''Gifts of Deceit: Sun Myung Moon, Tongsun Park, and the Korean Scandal'' is a 1980

non-fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with b ...

book on Koreagate and the Fraser Committee, a congressional subcommittee which investigated South Korean influence in the United States by the

KCIA The National Intelligence Service (NIS; Korean language, Korean: 국가정보원, 국정원) is the chief intelligence agency of South Korea. The agency was officially established in 1961 as the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA; Korea ...

and the

Unification movement The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, widely known as the Unification Church, is a new religious movement, whose members are called Unificationists, or "Moonies". It was officially founded on 1 May 1954 under the name Holy Spi ...

, written by Robert Boettcher, with Gordon L. Freedman. Freedman had served on the

U.S. Senate Watergate Committee The Senate Watergate Committee, known officially as the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, was a special committee established by the United States Senate, , in 1973, to investigate the Watergate scandal, with the power to inve ...

staff and had been a producer for ABC News 20/20 prior to his service on the subcommittee.

About the author

Boettcher graduated with an

M.S. A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

international relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such a ...

from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

and served as a

United States Foreign Service The United States Foreign Service is the primary personnel system used by the diplomatic service of the United States federal government, under the aegis of the United States Department of State. It consists of over 13,000 professionals carry ...

officer. Boettcher later was the staff director to the House Subcommittee on International Relations, which headed an investigation into Tongsun Park, Sun Myung Moon and the

. The subcommittee was chaired by Congressman Donald M. Fraser. Boettcher died in a fall in 1984.

Cited by secondary works

Boettcher's work is cited extensively in Farrell's ''Tip O'Neill and the Democratic Century''. The book itself was noted in United States Congressional investigations on "The Cult Phenomenon in the United States", in 1979. ''Gifts of Deceit'' is also cited in Breen's ''The Koreans: Who They Are, What They Want, Where Their Future Lies'', Anderson's ''Inside the League'', and is recommended reading by Olsen's ''Korea, the Divided Nation'' and Kim's ''Dictionary of Asian-American History''. In addition to

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

books, ''Gifts of Deceit'' is cited in books which analyze

new religious movement A new religious movement (NRM), also known as alternative spirituality or a new religion, is a religious or spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin or th ...

s, including '' Another Gospel'', ''The Future of New Religious Movements'', ''Crime, Values, and Religion'', ''Spiritual Warfare'', and more recently in Jenkins' ''Mystics and Messiahs'', in 2000.

Reception

In his work, ''The Ethics of Citizenship'',

James Stockdale James Bond "Jim" Stockdale (December 23, 1923 – July 5, 2005) was a United States Navy vice admiral and aviator, awarded the Medal of Honor in the Vietnam War, during which he was a prisoner of war for over seven years. Stockdale was the mos ...

recommends ''Gifts of Deceit'' and states that it is "very revealing", and deals with the "questionable conduct." ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...

'' called it a "most complete account." ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' reviewed the work, but stated that portions of the Koreagate Scandal may have been due to media hype.

About the author

Cited by secondary works

Reception

References

See also