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I write as someone who studied this issue in some detail albeit some
time ago by writing a MA thesis on it (US and Korea in Vietnam and
the Japan-Korea Treaty: Search for Security, Prosperity and
Influence, Harvard, 1991 available at <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.dtic.mil">www.dtic.mil</a> "ADA237979"), as
a career US Army officer (28+ years) and PhD candidate in History
with focus on Korea of 1968-1972. <br>
<br>
Labeling the Korean soldiers in Vietnam as "mercenary" is overly
simplistic. It is my understanding that only volunteers were sent.
The reason being that as the first overseas deployment of South
Korean forces and a major one at that Korea did not want to force
anyone to go over and only send the best qualified. All soldiers
destined for Vietnam went through intense training and preparation.<br>
<br>
The motivations of the volunteers are complex. Economic was
undoubtedly a key factor in a period when Korea was one of the
poorest countries in the world. It is true that the USG paid a lot
of money and provided materiel, but most of those funds, routed
through the USG, were kept by the ROKG to fund modernizing programs.
But they were also motivated by ideological (anti-Communism in a
period that saw intense NK provocations 1966-1970), patriotic (the
enthusiasm for the nation building project under Park) and sense of
duty (repay the debt of the Korean War). The sense of national
mission and purpose among the general populace that VN generated in
the mid 60s was intense. It filled Koreans with intense pride.<br>
<br>
The atrocities of civilian massacres, of which there were many as
shown by a Friends Committee investigation in the early 70s and more
recently in the late 90s, is also a complex subject to explain. I
gather that the "type of warfare" that Brian mentions is
counterinsurgency (COIN) although I have no idea what "civilian
warfare" means as I have never encountered the term in my career and
study of history of warfare. COIN is messy and difficult as we have
found out again in Iraq and Afghanistan and military forces are
perhaps not the best means to conduct it. But I think there is a
greater factor, a cultural one. Although the Korean deployment was
officially depicted as a "crusade" to save another Asian nation from
Communism, the Korean soldiers in Vietnam almost immediately looked
down on the Vietnamese. The Koreans seemed to have had a sense of
cultural and physical (Vietnamese were generally smaller in stature)
superiority calling the Vietnamese <i>ttangk'ong</i> (peanuts). Of
course this is a generalization and many Koreans deeply respected
the Vietnamese. It was similar to the way many Americans looked down
on the Vietnamese that contributed in small part to the American
defeat because the PAVN/VC were underestimated (how oftern have we
done that in Asian wars). In a certain sense and in the passion of
the battlefield I don't think it was not difficult to see the
Vietnamese in less than human terms. There is also the general
emotions of the battlefield in any time and place where soldiers,
the ones with the instruments and powers to determine life and
death, feel empowered beyond reason. This is fortunately a
relatively rare occurrence due to military training discipline and
simple sense of human decency, but exceptions happen (Sergeant Bales
in Afghanistan).<br>
<br>
Don Kirk's recommendation to talk directly with Korean veterans
could help define this issue even if not definitely.<br>
<br>
In any event, I say these things only to state that Brian's
framework seems overly simplistic and the subject needs much more
sophisticated and nuanced analysis.<br>
<br>
Jiyul Kim<br>
Oberlin, Ohio<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On 4/15/2012 6:05 PM, Michael Munk wrote:
<blockquote
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<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Wasn't the US funding used for
extra pay and benefits to Korean troops, which encouraged them
to "volunteer" for Vietnam?</font></div>
<div> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Mike Munk</font> </div>
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5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"
dir="ltr">
<div style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </div>
<div style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color:
black"><b>From:</b> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
title="kevin_shepard@yahoo.com"
href="mailto:kevin_shepard@yahoo.com">Kevin Shepard</a> </div>
<div style="FONT: 10pt arial"><b>To:</b> <a
moz-do-not-send="true" title="koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws"
href="mailto:koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws">koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws</a>
</div>
<div style="FONT: 10pt arial"><b>Sent:</b> Saturday, April 14,
2012 10:40 AM</div>
<div style="FONT: 10pt arial"><b>Subject:</b> Re: [KS] Brian
Hwang's Discussion Question</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #fff; FONT-FAMILY: arial,
helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: #000; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">
<div><span>I think you will be hard-pressed to justify calling
individual soldiers mercenaries - the Korean government
may have received funds from the US, but ROK soldiers were
drafted into mandatory service. If you come across
documentation that individuals volunteered for Vietnam in
order to receive funds from the US, please send such
documents to me. </span></div>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: left; FONT-FAMILY: bookman old style,
new york, times, serif"><font size="2"><br>
</font></div>
<div><font style="FONT-FAMILY: bookman old style, new york,
times, serif" size="2">Kevin Shepard, Ph.D.<br>
Strategist<br>
UNC/CFC/USFK<br>
UCJ 5 Strategy Div.</font></div>
<br>
<div style="FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;
FONT-SIZE: 10pt">
<div style="FONT-FAMILY: times new roman, new york, times,
serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">
<div dir="ltr"><font face="Arial" size="2">
<hr size="1"> <b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">From:</span></b>
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:koreanstudies-request@koreaweb.ws">"koreanstudies-request@koreaweb.ws"</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:koreanstudies-request@koreaweb.ws"><koreanstudies-request@koreaweb.ws></a><br>
<b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">To:</span></b>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws">koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws</a> <br>
<b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</span></b>
Sunday, April 15, 2012 1:00 AM<br>
<b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Subject:</span></b>
Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 106, Issue 9<br>
</font></div>
<br>
<br>
Today's Topics:<br>
<br>
1. Discussion Question (<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:brianhwang@berkeley.edu"
ymailto="mailto:brianhwang@berkeley.edu">brianhwang@berkeley.edu</a>)<br>
2. March 2012 Issue of "Cross-Currents: East Asian
History and<br>
Culture Review" Available Online (Center for Korean
Studies)<br>
<br>
<br>
----------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br>
Message: 1<br>
Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2012 10:15:24 -0700<br>
From: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:brianhwang@berkeley.edu"
ymailto="mailto:brianhwang@berkeley.edu">brianhwang@berkeley.edu</a><br>
To: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws"
ymailto="mailto:koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws">koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws</a><br>
Subject: [KS] Discussion Question<br>
Message-ID:<br>
<<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:7cb59ce69b486f3c15e6bba3e396a6d4.squirrel@calmail.berkeley.edu"
ymailto="mailto:7cb59ce69b486f3c15e6bba3e396a6d4.squirrel@calmail.berkeley.edu">7cb59ce69b486f3c15e6bba3e396a6d4.squirrel@calmail.berkeley.edu</a>><br>
Content-Type: text/plain;charset=utf-8<br>
<br>
Hello all:<br>
<br>
I am a history student at University of California,
Berkeley. Currently I<br>
am working on a paper regarding Korean involvement in the
Vietnam War. My<br>
argument is that although Korean soldiers were 1)
mercenaries (because<br>
they were paid predominantly by US dollars to go) and 2)
anti communists<br>
(because of past history), the atrocities that they are
accused of<br>
committing are not primarily due to the aforementioned
reasons, but<br>
because of the type of warfare that they had to fight in
Vietnam,<br>
including guerrilla warfare and civilian warfare.<br>
<br>
Do you all think this is a valid argument? Are there any
primary sources<br>
that would help me in my argument, including ones that
attribute Korean<br>
atrocities to their mercenary and anticommunist nature?<br>
<br>
Thank you!<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
------------------------------<br>
<br>
Message: 2<br>
Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2012 11:00:21 -0700<br>
From: "Center for Korean Studies" <<a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:cks@berkeley.edu"
ymailto="mailto:cks@berkeley.edu">cks@berkeley.edu</a>><br>
To: <<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws"
ymailto="mailto:koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws">koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws</a>><br>
Subject: [KS] March 2012 Issue of "Cross-Currents: East
Asian History<br>
and Culture Review" Available Online<br>
Message-ID:
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:037401cd199f$4b410820$e1c31860$@berkeley.edu"><037401cd199f$4b410820$e1c31860$@berkeley.edu></a><br>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"<br>
<br>
March 2012 Issue of "Cross-Currents: East Asian History
and Culture Review" now online <br>
<br>
The second issue of IEAS's new, interactive e-journal
"Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review" is
now online. The theme of the March 2012 issue is "Japanese
Imperial Maps as Sources for East Asian History: The Past
and Future of the Gaih?zu" (guest edited by K?ren Wigen,
professor of History at Stanford). Visit
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://cross-currents.berkeley.edu/e-journal/issue-2">http://cross-currents.berkeley.edu/e-journal/issue-2</a> to
read the articles, a review essay written by Timothy Cheek
(University of British Columbia) about Ezra Vogel's new
book on Deng Xiaoping, and abstracts of important new
scholarship in Chinese. The March issue of the e-journal
also features a photo essay by Jianhua Gong documenting
Shanghai's longtang alleyways. <br>
<br>
A joint enterprise of the Research Institute of Korean
Studies at Korea University (RIKS) and the Institute of
East Asian Studies at the University of California at
Berkeley (IEAS), "Cross-Currents" offers its readers
up-to-date research findings, emerging trends, and
cutting-edge perspectives concerning East Asian history
and culture from scholars in both English-speaking and
Asian language-speaking academic communities. <br>
<br>
<br>
* * ** ** <br>
<br>
<br>
March 2012 issue of "Cross-Currents" e-journal<br>
(See <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://cross-currents.berkeley.edu/e-journal/issue-2"
target="_blank">http://cross-currents.berkeley.edu/e-journal/issue-2</a>)<br>
<br>
*Co-Editors' Note*<br>
<br>
Building an Online Community of East Asia Scholars<br>
Sungtaek Cho, Research Institute of Korean Studies (RIKS),
Korea University<br>
Wen-hsin Yeh, Institute of East Asian Studies (IEAS),
University of California, Berkeley<br>
<br>
*Japanese Imperial Maps as Sources for East Asian History:
The Past and Future of the Gaihozu*<br>
<br>
Introduction to "Japanese Imperial Maps as Sources for
East Asian History: The Past and Future of the Gaihozu"<br>
Guest editor K?ren Wigen, Stanford University<br>
<br>
Japanese Mapping of Asia-Pacific Areas, 1873-1945: An
Overview<br>
Shigeru Kobayashi, Osaka University<br>
<br>
Imagining Manmo: Mapping the Russo-Japanese Boundary
Agreements in Manchuria and Inner Mongolia, 1907-1915<br>
Yoshihisa T. Matsusaka, Wellesley College<br>
<br>
Triangulating Chosen: Maps, Mapmaking, and the Land Survey
in Colonial Korea<br>
David Fedman, Stanford University<br>
<br>
Mapping Economic Development: The South Seas Government
and Sugar Production in Japan's South Pacific Mandate,
1919--1941<br>
Ti Ngo, University of California, Berkeley<br>
<br>
*Forum*<br>
<br>
Asian Studies/Global Studies: Transcending Area Studies
and Social Sciences<br>
John Lie, University of California, Berkeley/<br>
<br>
Defenders and Conquerors: The Rhetoric of Royal Power in
Korean Inscriptions from the Fifth to Seventh Centuries<br>
Hung-gyu Kim, Korea University<br>
<br>
*Review Essays and Notes*<br>
<br>
Of Leaders and Governance: How the Chinese Dragon Got Its
Scales<br>
Timothy Cheek, University of British Columbia<br>
<br>
A Note on the 40th Anniversary of Nixon's Visit to China<br>
William C. Kirby, Harvard University<br>
<br>
*Photo Essay*<br>
<br>
"Shanghai Alleyways" by photographer Jianhua Gong<br>
Essay by Xiaoneng Yang, Stanford University<br>
<br>
*Readings from Asia*<br>
<br>
Ge Zhaoguang , Dwelling in the Middle of the Country:
Reestablishing Histories of "China" [????:????"??"???]<br>
Abstract by Wennan Liu, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences<br>
<br>
Wang Qisheng, Revolution and Counter-Revolution:
Republican Politics in Social-Cultural Scope
[???????????????????]<br>
Abstract by Bin Ye, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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