The scene of international relations and the peculiarities of the southeast Asian regional system also factors in here, and accounts centered on these geopolitical facts have attracted increasing empirical support. Throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s, Korea benefited from a special relationship with the United States. This relationship was predicated on the geopolitical assumptions of American policy-makers, who saw South Korea as an important arena for Cold War confrontation with the Soviet Union. American strategic interests in Korea allowed it to enjoy hefty economic benefits in terms of aid, trade, capital, and technology from the U.S.