Chung Hee Park (1917-1979) was a soldier, revolutionary leader, and president of South Korea from 1963 to 1979. He led the military coup of May 16, 1961, which toppled the Korean Second Republic and President Syngman Rhee.

Pak Chông-hui (who Westernized his name to Chung Hee Park) was born into a poor farming family in a tiny village named Sangmo-ri in Kyôngsang-pukdo, a southeastern province of Korea, on Sept. 30, 1917. The youngest among five sons and two daughters of Pak (Park) Sông-bin, he was shorter and slighter than the other children. Though a loner, he excelled in his work and was recommended by the grammar school to enter a normal school in Taegu, the provincial capital. Normal schools gave inexpensive, terminal, vocational training to bright but poor students, most of whom were satisfied to build a career as grammar school teachers.

Park taught at the grammar school...