Korean's Contribution to Vietnam War

Korean's Contribution to Vietnam War

The contemporary features of the Republic of Korea were forged in its most formative years in the anvil of war, financed by Americans, in the jungles of Vietnam. Adjusted for population, a greater number of Koreans fought in the Vietnam War as their American counterparts. 312,853 Koreans were dispatched as combatants and another 100,000 Koreans resided in Vietnam during the war involved in various civilian enterprises. 4,687 Koreans died in that war according to the Korean Ministry of Defense. But no official casualty figures including the total number of Koreans missing and wounded have ever been released.

Park Chung Hee was eager to send Korean troops to Southeast Asia in the 1960s, as his predecessor Syngman Rhee had been in the 1950s. South Koreans were deployed in exchange for tens of billions of dollars in grants, loans, subsidies, technology transfers, and preferential markets, all provided by the Johnson and Nixon administrations. Contrary to American interests, Park vigorously campaigned for prolongation and wider escalation at crucial junctures of the Vietnam War.

South Korea ultimately emerged from the war as a rich nation with a strong army. But a decade of unsurpassed economic growth was not the only legacy of Korean participation in the Vietnam War. The consequences were far further reaching. Other legacies include political authoritarianism, a hardening of the North-South division, and a peninsular arms race in both conventional and nuclear weapons. The destabilization of global security and the establishment of dictatorship in Korea, was ultimately a result of how Americans prosecuted the Vietnam War and not a result of the outcome of that war.

There has been no systematic study, in any language, of Korean participation in the Vietnam War. Therefore the bulk of the research for this dissertation has been drawn from formerly controlled and recently declassified primary sources from both the United States (the Foreign Relations of the United States series, relevant Presidential Libraries, the National Archives and Records Administration, and the National Security Archives) as well as South Korea (the National Assembly Library, the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Archives, and Government Archives and Records Service). The story of Korean participation in the Vietnam War is complex and has been too long neglected; but it is my hope that both Americans and Koreans may find this study relevant to their own understanding of the present world.

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[Fuckthisshitfucking]

I am a South Korean myself but I think its very fucking hypocritical of our government for not giving an official apology for the massacre of unarmed civillians during the war while demanding an apology from Japan for Comfort Women. I mean, fucking hell, that makes SK government NO BETTER than the Japanese! They need to fucking apology to victims in Vietnam if they were to get apology from Japan!

[idspsqawkhwodnfg2]

Captured Viet Cong orders now stipulate that contact with the Koreans

is to be avoided at all costs unless a Viet Cong victory is 100% certain.

Never defy Korean soldiers without discrimination, even when are not

armed, for they all well trained with Taekwondo.

- An excerpt from an enemy directive seized

[davidhwang951206]

Kill ratio during vietnam war:

US Marines 16:1

South Korean Marines 25:1

[gogogogogogo231]

@oneofthejapanese 닥쳐! you are killed korean people.hey. you must say "sorry"

to south korean. hey, cesium island people. 닥치고 짜져있어

[oneofthejapanese]

★ May 6, 1999 "Hankyoreh 21" South Korean magazine

★ April 21, 2000 "Newsweek" American magazine

Hey, South Korean big liars, did you really read these articles about the Vietnam War ?

Your demonic grandpas（＝former South Korean soldiers） enjoyed in Vietnam the rape, the mass slaughter, the arson, the villagers-hunting by machine gun. Don't forget you are the children of brutal bloody devils. Japanese never have massacred South Koreans. South Koreans are million times sinful than Japanese.

[09GTAplayer]

For south korea to bounce back after the korean war in the 50's is a amazing i'm sure they fought hard

[SuperStormtroop]

Iv read books which said south Korean volunteers used to go out on patrol with the us infantry without weapons and take on the Vietcong in hand to hand combat, and beat them to death with their bare hands!