Comments on: Is there such a thing as an innocent nation?

By: lirelou

lirelou — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 08:01:21 +0000

I have to go through my library to read Armstrong’s article. You might find the second posting at the link below of interest. I outlines several false claims, but mentions several trials and executions in connection to (probable) individual atrocities.

http://www.dpg.devry.edu/~akim/sck/vietnam2.htm

By: lirelou

lirelou — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 02:35:09 +0000

I’ll look up Armstrong’s article. Part of my question arises from my observation that the Koreans were among the most disciplined troops in Vietnam, and disciplined troops don’t commit massacres unles ordered to do so. What I do know is that “winning hearts and minds” was as much a part of ROK Army doctrine as it was U.S. Army doctrine (and that did not prevent the My Lai massacre). My Lai, off course, was a classic case of undisciplined troops and poor leadership. Understand that conditions (and the war itself) changed from srea to area, and the area around QUang Tri and Quang Nai provinces was the scene of some of the war’s bitterest fighting, and where large segments of the population supported Ho Chi Minh, and the Viet Minh. The Vietnamese “peasants” at My Lai, for example, could be easily classified as “VC dependents”. That did not negate their non-combattant status. I would not be surprised to learn of massacres other than My Lai in that area, and perhaps even by Korean troops. But I have never seen or heard any credible evidence of such, though there were a lot of “sea stories” about how tough and blood-thirsty the Korean troops, recounted by “RENFs” (rear echelon soldiers who were involved in support missions). I’ve never met anyone who worked closely with either the 9th or “Tiger” Division who mentioned massacres. The (South) Vietnamese government certainly would raised a hue and cry, if only to extort more aid from Korea.

By: Owen

Owen — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 13:53:09 +0000

Another place that might be worth looking for information about documented cases of massacres against Vietnamese civilians (in English) is Charles K. Armstrong’s article ‘America’s Korea, Korea’s Vietnam’ (Critical Asian Studies, 33:4, 2001, pp. 527-539).

By: Frog in a Well - The Japan History Group Blog

Frog in a Well - The Japan History Group Blog — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 07:33:59 +0000

[...] Owen Miller, at the Korea blog, asks some hard questions (he’s good at that), and catching some really bad rhetoric [...]

By: Owen

Owen — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 11:35:47 +0000

This is something I readily admit I know very little about, so personally I would keep an open mind. I do know that it is a subject that has caused some controversy in recent years and Hankyoreh 21 ran some stories about it a few years ago, concerning a secret US Army report on the matter that had come to light. Here, for example, is something I just Googled up from Hani 21 in November 2000, by Han Honggu of Sungkonghoe University:
http://www.hani.co.kr/section-021003000/2000/021003000200011150334039.html
Apparently Hong is a member of the Vietnam War Civilian Massacre Truth Commission (베트남전민간인 학살진실위원회).

While I don’t deny either the integrity of your memories of serving in Vietnam with Korean soldiers or their validity as part of the story of what happened there, I don’t think you can really offer them as definitive evidence that massacres didn’t happen. There were, after all, some 300,000 South Korean soldiers that served in Vietnam over the course of 8 years (I think my figures are roughly accurate).