From the S&S archives: Ford reaffirms U.S. ties with South Korea

SEOUL — Cheered loudly and showered with confetti by an estimated two million South Koreans, President Ford arrived in Seoul Friday and met with President Park Chung Hee to discuss the future of this divided nation.

Ford pledged continued U.S. support for an independent South Korea.

Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, traveling with the President, indicated Ford also intended in private talks with Park to express dissatisfaction with the harsh treatment of dissenters in South Korea.

But Kissinger held out little hope Ford could bring about a change in Park's controversial domestic policies.

After a two-hour discussion in Blue House, the South Korean presidential mansion so-named for its blue-tiled roof, the two leaders issued a joint communique saying Park had accepted Ford's invitation to visit the United States. No date was set.

Park, who came to power in 1961, has been in the United States on four previous occasions.

The noisy, colorful greeting Ford received in Seoul was the warmest yet in his first major journey abroad.

There were brass bands, flags, flowers, a blizzard of confetti, and arches bearing the President's portrait. One of many homemade signs along Ford's motorcade route -this one held up by school girls — read: "Welcome, Jerry. The sun is shining again."

"It's tremendous," said Ford.

South Korean officials estimated two million persons lined the President's 12-mile motorcade route from the airport into the city. Ford got out of his limousine twice along the way to shake hands with the crowds.

The timing of Ford's restatement of U.S. support for an independent South Korea was significant.

The United Nations is about to begin its annual debate on the Korean question, with Communist and Third World countries friendly to North Korea trying to get the U.N. to drop its 24-year-old endorsement of U.S. military protection of South Korea from the Communist northern part of the country.

A high-ranking U.S. official traveling with Ford said the United States is open-minded and prepared to deal with North Korea if other countries deal with South Korea. But, he said, the reunification of North and South Korea should be left up to the Koreans.

President Park, in a colorful farewell celebration for Ford, ordered sparkling champagne and white candles for the high-ceiling banquet room. But Ford and the other guests dined on traditional Korean dishes of barbequed beef, seaweed and a spicy pickled cabbage called kimchi.

Later, Ford kissed the cheeks of 15 Korean teen-age girls after they sang the University of Michigan marching song at the banquet.

The girls, members of a troupe called "The Little Angels," launched into "Hail to the Victors," the song from Ford's alma mater, after they sang "God Bless America."

Obviously surprised and delighted, Ford laughed, stood up and began to clap in time to the music. President Park, his daughter and many of the other 745 dinner guests did the same.

"It was a great night, a wonderful evening," Ford told Park.

Ford and Kissinger departed at 9:14 a.m. for the flight to Tokyo and a 30-minute stopover there before flying on to meet Soviet party chief Leonid Brezhnev in Vladivostok.

Earlier in the day Ford helicoptered to Camp Casey, the sprawling headquarters of the U.S. Second Division only 12 miles south of Korea's demilitarized zone.

Second Division commander Maj. Gen. Henry K. Emerson introduced Ford to the bone-cracking sport of "combat football," used to keep U.S. infantrymen in combat-ready physical shape.

The game combines the more strenuous points of soccer, rugby, and American football. Ford, a onetime football center from the University of Michigan, called it "wonderful."

Ford watched 40 men line up at one end of a football-sized field and 40 at the other. A referee threw in a black and white checked rugby ball that Ford had signed. Something akin to war broke out. Ford applauded, turned to Emerson, who nodded thanks.

Emerson commanded a battalion in Vietnam. One of its units under Lt. William Carpenter was trapped in the Central Highlands by Communist forces. Carpenter called in napalm on his own position to repulse the enemy. Emerson, a tall, lean, tough soldier earned the nickname "Gunfighter" for leading the force that finally rescued Carpenter and his men.

Emerson told Ford every man in his division marched four miles a day before breakfast with his boots on, including himself. Ford, the old athlete, nodded approvingly. At the end of the game Ford told the GIs, "this is the kind of vigorous spirit that America needs."

Ford was wildly cheered everywhere he went by the troops. He seemed delighted.

Sitting down to a chow line meal of fried chicken and hamburgers served in a temporary mess tent on a paper plate, the President turned to the one woman sitting with him and 13 other men and said, "well, this looks awfully good, dig in."

He asked the female soldier, Catherine Stalnaker of Richmond, Va., "are you a nurse?"

"Yes," she said.

"Do nurses have a one-year tour of duty?" Ford asked her.

"Yes, sir," she replied.

Other GI's sitting nearby were called to pose with the President for pictures. Emerson told the soldiers, "you've got to give him a chance to eat."

But Ford continued talking with the men with much laughter punctuating their conversation.

From somewhere across the tent a voice shouted, "tell those Russians who's No. 1."

Ford then shook hands with the soldiers before his return to Seoul.

At the end of his visit, Ford changed his attire. When he arrived he was wearing a blue topcoat in the freezing weather. But after watching combat football and a taekwondo exhibition the President ended his visit standing up in an open jeep wearing a 2nd Div. red and black knit sweater and lifting his arms in a victory salute.

The jeep moved down a .line of troops. For almost half a mile the President rode giving the victory salute. The troops responded again and again with bursts of cheering and applause.