Abstract:

Nixon administration began to perform strategic contraction in East Asia in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The measures such as downplaying of EC121 crisis, decreasing of the U.S. forces in South Korea and the reconciliation of Sino-U.S. relations vacillated Korea’s belief in America’s promise of Korean national security and also made Seoul realize that it could not force Washington to comprise by threatening with its strategic position as it had done before the Cold War. Therefore, Park Chung Hee administration tried its best to comply and coordinate with Americas adjustment of its strategies towards East Asia, in order to urge Washington to provide more military aids to South Korea, dissuade the U.S. forces from withdrawing, prevent Nixon administration from jeopardizing the interests of Seoul in its reconciling the Sino-U.S. relations. Seoul also promoted the defense independence of South Korea with all its strength and made efforts to improve its relations with communist countries. As a result, South Korea not only resolved the impact of “Nixonism” to a great extent but also gained some interests. However, in the mid and late 1970s, the secret nuclear development plan as one of the main measures of South Korea’s defense independence made the U.S. withdraw all its forces in South Korea, so the US-Korean alliance fell into the crisis of trust again.