Abstract

Between 1942 and 1960, Robert T. Oliver, professor of speech at Pennsylvania State University, served as a ghostwriter and advisor for the first president of South Korea, Syngman Rhee. Celebrated as the founder of South Korea and condemned for human rights abuses and an irrepressible desire to wage war on North Korea, Rhee remains a controversial historical figure. In this essay, we use Lepora and Goodin’s theory of complicity to assess Oliver’s responsibility for the creation and effects of Rhee’s rhetoric.