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[[preprinted]]
U.S.-Korea Economic Council, Inc.

Chairman
JAMES M. Voss
Caltex Petroleum Corporation

Vice Chairman
CHARLES H. WEAVER
Westinghouse Electric Corporation

President
WILLIAM HENDERSON

Directors
WALTER B. BERZIN
Chemical Bank
EVERITT A. CARTER
Oak Industries
T. J. COOLIDGE, JR.
Back Bay-Orient Enterprises
MARK C. FEER
Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb
J. ROBERT FLUOR
Fluor Corporation
HOUGHTON FREEMAN
American International Underwriters
EDMUND A. GULLION
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
SHERWOOD JOHN HANFT
Bank of New York
FRED L. HARTLEY
Union Oil Company of Califormia
JAMES W. KEAY
Republic National Bank of Dallas
HOWARD H. KEHRL
General Motors Corporation
DAVID M. KENNEDY
Secretary of the Treasury, 1969-1971
JAMES E. LEE
Gulf Oil Corporation
JOHN R. LEVISON
Northwest Orient Airlines
ROBERT W. LUNDEEN
Dow Chemical Company
DAVID C. SCOTT
Allis-Chalmers
FRED J. SENGSTACKE
Coopers & Lybrand
FRANK N. TSE
Bank of America
RICHARD W. WHEELER
Citibank
B. OTTO WHEELEY
Koppers Company

Legal Advisor
MORTON ZUCKERMAN
Dunn & Zuckerman


Suite 2-L
88 MORNINGSIDE DRIVE
NEW YORK, N.Y. 10027
(212) 749-4200
[[/preprinted]]

January 23, 1980

The Honorable Sidney Dillon Ripley
Secretary
The Smithsonian Institution
Washington, D.C. 20560

Dear Secretary Ripley:

Mr. James McK. Symington of your staff has asked me to give you such information as I have on the major gifts given in the recent past by the Korean Traders Association to various American educational institutions.

The Korean Traders Association is a private membership association made up of approximately 2,200 Korean companies.  It is supported by the dues of its members, and by a levy of 0.045 percent imposed on most commodity imports.  (In 1979, Korean imports equalled approximately $18 billion.)  KTA has very close connections with the Korean government, and we would probably describe it as a quai-official organization.  Its officers server on various government advisory committees, and additionally KTA has responsibility for issuing foreign trader licenses to Korean companies on behalf of the government.

While I have not been involved in the process in any way, it is my understanding that KTA has made major gifts (in the range of $500,000 to $1 million) in the past few years to Harvard University, Columbia University, and the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies. I have also heard that KTA has made a similar gift to a university in Toronto, Canada; and that they were instrumental in helping the Asia Society in New York to secure a large gift from the Korean business community for their new building.

I am sorry that I do not have the full details, and I hope that this meager information may prove helpful.  With all good wishes.

Sincerely yours,

[[signature]] William Henderson [[/signature]]
William Henderson
President