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General Accounting Office’s Audit on U.S. Economic Assistance for Korea in 1957 and the Korean National Assembly’s Response

  • The Review of Korean History
  • 2021, (141), pp.291-330
  • Publisher : The Historical Society Of Korea
  • Research Area : Humanities > History
  • Received : February 22, 2021
  • Accepted : March 12, 2021
  • Published : March 30, 2021

Park Kwang Myeong 1

1상지대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study analyzed the contents of the ‘audit report’ on the U.S. economic assistance policy for korea, announced by the U.S. General Accounting Office after the post-war reconstruction, and the response of the Korean National Assembly to the report. U.S. economic assistance policy for Korea began to change gradually from 1957, the second term of the Eisenhower administration. Requests for changes in U.S. economic assistance policy was continuously raised by the US ambassador to Korea, Economic Coordinator, and US central government officials dispatched to Korea. In this situation, the U.S. House of Representatives also initiated an audit of U.S. economic assistance policy through the General Accounting Office(GAO). On June 25, 1957, The Campbell, Comptroller General of The United States, submitted the audit results to the U.S. House of Representatives. The audit report pointed out the ‘inefficiency’ of assistance project administration and the ‘non-cooperation’ of the Korean government. On the one hand, the audit report also suggested the direction of ‘establishing a realistic long-term economic development plan’ and ‘active introduction of technical assistance’. When the release of the audit report became known, it caused a great repercussion inside Korea, which was keen to change the U.S. economic assistance policy. In particular, confrontation between the ruling and the opposition parties was established as discussions related to the formation of an investigation committee proceeded within the Korean National Assembly. However, the controversy within the National Assembly did not go in the direction of revealing the exact cause of the problem. From the acquisition of the audit report to the analysis, the National Assembly failed to serve as a deliberative body. At the time, the National Assembly responded to the extent of sending a message to the U.S. Congress to express concern about the reduction of aid and to request reconsideration. Of course, the matters pointed out in the audit report later led to improvements in the operation and management of aid projects through discussions with the Combined Economic Board(CEB). However, this was based on the opinions of the aid donor countries, not the Korean government and the National Assembly.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.