SOUTH KOREA: Old Men Forget

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Closing down all schools and bus lines and slapping on a 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew, Song and his men rapidly reimposed order without once shooting to kill. But by the time the last rifle shots died away. 108 students were dead, and Seoul's hospitals were jammed with more than 700 wounded. From Pusan, Kwangju, Taegu and Taejon came news of other riots in which at least 22 more people had died.

A Blast from the Mike. As no amount of oratory could, the students' deaths dramatized the unhappy state to which headstrong old Syngman Rhee had brought his country. U.S. Secretary of State Herter, implicitly reminding Rhee that South Korea owes both its birth and continued existence to the U.S.. sharply deplored Rhee's resort to "repressive measures unsuited to a free democracy." urged him to "take necessary and effective action aimed at . . . preserving the secrecy of the ballot and preventing unfair discrimination against political opponents.''

The same evening U.S. Ambassador Walter McConaughy drove to Rhee's palace through gunfire and blackout to hammer Herter's point home. Unspoken, but clearly recognized by Rhee, was the possibility that unless his government mended its ways, President Eisenhower might not only cancel his recently scheduled trip to Korea but might even re-examine the question of the $200-$300 million in aid that the U.S. gives to South Korea annually.

In Korea itself, Rhee was faced with a nationwide wave of revulsion. Opposition Leader John Chang issued a list of ten demands on Rhee, including the immediate release of all arrested students and nullification of the March 15 elections. When Defense Minister Kim Chung Yul, speaking in the National Assembly, tried to justify the Seoul shootings by accusing the students of ''indescribable violence,'' he was torn bodily away from the microphone by raging members of Chang's Democratic Party.

A Wife's Plea. At first, Rhee took refuge in his prestige as "the father of Korean independence." In a public statement on the riots, he declared plaintively: "It is almost unbelievable that any element of the patriotic Korean people, to whom I have dedicated my life, could act in such a way." In the traditional Oriental manner, all the members of Rhee's Cabinet resigned "for failing in our duty to the nation."

But the time when the Korean public would accept gestures in lieu of performance had passed. Summoned to Rhee's office, six of Korea's most respected statesmen all gave him the same advice: Lee Ki Poong, whose fraudulent election had made him the prime target of popular hatred, must resign as Vice President-elect.