instructions from Park to "eliminate" Chang. Four days later, on June 10, the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction Law was enacted, which specified that the Deputy Chairman of the SCNR would be Chairman of its Standing Committee, granting Park additional powers. Finally, on July 3, Chang himself was arrested on a charge of conspiracy to carry out a counter-coup, and the June 10 law was amended to allow Park to assume the office of Chairman both of the SCNR and its Standing Committee. United States response Part of the immediate task of the coup leaders was to secure American approval for their new government. This approval came quickly, as on May 20, President John F. Kennedy dispatched a message to the SCNR confirming the friendship between the two countries. Carter B. Magruder, commander-in-chief of the United Nations Command, simultaneously announced the return to the ROK Army of all rights of operational command. By May 27, the coup leaders were confident in American support and dissolved the martial law they had imposed on the day of the coup. On June 24, American Ambassador Samuel D. Berger arrived in Seoul, and reportedly informed Park that the United States was interested in publicly supporting his government, but required the cessation of "purges and recriminations". Finally, on July 27, Secretary of State Dean Rusk announced the United States' official recognition of the SCNR government at a press conference. State building A significant development occurred soon after the coup with the planning and subsequent establishment of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA). Members of the Military Revolutionary Committee were briefed on May 20 by Kim Jong-pil on the intended functions of this new agency. The KCIA was realized on June 10 with the enactment of Law No. 619, which brought the agency into being under the direction of Kim Jong-pil. The KCIA would be Park's central power base throughout his leadership of South Korea, and it served an important function from the outset, granting Kim and Park the ability to remove Chang from the Council and to initiate a series of wide-ranging purges of civilian institutions. The KCIA was supported in this latter work by the Inspection Committee on Irregularities in the Public Service. The purges of state ministries were escalated by the announcement on July 20 of a policy programme aiming at the forced retirement of almost 41,000 "excess" bureaucrats and the reduction of