Who they were
The first president of the Republic of Korea. An early independence activist imprisoned from 1899 to 1904, he earned a doctorate from Princeton in 1910 and served as the first president of the Korean Provisional Government in 1919, though he was later removed from that post amid disputes.
What they did
Elected the ROK’s first president in 1948, he led the state through the Korean War and signed the US–ROK Mutual Defense Treaty in 1953. That same year he rejected the armistice terms and unilaterally released anti-communist prisoners of war. His rule grew authoritarian: constitutional amendments extended his tenure, opponents were repressed, and the blatantly rigged election of March 1960 triggered the April Revolution. He resigned on April 26, 1960, and died in exile in Hawaii in 1965.
Legacy
To some he is the founding president and wartime leader; to others, the autocrat ousted by his own people. Both assessments persist today.