Park Chung Hee was one of the most important leaders of the second half of the twentieth century. The Republic of Korea (ROK) is one of the greatest economic success stories in history, thanks to Park's obsessive pursuit of economic strength. In 2013 his daughter Park Geun-hye was inaugurated as South Korea's first woman president, in a reminder of how important the elder Park remains. Yet probably no significant leader in the post–World War II period is less remarked-upon than Park.
When Park seized power in a 1961 coup he took over a country that was almost unimaginably poor—poorer indeed than most African countries and certainly poorer than North Korea when measured by per-capita income ($80) and natural resources. The fact that South Korea today ranks among the world's fifteen largest economies and is one of the most successful of the newly industrialized economies reflects Park's most important achievement. Park...