by virtue of aid from the United States, had by become a powerful political force with resources unmatched by any of the many civilian groups and organizations. The same military-intellectual alliance was also behind the building of a political party as an instrument of recruiting personnel into the new civilian government. The political turbulence surrounding the birth of the Democratic-Republican Party could be attributed to a variety of causes. Politically, President Park and his Democratic-Republican Party were successful in the relatively fair and free elections of 1963 and 1967 against active opposition. The successor regime of General Chun has followed the same path.
