Sun Myung Moon, Tong­sun Park, and the Kore­an scan­dal
by Robert B. Boettch­er
1980, Holt, Rine­hart and Win­ston
ISBN 0030445760
402 pages, illus­trat­ed.

Review by A.T. Wood, Leg­isla­tive assis­tant to Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Don­ald Fras­er, Decem­ber 2000

In Gifts of Deceit the late Robert Boettch­er insight­ful­ly and thor­ough­ly doc­u­ments the activ­i­ties and find­ings of the Fras­er Com­mit­tee. This con­gres­sion­al sub­com­mit­tee (through it’s 1978 report) on Inter­na­tion­al Orga­ni­za­tions opened a win­dow on a world in Wash­ing­ton which many would pre­fer to see closed for­ev­er.

The report of this com­mit­tee infor­mal­ly called the “Fras­er Report” exhaus­tive­ly doc­u­ments and details Sun Myung Moon’s role in work­ing to shape Amer­i­can for­eign pol­i­cy. It fur­ther names a whole host of char­ac­ters includ­ing Amer­i­can politi­cians, mil­i­tary lead­ers, Kore­an diplo­mats, for­mer Japan­ese prime min­is­ters, not to men­tion Pres­i­dent Dwight D. Eisen­how­er who wit­ting­ly or unwit­ting­ly wound up act­ing as agents or sur­ro­gates for Sun Myung Moon and his “Uni­fi­ca­tion Church”.

In addi­tion to read­ing like a first rate who dunn’it Boettcher’s book gives the read­er a behind the scenes look at offi­cial Wash­ing­ton which to this day has done noth­ing about the prin­ci­pal find­ings of the Fraz­er Com­mit­tee: name­ly that the Uni­fi­ca­tion Church has engaged in sys­tem­at­ic vio­la­tions of U.S law. Bank­ing and cur­ren­cy laws, secu­ri­ties and exchange com­mis­sion laws, Immi­gra­tion and nat­u­ral­iza­tion laws and char­i­ties fraud laws.

Boettcher’s book is the first book that reveals the glob­al geo-polit­i­cal ambi­tions of the Moon orga­ni­za­tion. It is a must for stu­dents of for­eign rela­tions, stu­dents of destruc­tive cults, and for stu­dents of the U. S. Con­sti­tu­tion par­tic­u­lar­ly those who take an inter­est in the first and the thir­teenth amend­ments.

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Robert B. Boettch­er was staff direc­tor of a Con­gres­sion­al inves­ti­ga­tion of South Kore­an influ­ence-ped­dling in Wash­ing­ton in the 1970’s. He died Thurs­day May 24, 1984, in a fall from the roof of an apart­ment build­ing on Cen­tral Park West, where he lived. He was 44 years old.

From 1971 until 1979, Mr. Boettch­er direct­ed the staff of the House Sub­com­mit­tee on Inter­na­tion­al Orga­ni­za­tions. In that capac­i­ty he was in charge, under Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Don­ald Fras­er, of gath­er­ing evi­dence of a scan­dal in which Tong­sun Park, a South Kore­an mil­lion­aire busi­ness­man, and oth­ers were accused of unlaw­ful­ly seek­ing to influ­ence Amer­i­can polit­i­cal fig­ures in pro­vid­ing mil­i­tary and eco­nom­ic aid to Seoul. Mr. Boettch­er also served as exec­u­tive direc­tor of devel­op­ment and pub­lic rela­tions for the Dance The­ater of Harlem.

THIS BOOK IS OUT OF PRINT. Avail­able com­mer­cial­ly.
Learn more about Robert B. Boettch­er.