美國의 對韓政策

Abstract

This study intends to examine the American policies toward Korea from the conferences at Cairo and Teheran to the Joint U.S. - Soviet Commission (1943-1947). This period has already been extensively investigated and produced controversial arguments by many scholars. Most of the studies, however, seem to assert that the United States policies toward Korea during this period was temporarily formulated as circumstances required and, therefore, lacking consistency and long-terms plans because the U.S. had never recognized political significance of Korea. Refuting such general and sweeping assertion, the writer attempts to prove that the United States, recognizing strategic value of the Korean peninsula in her Asian sphere of interest, has striven and will endeaver to maintain a political commitment in Korea. Chapter Ⅰ presents a brief introductory statement of main themes of this study. Chapter Ⅱ analyzes the United States' attitude and policy vis-a-vis Korean problems at Cairo and Teheran Conferences where the Powers, for the first times, proposed an international. trusteeship for Korea. Chapter Ⅲ in a careful assessment of the negotiations at Yalta Conference, attempts to show the cautious and calculated strategy of the U.S. to deter the Soviet Union from exercising undue influence over the Korean peninsula after the War. Chapter Ⅳ deals with the politics of Potsdam Conference with a view to assessing the United States' positions in regard to the Korean problem. Here again, one can notice the effort of the United States to block the Russion military occupation of Korea which indicates the American political interest over Korea. Chapters Ⅴ and Ⅵ subsume the American policies from the period of the military occupation to the independence of Korea. During this period, Russian insistence to establish a communist government in Korea led the United States to believe that the Cairo promise came to naught and to help Korea establish a democratic government with the blessing of the United Nations. Finally Chapter Ⅶ presents summary of the study with a concluding remark that the American political interest over Korea demonstrated in her policies during and immediately after the World War Ⅱ has not been changed even after the announcement of a new foreign policy of disengagement, the Nixon Doctrine.