History of Tae Kwon Do in North America

My plan is to write a book on the history of Tae Kwon Do in north America. My thoughts & understandings of it will be here:

 

It will be a history of how Tae Kwon Do came to North America, state by state & the

provinces of Canada. My basic thesis will be along the lines of: each region originally got the version of TKD it did given which unique Korean master settled where in North America.

In the United States one can find the original Tae Kwon do — brought over from Korea in the 1960s and especially by the 1970s — as either original or sine-wave technique and, of course, the newer WTF sport-version of Tae Kwon Do. Tae Kwon Do became popular in the U.S. in part because of the Vietnam War during which South Korean units practiced TKD and taught it to others, a fact that was widely reported in U.S. newspapers (see the bottom of this webpage for examples). This is similar to how Japanese karate became popular in the U.S. following World War II. As Tae Kwon Do diffused to North America, different variations of it landed in different regions of the continent. They then continued where they landed and evolved in unique ways depending on which Tae Kwon Do expert traveled where to start a school.

Southwest:

In 1956, for example, 3rd dan black belt Jhoon Rhee visited Texas and then ultimately moved to San Marcos, TX, by 1958 to attend university. In Korea, he had studied Tang Soo Do in the Chung Do Kwan under Lee Won-Kuk (page 4 this link). Rhee taught Tang Soo Do first at the Air Force Base in San Marcos, simply calling it “karate” because that term was known among Americans. The Korean names were alien to American ears. When Tae Kwon Do solidified into being years after it was named, Rhee reconfigured his style to that name and its forms. Rhee then transferred in 1960 to the University of Texas, Austin, where he continued to teach martial arts. During the summer of 1962 between semesters, Rhee took jobs in Washington, D.C., where he started teaching TKD and very successfully. He ultimately dropped out of college and moved to Washington, D.C., to teach Tae Kwon Do full time, but one of his students in Austin, Allen Steen, began setting up schools in Texas (Yates 2008, 15; Black Belt Magazine July 1970). Another of Rhee’s students, Pat Burleson, was exposed to karate in East Asia before focusing on Tae Kwon Do with Rhee in Texas and taking a black belt shortly after Steen. Tae Kwon Do in Texas largely, or originally, descended from the Rhee-Steen-Burleson line. A network of Tae Kwon Do schools spread across the southwest through Steen and Burleson to Keith Yates today, but given this lineage they had as part of them a significant influence of karate techniques, forms at the black belt level (from Tang Soo Do), and traditional Okinawan weapons in their version of Korean Tae Kwon Do.

Colorado:

Tae Kwon Do in Colorado, in one branch, can be traced to Charles E. Sereff who started learning Moo Duk Kwan style Tang Soo Do in 1961 under Charles Thompson. Sereff received his black belt in 1963 and opened his own school. Thompson had an Air Force career & was transferred, so Sereff went to Detroit to study under Sang Kyu Shim, his first Korean instructor & tough martial artist. Shim promoted him to 2nd dan. Shim introduced Sereff to 6th dan Tae Kwon Do Master Moon-Ku Baek who was in Korea. In 1964-65 Sereff brought Baek to Denver, Colorado, to help him teach & to learn from him. Master Baek had taught U.S. soldiers Tae Kwon Do in Korea. Baek’s arrival introduced Sereff to both General Choi and Tae Kwon Do, the style to which he transitioned. Sereff said “Mr. Baek … taught me how to teach.” Sereff said Baek varied his classes, & wanted well-rounded students in Hapkido and Tae Kwon Do. Sereff studied under Baek for 6 years until promoted to 4th dan master (TKD Times, 3-15-85). Sereff also established Tae Kwon Do clubs at the Air Force Academy and the Denver YMCA and other locations in Colorado and Wyoming. In 1974, with General Choi, Sereff founded the United States Tae Kwon Do Federation which grew across the country and internationally.

Sereff also brought Bobby Kim to Denver. Kim was from Seoul, South Korea, where he learned Mood Duk Kwan style Tang Soo Do in the years after the Korean War. He taught martial arts to the 7th Infantry Division to help pay for college, graduating in 1968. In 1969 he traveled to Orlando then Washington, D.C., settling in the capitol where his sister was located. He taught Tae Kwon Do and met Bruce Lee there; Kim would soon get into movies. Since 1975 Bobby Kim would star in 19 movies. Kim then traveled by car to Denver with Sereff who had recruited him to come & teach TKD. He became fast friends with Master Baek and Master Kang.

 

Moon Ku Baek brought his student from South Korea, Shin Duk Kang to Denver (see also the Pittsburgh section). Kang studied engineering at the University of Colorado and founded a Tae Kwon Do club at the university. He also helped to teach Tae Kwon Do at the Air Force Academy with Baek & Sereff (Bobby Kim did, too). Kang also opened his first school in Denver in 1969, then moved on to Pittsburgh in 1971 after graduation from university. Moon Ku Baek moved to Cleveland in 1968 to teach Tae Kwon Do. Kim stayed in Denver and had his own school, called in 1984 Bobby Kim College of Tae Kwon Do in Lakewood (TKD Times, Sept ’84).

 

 

 

Washington, D.C.:

Rhee then started teaching Tae Kwon Do in the Washington, D.C., region in a school dubbed the Jhoon Rhee Institute of Tae Kwon Do. He set up various schools, advocated for Tae Kwon Do, taught Tae Kwon Do to politicians, and published books on the new Tae Kwon Do patterns. He became known as the father of American Tae Kwon Do. His style, which was more in line with General Choi’s ITF Tae Kwon Do came to dominate in the D.C. area and elsewhere in the country but also the world (unlike how what he started in the Southwest evolved). He stood firmly opposed to sport Tae Kwon Do (WTF). Rhee also knew Bruce Lee, indeed starring as a Japanese fighter in Fist of Fury (1972). He reputedly taught Bruce Lee how to execute powerful side kicks — a Tae Kwon Do thing — which he always displayed in his films.

One of Rhee’s students, John Chung, became a tournament champ in both sparring & forms in 1981. He opened a school in Leesburg, VA.

 

 

Toronto, Canada+:

General Choi, as previously noted, left South Korea and set up his ITF in Toronto, Canada. There he began teaching Tae Kwon Do with C.K. Choi. He also had been working to spread Tae Kwon Do internationally through active demonstrations and recruitment. This led to a multitude of ITF-style Tae Kwon Do schools spreading across the U.S. and internationally, descending from his lineage (that is, from his Oh Do Kwan in Korea).

 

 

 

 

Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh:

Martial arts were first taught in Pittsburgh, it appears, in the early 1960s. The art was Okinawan karate, Isshinryu style. William H. Duessel, who at 17 years old joined the Marine Corps at the end of World War II, became fascinated with martial arts during his military service. He started with jujitsu in 1957 but switched to karate (pgh press, 1991). Dussel studied under Tatsuo Shimabuku, founder of modern Isshinryu. In 1962, Dussel opened a karate school in the Allegheny YMCA. He helped to launch the first karate tournament in Pittsburgh in 1963. He then taught at the Academy of Oriental Defence with K.H. Kim, Glen Premru, & Joe Pennywell in the late 1960s. By 1970 he opened his Academy of Isshinryu Karate which he ran until 1979 when students trailed off. Thereafter he taught at a downtown YMCA (pgh press, 1988). Chuck Wallace started learning karate under Duessel in 1964, & thereafter taught with him as co-founder of the Isshinryu Academy (pgh press, 1991).

 

In 1991 Duessel was promoted to 9th dan master, and Wallace was 7th dan. By the time of Duessel’s death in 2014 at 87, he was a 10th dan grand master.

 

The first Tae Kwon Do school in Pittsburgh appears to have been started by Kyu-Ha Kim on Saw Mill Run Blvd. Kim came to the U.S., to Texas, in 1961 and soon moved to Pittsburgh teaching judo at the Pittsburgh School of Judo & then at a Jewish Y. He opened his own school in 1964 (ppg, 1980). In 1980 Kim was a 5th dan in Tae Kwon Do (of the Hwang Kee line) & a 7th dan in Yudo (Korean for Judo). He taught both TKD, Judo, & Hapkido, but focused primarily on his specialty, judo (pghp, 1980). By 1989 Kim was a 7th dan in both arts, by which time he ran Kim’s Martial Arts & Fitness. He died in 2021.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Pittsburgh region is a good case study in the diffusion of Tae Kwon Do styles to the United States. Besides judo master Kim, there were two major Tae Kwon Do influences in the Pittsburgh region. One stemmed from the original Korean Moo Duk Kwan (founded by Hwang Kee in 1945) and the other through General Choi’s lineage. Master Shin Duk Kang opened his first Tae Kwon Do school in Pittsburgh in a YWCA in 1972, quickly followed by his own standard school the same year. Kang had studied under Master Moon-Ku Baek who had studied under Hwang Kee (who studied under Lee Won-Kuk like the others). While Master Kee resisted unification with Tae Kwon Do & decided to stick with Moo Duk Kwan, his top student, Master Baek, joined with Tae Kwon Do. His student, Kang, then taught Tae Kwon Do, as well. Baek also had two younger brothers who practiced Tae Kwon Do, Hong-Ku and Man-Ku Baek.

By 1972 Kang was a 4th dan black belt in Tae Kwon Do; Kang also held a 2nd dan black belt in Korean Hapkido. Over time he opened a variety of Tae Kwon Do schools across the Pittsburgh region called Kang’s Black Belt Academy.

 

Some of Kang’s students would manage some of these schools at different times, each rotating in teaching at the various schools. Some would also seek their own paths and found their own schools. But Kang-Baek-Kee always remained the firm roots to the tree.

Frank DiMatteo is one of these and was Master Kang’s top student & Tae Kwon Do heir in Pittsburgh. Very athletic, DiMatteo was an avid boxer since 8th grade & a football player at Juniata College in Pennsylvania. He started learning Moo Duk Kwan style Tang Soo Do in college under Jae Su Kim, a 3rd dan black belt, with whom he took his black belt. DiMatteo then taught martial arts after college, such as at the Wilmerding YMCA in 1970. By mid-1971 in Pittsburgh DiMatteo met Master Kang & transition into Tae Kwon Do. When Master Kang left Pittsburgh in 1982-83, DiMatteo continued operating the Kang’s Black Belt Academies. Grand Master Kang continually promoted DiMatteo through the master ranks. He is currently 9th dan grand master, and maintains the Tae Kwon Do tradition started by Grand Master Kang.

 

Carl Alvin was also a student of Master Kang, learning martial arts later in life. He helped to teach in Kang’s Black Belt Academies, even at one point running one in Zelienople, PA, north of Pittsburgh.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An ambitious person, striving for personal prominence & causing resentments, he left Kang’s for a time with a personal desire to learn more. Master Kang told him: “You’ll be back.” He joined Young Brother’s Tae Kwon Do in Pittsburgh, but only got along with one of the two Young brothers. Alvin indeed returned to Kang’s. In or around 1979 he continued with his efforts to learn more, this time in a long-distance manner from Master Aaron Banks‘ school in New York City (but not personally from Banks himself). Banks was an avid martial arts promotor and operated the New York Karate Academy there since 1962 (see video). It offered via different instructors various martial arts, including kung fu, Moo Duk Kwan, Japanese & Okinawan Karate, judo, and boxing. The school closed in 1997, but Banks returned to teaching at another New York school.

Master Alvin traveled to New York every three months to practice, and every so many years he traveled there to test for master ranks. He opened his own school, meanwhile, in Evans City; then finally in Beaver Falls as Tae Kwon Do Black Belt Studio. In 1981 Alvin was a 3rd dan [from whom?], and by 1982 he was a 4th dan in Tae Kwon Do &, according to the Beaver County Times, a 5th dan in Okinawan karate (presumable from the New York Karate Academy). He stuck with teaching Tae Kwon Do at his school with a charter from the World Professional Karate Organization (WPKO, Banks’ org), but his school roots were with Kang. The school lasted until 2000 when it closed. Master Alvin had became sick (he died in 2002). He reached 8th dan master rank.

 

Pat Meredith (WinterHawk) was also a student at Kang’s Black Belt Academy learning from Kang, as president of the school, and DiMatteo as chief instructor. He took his temporary black belt (some schools do this) in December 1983 when Kang’s was part of the United Tae Kwon Do Federation. Meredith became permanent 1st dan in June 1985 (Kang’s was then part of the World Martial Arts Association). Two years later, in 1987, Meredith earned his 2nd dan under DiMatteo at Kang’s Black Belt Academy. After this, with a desire to branch out on his own, Meredith left Kang’s to open his own school, called the American Karate Academy in Penn Hills. He still teaches today, but his school is now dubbed Hawk Martial Arts, northeast of Pittsburgh.

At a tournament, Meredith then met Master Bruce Cummings — who took his 1st dan in Tae Kwon Do under General Choi. He continued studying TKD under Master Cummings, earning his 3rd dan by March 1989. Meredith in 1992 earned his 4th dan (master rank) under Master John Barton via King Cobra Karate Club. His test was held during a martial arts tournament. He took his 5th dan in 1997 via the United States Karate Alliance led by James Hawkes (9th dan) & David Jordan (8th dan). His 6th dan came in 1999 with Master Barton, and his 7th in 2003 with Grand Master Hawkes again. Meredith took his 8th dan via the United States Association of Martial Artists (new name for the U.S. Karate Alliance) with Master Frank Caliguri & Sue Hawkes (James Hawkes had died & Jordan had moved on).

Master Pat Meredith’s (WinterHawk) son has continued the family tradition opening his own school in Penn Hills (adjacent to Pittsburgh) circa 2014-15, called Warriors of American Tae Kwon Do. There, his son also earned his junior black belt in December 2023, almost exactly 40 years to the day his grandfather achieved that rank.

 

A Kang’s school was even established in Israel.

The other major Tae Kwon Do influence in the Pittsburgh region stemmed from General Choi’s Oh Do Kwan and ITF-Tae Kwon Do through the Young brothers — Young Il-Kong and Young Bo-Kong. They first opened a school in 1968 outside of Philadelphia in Pottstown before relocating by 1974 to Pittsburgh. Bo-Kong participated in General Choi’s international Tae Kwon Do demonstration team that traveled the globe. Bo-Kong first earned a black belt as a teenager in Shotokan Karate then became a student and protégé of General Choi’s Tae Kwon Do. Both brothers became Tae Kwon Do tournament champions. They opened a string of Young Brothers Tae Kwon Do schools in the Pittsburgh region.

Pittsburgh is also home to a franchise of Tang Soo Do schools, the C.S. Kim Karate schools.  A student of Grand Master Jae-Chul Shin, Master C. S. Kim arrived in the U.S. in 1972 to Philadelphia. He moved to Pittsburgh in 1974 & over time opened a string of Tang Soo Do schools and belonged to the International Tang Soo Do Federation.

 

Maryland:

The Kang influence soon extended to Maryland by way of his student DiMatteo. In the 1970s and 1980s Mark Malakoff studied Tae Kwon Do under DiMatteo before moving to Maryland in the late 1980s where he helped opened a chain of Kang’s Black Belt Academies in Montgomery County.

Another Rhee-descended school was opened in Frostburg, Maryland, in 1979. It was named the Western Masters Karate System, founded by Fifth Degree Black Belt Master Dane Harden. It was renamed Kick Masters Karate by 4th degree black belt Ronald W. Burner. It was purchased by Rick Rando in 2001/2005, a product of the same school. At this point Kick Masters melded aspects of Japanese karate (at least in terminology, using “sensei” & “kata”) with traditional Tae Kwon Do perhaps a reflection of the early TKD era when most Americans recognized “karate” but not TKD, and so schools often used that terminology. It also altered some of the traditional forms, a not unusual occurrence with the diffusion of marital arts.

 

New York:

Duk-Sung Son, who took over the Chung Do Kwan during the 1950s from Lee Won-Kuk, participated in the efforts to try to unify Korean martial arts in the 1950s. As head of the Chung Do Kwon, Son awarded General Choi an honorary 4th Dan (Gillis, 51) in hopes of spreading his art via the Korean military. Son and Choi were what we would call today frenemies but their goals were basically aligned. After disagreements over the direction of martial arts in Korea & what to name it — Son didn’t go with “Tae Kwon Do” and as head of the Chung Do Kwon stuck with Tang Soo Do — moved to the U.S. in April 1963 to teach “Korean karate” in New York City. He brought a number of his Chung Do Kwan students to the U.S. to help spread the art. He further founded in the U.S. the Word Tae Kwon Do Association (named that by 1966 suggesting he reconfigured to TKD but with Tang Soo Do bent), but not affiliated with the WTF or Choi’s ITF. In 1973, based in NY, he was the only 9th Dan grand master in Tae Kwon Do.

Also in the New York City region T. Kang Tae Kwon Do today is the largest & oldest group of Tae Kwon Do schools there. It is run by Grandmaster Tae Sun Kang, 9th Dan Black Belt who started learning TKD in 1967 from his father, Great Grandmaster Suh Chong Kang, 10th Dan Black Belt and founder of Kuk Mu Kwan Taekwondo (1963). Great Grandmaster Kang started learning martial arts in 1938 in Korea under Great Grandmaster Lee Won-Kuk (see page 4 in the link) of the Chung Do Kwan. The New York school was founded in 1969 as the New York Taekwondo Academy by Great Grandmaster Kang. See video here.

 

West Virginia:

Another Kang, Sok Ho Kang, beginning in 1970 started a string of Tae Kwon Do schools in West Virginia. From Seoul, South Korea, Kang started learning martial arts in 1954 via the Hwang Kee line of Moo Duk Kwan. He was a tournament champion during the 1960s in Bangkok, Tokyo, and Manila. A 6th Dan black belt by 1970, he became 7th Dan in 1973. He attended the University of Seoul, taught TKD at the Korean Police Academy and to the U.S. 8th Army and was a body guard at the Korean Blue House (the old presidential residence). He started a school in Beckley, WV, after teaching TKD in California.

Kang opened schools in Beckley, Huntington, and Charleston. In 1973 and again in 1974 he was noted for reputedly having the youngest black belt in the country, first with E.J. Bartolaza (8 yrs old) then Matt Hodges (4 yrs old and appeared on the Mike Douglas Show [1961-81]).

 

Kentucky:

Master Sok Ho Kang of West Virginia also apparently opened in the 1970s a school just across the border in Ashland, Kentucky. The rest of the state has a varied and complicated Tae Kwon Do history.

One of 9th Dan Grand Master Duk-Sung Son‘s students was 5th Dan Master Nak-Young Chung who came to Louisville in 1968 and opened several TKD schools, including in a YMCA, & by 1973 had opened four schools, including one in Evansville, Indiana. In 1978 Master Chung and Master Son invited Young Sik Choi, another student, to Louisville to teach Tae Kwon do. Choi started learning Tae Kwon Do in the Chung Do Kwan in 1958. He became a successful TKD competitor, winning various medals. Choi in 1996, as a 7th Dan, founded the Traditional Tae Kwon Do Chung Do Kwan Association (TTCA). The reason for it was “to get back to traditional tae kwon do training and values as it was in the original Chung Do Kwan.” As such, his version of TKD is more in line with Tang Soo Do, although there are fine differences. In 2004 Choi became a 9th degree grand master. He retired in 2022 and taking over the TTCA was Tom Crecelius who learned TKD in Indiana, the military, and from Masters Son & Choi after 1977 who continually promoted him through the black belt ranks. He opened his own school in 1980.

 

Master Chai Soo-Jin began studying karate as a child in Okinawa. In 1973 he created the Ikko Ryu style. During the 1970s he opened a martial arts school in Owensboro that over time taught a mix of martial arts including Tae Kwon Do (WTF), karate, ju-jitsu, aikido, & kung fu. Other schools in KY followed, such as in Murray and Paducah. He was a U.S. Olympic team assistant coach and by 2000 he was a 9th Dan grand master.

 

In 1972 Master Young-Sun Kang moved from Korea to the U.S. He opened a small Tae Kwon Do school in Louisville in 1976. Over time he opened several schools and by 1988 was an 7th Dan master. In 1982 he started the American Martial Arts Association that had by the late ’80s some 200 members. He was also president of the United States Tae Kwon Do Alliance. In 1987 one of his students, Norman Moxley, opened his own school in Louisville’s West End. Master Kang returned to Korea in 1995.

 

In 1984 Master Ji Young Song opened a WTF Tae Kwon Do school in Lexington, Kentucky with a special focus on Olympic-style competition. By 1996 Master Song was in Davie, Florida.

In 1993 Master Jung-Oh Hwang came to the U.S. for the L.A. Olympic Games in 1984 and won for South Korea a silver medal in Judo. He had taken a black belt in TKD as a boy but also developed an interest in Judo, called Yudo in Korea. He returned to the University of Tennessee, Martin, for college in 1987 but found no place to train martial arts. He started teaching martial arts at the university. He opened his first school in 1991 and an Olympic style Tae Kwon Do & Judo (plus hapkido) school in Paducah in 1993 called Hwang’s Martial Arts Academy. Ray Watkins ran the Martin school thereafter. Grand Master Hwang has 3 Hwang academies in Louisville today.

 

Kentucky, like every other place, also had smaller Tae Kwon Do schools. A typical place to find these were in YMCAs or YWCAs, as well as other venues that rent to those unable or unwilling to foot overhead costs. Often, future store-front schools are started in this manner to build up a clientele.

Kentucky is known for having perhaps the youngest Tae Kwon Do school instructor, 13-year-old middle schooler Matthew Quinn, who taught in Stanford, KY, out of space in a laundromat and old general store. He took a black belt in Danville. By 16 he was a 3rd Dan black belt teaching TKD in the county community educational program

 

In the year 2000, Kentucky even boasted the “sexiest bachelor” Tae Kwon Do master instructor in the form of 25 year-old Sean Ramey. A black belt since age 11, he competed in multiple tournaments as well as the 1992 & 2000 Olympic trials. He started in 1998 the Kentucky Tae Kwon Do & Fitness Academy. Currently a 7th Dan master, Ramey is also an actor.

 

Kentucky also saw a Tae Kwon Do record breaker.

In 1990, 17-year old Brandon Sieg — 1st Dan black belt of the Ohio Valley Tae Kwon Do Studio — broke a Guinness World Record by executing 12,504 kicks in 4 hours. “The first thousand were the hardest,” he commented. Tom Crecelius was his teacher.

 

 

 

 

Nebraska & ATA:

During 1969 in Omaha, Nebraska, Haeng Ung Lee founded the American Tae Kwon Do Association. It seems unclear from whom Lee first learned martial arts in Korea, but presumably it would have been the style Tang Soo Do. Supposedly Lee met General Choi in 1968 and learned Choi’s new forms in less than a week then implemented them. This meeting led Lee down the path of developing in the U.S. a new version of Tae Kwon Do. By 1983 he finalized his own philosophy/style of Tae Kwon Do, a style now headquartered in Arkansas, called Songahm Tae Kwon Do which focuses more on kicking techniques. As they describe it themselves, their Tae Kwon Do style “differs from the traditional styles of taekwondo in that it more clearly reflects the strength and beauty of athleticism and kicking techniques.” There are many ATA Tae Kwon Do schools across the U.S. With some 950 schools, ATA Tae Kwon Do perhaps dominates today.

 

In 1984 Dale Craig, of ATA Tae Kwon Do, broke over 10,000 one-inch boards in a 24-hour period to raise money for multiple sclerosis. He is a master TKD instructor today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Remaining States in Progress….]

 

 

Whereas in South Korea today they have all but eliminated the original Tae Kwon Do style, North Korea still embraces it perhaps indirectly exacerbating political factionalism in this martial art. Irrespective of domestic Korean evolutions of Tae Kwon Do, the art diffused from Korea to countries around the world. In the U.S., as elsewhere, it continues. In typically American fashion, however, it has evolved on its own here as well.  In a more standard or run-of-the-mill American Tae Kwon Do school, usually stemming from ITF Tae Kwon Do, one will usually find a version of Tae Kwon Do influenced differently in any number of ways. Commonly the self-defense that is taught in an American Tae Kwon Do school comes from Korean Hapkido — the Korean version of Japanese Aikijiujutsu — the self-defense based martial art involving grappling and body manipulation. (See the guy in the previous linked Hapkido video in Bruce Lee’s last movie.) Other American Tae Kwon Do schools also willingly borrow techniques from other martial arts, mixing in, for instance, more traditional Japanese karate techniques back into Tae Kwon Do. That merging of arts wouldn’t so blatantly (or at least openly) happen in Korea (or Japan) where culturally one would be expected to stick with one style and one master. It is apt, therefore, to refer broadly to Tae Kwon Do in the U.S. as American Tae Kwon Do — something itself unique.

 

Book & Academic Sources:

Alex Gillis, A Killing Art: The Untold Story of Tae Kwon Do (Tornonto: ECW Press, 2016).

Kieth D. Yates, The Complete Guide to American Karate & Tae Kwon Do (Berkeley: Blue Snake Books, 2008).

Helena Hanhikangas, Korean Politics vs Taekwon-Do, 1966-2002 (MA thesis: University of Turku, Finland, 2023).

 

 

Click on the newspaper clippings below to zoom in:

 

Here is the earliest reference to martial arts in the US that I found. NYTs, October 1900:

 

The earliest (racist) reference to “karate” I found in a local U.S. newspaper: Streator, Illinois, Daily Times Press, Oct 11, 1948.

 

Earliest reference to a karate demonstration: Jan 6, 1954, Spokane, Washington:

Earliest reference to a local karate competition: Jan 3, 1956, Amarillo, TX.

 

Earliest reference I found to martial arts (judo/karate) being taught in the U.S. (via a military man): Jan 2, 1959 from a local paper in Massillon, OH.

 

Earliest reference I found to a karate demonstration in the NYTs, Nov 24, 1962.

 

Earliest reference I found to Tae Kwon Do being referenced in a newspaper: October 9, 1963 (Lake Charles, LA, American Press).

 

Earliest reference to Tae Kwon Do being associated with South Korean forces sent to Vietnam, April 30, 1965 (Columbus Indiana Evening Republican).

 

Local newspaper references Korean troops in Vietnam practicing Tae Kwon Do (1966):

 

Kansas City Star reference to Korean troops using TKD in the Vietnam War (1966):

 

Honolulu newspaper reference in 1967 to Korean troops and TKD:

 

There seem to be a lot of newspaper references to Tae Kwon Do in the Vietnam War. Like World War II helped to popularize Japanese karate in the U.S., the Vietnam War did the same with Tae Kwon Do (1966):

 

President Lyndon Johnson watches a Tae Kwon Do demo in South Korea, NYTs 1966.

A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article from November 1966 on LBJ’s seeing the TKD demonstration in Korea. The article gets TKD history wrong: TKD is not 12 centuries old.

 

Earliest newspaper reference I found about Tae Kwon Do being taught locally, El Paso, Texas, October 1, 1967. Note the reference to “Chung Do Kwan” in the article — so this version of TKD is stemming from Tang Soo Do, which is, as I understand it, how TKD developed in the Southwest of the U.S.

 

Advertisements about learning Tae Kwon Do seem to start appearing in 1967, including in Canada by 1968.

 

Reflecting the cultural popularity of Tae Kwon Do in the U.S., here is a hat advertisement using TKD. San Francisco, March 21, 1968.

 

A New York Times reference to South Koreans leaving Vietnam in November 1972 and a strange reference to Tae Kwon Do.

An article on the South Korean Tiger Division & Tae Kwon Do in the Vietnam War.

Learning TKD in Vietnam. I see the form To San Hyung, and other techniques, too.