Patron to Partner: Reflections on the Us-South Korean Relationship‪.‬

JOHN BARRY KOTCH is Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies at Hanyang University, South Korea. Looking back on the past half-century of Korea's turbulent history, the United States can take considerable satisfaction from its accomplishments. While the results are not perfect by any means, there is a pervading sense that the United States "did right by the Korean people," instilling in them a sense of democracy. Now these values are widely accepted and practiced by the Korean populace and government to a degree not fathomable fifty years ago, when Americans first came to Korea in large numbers as liberators from a bitter 40-year Japanese occupation. South Korea has faced the numerous obstacles that threatened it at its birth to emerge as a stunning success story. The United States now stands ready to help transform South Korea's current chaebol-dominated, state-dependent economy into a genuine market economy.