My Life, For the Country and its People: President Park Chung Hee

If the Mona Lisa is the resulting masterpiece of Leonardo da Vinci’s passion-driven craziness, South Korea's economic development of today is its counterpart resulting from President Park Chung Hee's passion. Through his 18-year presidency, President Park was in the state of absolute craziness about the country’s economic development for the future generations of the country. President Park, during his tenure in the 1960s and 1970s in South Korea, shows the importance of leadership for national development. The majority of South Koreans think there would be no South Korea today without him. Experiencing severe poverty during the Japanese rule and the Korean War, he was totally determined to build an economically powerful country. I myself who had experienced the era of President Park’s leadership during the 1960s and 70s felt responsible to deliver the true legacy of the late President both for the sake of the South Koreans and for the people in the developing world who may develop their own countries utilizing the labelled “Park’s Development Model”. Global leaders have been interested in learning the President’s development model, such as Deng Shao Ping (China) and Putin (Russia). This book is written mainly for the readers of the general public to understand the origins of today’s South Korean economic development.
“If asked what my lifetime wish is, as a member of this country in which I was born and raised, I will answer that it is to modernize our homeland in our time and build up a wealthy nation like other developed countries.” (President Park at the graduation ceremony of the Graduate School of the Military Academy, 3 August 1964)