Japan controlled Peking starting in 1937, and after the Pearl Harbor attack Gleysteen and his family were eventually sent to an internment camp in Wei Xian, Shandong.

[4] Gleysteen joined the State Department's Civil Service in 1951 as a clerk typist in the Executive Secretariat, during the time of Secretaries Dean Acheson and John Foster Dulles.

[4][6] Gleysteen subsequently served in Taiwan (twice), Japan, British Hong Kong, and South Korea, along with several assignments in Washington, DC.

Then-governor Carter had criticized South Korea's human rights record during his presidential campaign, and after assuming the presidency in January 1977, he directed that plans for a full withdrawal be drawn up.

[9] Although the United States generally earned plaudits among South Koreans for its consistent criticism of political repression in the Park and Chun eras, Gleysteen said that those positive emotions were “muffled for many years by emotions and misinformation that mushroomed after the Gwangju Uprising in the spring of 1980.”[10] In his memoirs, Gleysteen said the Gwangju Uprising took place in the context of the long-running democratization movement as well as regional rivalry between the Jeolla Province and Park Chung-hee's native Gyeongsang Province.

[11] The proximate cause of the incident was a renewed and extended nationwide state of martial law declared by Chun, along with the arrest of democratization leaders, including Jeolla native Kim Dae-jung.

[11] During the uprising but before the outbreak of serious violence, Gleysteen met with General Chun to urge restraint with regard to the student protests, and received multiple assurances that the South Korean government was "very aware of the danger of over reaction and the use of military force," and that "the president was determined to go to great lengths to avoid using the army except as an instrument of last resort".

[12][13] President Choi made a speech in June expressing regret for the violent turn of events, but he did not offer an apology, although Gleysteen said that he had encouraged him to do so.