The Party's Over: Sex, Gender, and Orientalism in the Koreagate Scandal of the 1970s

"Korean Agent or Merely a Hostess?" read a 1977 New York Times headline about Suzi Park Thomson, the Korean-born congressional aide ensnared in the "Koreagate" scandal of 1976-1978. Involving charges of bribery "in a coordinated campaign conducted by a Korean lobby with shadowy links to [President Park Chung Hee's] government," Koreagate, described another paper, "had all the elements for drama": a foreign ally using cash to influence Congress; an "Oriental Gatsby" known for his fancy parties; a "sexy aide" to the House speaker; and corrupt congressmen accepting gifts and favors. Now little more than a footnote in the history US- Korea relations, Koreagate has been overlooked for the ways in which racialized and sexualized anxieties about Asian people shaped this curious episode in the Cold War. Occurring in the shadows of US military entanglements in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, the scandal tapped into Americans' fears about national resolve, foreign meddling, and the influence of treacherous others.