Robert Brewster
 Robert Brewster  ( spook) | |
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| Born | 1927 |
| Died | 11 August 1981 (Age 53) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
Cause of death |  cancer |
| Nationality | US |
| Alma mater | • Loyola University • Kent College of Law |
CIA spook who was Chief of Station in South Korea during the 1979 assassination of President Park and following coups.
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Robert Brewster was a CIA spook who was Chief of Station in South Korea during the 1979 assassination of President Park and following coups.
Contents
Education
He was a native of Chicago and a 1948 graduate of Loyola University there. In 1952, he took a law degree from Kent College of Law in Chicago. Brewster served in the Army Air Forces in Europe during World War II.[1]
Career
During his 27-year career with the CIA, Brewster worked in posts in East Asia for 15 years.
Brewster, an attorney, appears to have been recruited from the Illinois bar, which he left in 1953 to commence four years of training under cover as an "analyst" for the Department of the Army. His subsequent diplomatic postings included the Chiang Mai, Thailand Consulate from 1957 to 1959; the Bangkok, Thailand Embassy from 1959 to 1962; the Jakarta, Indonesia Embassy from 1965 to 1967; and the Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Embassy from 1971 to 1973.[2]
He also was a branch chief at CIA headquarters and supervisor of a large training program for senior officers.[1]
Korean coups
Kim Jae-gyu, the then director of the KCIA had frequent meetings with Brewster, CIA chief in Seoul, and other American diplomats, before he assassinated President Park Chung-hee on 26 October, 1979.[3]
General Chun Doo-hwan usurped power after the assassination of Park, who was himself a military dictator who had ruled since 1961. Chun orchestrated the 12 December 1979 military coup, then cemented his military in the 17 May 1980 military coup in which he declared martial law.
Brewster's ties with Chun Doo-hwan appears to have long predated the 12.12 coup, although many of his cables to Langley remain classified. Brewster often told General John A. Wickham Jr., the US Army general that had operational control of the entire South Korean military, that Chun was "the only horse in town" and that the United States would need to work with him "even if at arm's length."[4]
References
- ↑ a b https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1981/08/13/robert-george-brewster-54-retired-from-service-at-cia/42b16226-f991-47c0-9707-567769fdab81/
- ↑ Covert Action Information Bulletin number 10, August-September 1980, page 55
- ↑ http://www.newdaily.co.kr/news/article.html?no=68380
- ↑ https://jacobin.com/2024/04/us-south-korea-1979-coup
