Estados Unidos e Coreia do Sul em perspectiva: o movimento de Gwangju e a busca por democracia na década de 1980

Abstract

The present work will discuss the relations among the United States of America and the Republic of Korea during the period called Cold War between 1945 and 1987, and the Gwangju Uprising of 1980, this being one of the most important events in the history of South Korea over the 20th century and its democratization process. This bibliographic research uses the American newspaper The New York Times as base and have as goal understand the relations among the two nations and how they have been represented by the American press, and analyze the reasons for the growth of an anti-American sentiment between the south-korean population during the 1980's. We have observed in our analysis that the massacre was inserted in a broader context, the one of the Cold War, where the United States, in its fight against the soviet influence, interfered on the politics of countries like South Korea. We also noted with our analysis of the editions of The New York Times, that the image of the United States suffered wear among the south Korean people because of its proximity with the authoritarian governments of the country, and its conniving position during the massacre of civilians in Gwangju in 1980. After the protests of 1987, the government of Chun Doo-Han accepted the demands of the civil society, and at the end of the same year, South Korea had its first free presidential elections since 1960.