had served as the first
President of South Korea since July 24, 1948, three weeks before its founding on August 15, 1948.
Syngman Rhee had been the first
President of South Korea since the
1948 presidential election. He oversaw the transition of power from the
United States Army Military Government to the
Government of South Korea and the establishment of the
First Republic of Korea, and led South Korea during the
Korean War. With American patronage in the
Cold War, Rhee adopted a strongly
anti-communist and pro-
American stance. He used the threat of communism as an excuse to target perceived
opposition with heavy-handed
repression. At first, this was tolerated in the name of political unity and fear of reprisals. Rhee faced increasing domestic discontent following the end of the Korean War in 1953, however, as his administration delivered limited economic and social development, while angering the public by amending the constitution to prolong his stay in power. The South Korean public widely perceived Rhee as a
corrupt and
authoritarian leader who used autocratic methods to maintain his rule and
cronyism in the government. In December 1958, Rhee forced through the
National Assembly an amendment to the
National Security Law giving the government broad new powers to curtail freedom of the press and prevent members of the opposition from voting. In 1959, Rhee was shocked and threatened when the United States reduced its economic aid to South Korea from a high of $382,893,000 in 1957 to $222,204,000, and began taking desperate measures to ensure his political survival. The
March 1960 presidential election saw two main parties running against Rhee. These were the small Progressive Party (which had received one million votes in the
1956 presidential election) represented by
Cho Bong-am, and the Democratic Party represented by
Cho Pyong-ok. In July 1959, Rhee accused Cho Bong-am of being a communist, and the Progressive Party leader was subsequently imprisoned and swiftly executed. Cho Pyong-ok went to the United States for a
stomach operation at the
Walter Reed Army Medical Center but died there of a
heart attack. The two deaths were widely perceived by the public as too much of a coincidence. Rhee was determined to see his protege
Lee Ki-poong elected as the
Vice President, a post chosen in a separate election on the same day. Lee ran against the Democratic Party candidate
Chang Myon, who had been South Korea's ambassador to the United States during the Korean War. On March 15, the mostly
bedridden Lee won the vice-presidential election with an abnormally wide margin, winning 8,225,000 votes while Myon received just 1,850,000 votes, and it became clear to the people that the
vote was fraudulent. According to the Korean Report, Democratic rallies were prohibited throughout the nation and
hundreds of pre-marked ballots were stuffed into boxes on election day. ==Masan protests and the death of Kim Ju-Yul==