The Vietnam War
By Jaemin Kim
Embedded Files
Introduction:
Location of Vietnam and surrounding Southeast Asia countries
Vietnam is located on the Southeastern margin of the Indochina peninsula, which meets with the Gulf of Thailand, the Gulf of Tonkin, China to the north, Cambodia to the southwest, and Laos to the northwest. There were a lot of conflicts and events around Vietnam which made Vietnam endure for a long time, shaping its national identity. The main events were the colonialization by France, and Indochina War, and The Vietnam War.
The Vietnam War was one of the biggest war events that occurred in the 20th century from 1955 to 1975, for 20 years. This war is also known and called as the Second Indochina War; the conflict between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. North Vietnam was supported by China, the Soviet Union, and other communist countries. On the other hand, South Vietnam was supported by the US government and other anti-communist countries. This also led to the Proxy War between the Soviet Union and the US. Since the war ended, the US has stopped the intervention in the conflict.
To understand the Vietnam War, it is necessary to explore its main events, causes, and economic and global impacts not only on its own country and the countries involved directly but also on neighboring countries such as South Korea.
Division of South and North Vietnam
Ngô Ðình Diệm
First President of the Republic of Vietnam
Background
Background
The Vietnam War is closely related to the first Indochina War (1946-1954) that Vietnam waged with France. France ruled Vietnam as a colony after the mid-19th century, and the Vietnamese actively carried out independence movements after World War I, including the Vietnamese People's Party in 1927 and the Indochina Communist Party in 1930. When World War II broke out and the Japanese Empire occupied Vietnam, the Viet Minh (Vietnam Independence Alliance) was formed on May 19, 1941, under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh, to wage guerrilla warfare against the Japanese military. After Japan surrendered in August 1945, Viet Minh occupied Hanoi and declared the establishment and independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on September 2 of that year. However, France did not recognize Vietnam's independence and fired artillery at the port of Hai Phong on November 23, 1946, causing the first Indochina War, and the war lasted for nine years until the fall of Dien Bien Phu, the base of the French military, on May 7, 1954. In July of that year, a meeting of foreign ministers from four countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union, was held in Berlin, and the Geneva meeting was held under the agreement of the four countries. At this meeting, discussions on the Indochina issue after the fall of Điện Biên Phủ began in earnest, and the Geneva Agreement for a ceasefire was established through the efforts of Zhou Enlai. As a result, it was decided that Vietnam would be divided into the South and the North, with the 17th parallel of the North as a tentative military boundary and that all foreign forces, including French troops, would be immediately withdrawn.
The agreement also required free elections to be held across Vietnam in 1956 under the supervision of the International Monitoring Committee, but Ngô Ðình Diệm, who became the first president of South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) with U.S. support in 1955, refused to hold elections. The U.S. provided large-scale military and economic aid to maintain an anti-communist regime in South Vietnam. Particularly in the 1960s, the Kennedy administration strengthened aid to the Republic of Vietnam, but public sentiment deteriorated due to the dictatorship and corruption of the Ngô Ðình Diệm regime.
Eventually, revolts began around religious groups such as Cao Dai and Hoa Hao, and as Vietnamese members joined forces, a guerrilla military organization called "Viet Cong" emerged in the mid-1950s. The South Vietnamese government tried to suppress the resistance with hard-line measures, such as enforcing the anti-communist law in 1958, but guerrilla forces began a confrontation with the government with the South Vietnamese National Liberation Front (NFL) in December 1960. At the same time, they put forward a platform for establishing a national democratic government, land reform, peaceful unification, and neutral diplomacy.
NGO DINH DIEM ADDRESSES THE US CONGRESS (1957)
NGO DINH DIEM ADDRESSES THE US CONGRESS (1957)
[7]
The course of the war and Korea's participation
The course of the war and Korea's participation
As the opposition to the Diem regime expanded, Dương Văn Minh and others killed Ngô Ðình Diệm after they staged a military coup d'état under the assistance of the U.S. and took control of the government in 1963. However, the South Vietnamese regime was greatly destabilized by a series of coups, with Nguyen Khanh staging another coup in 1964.
Gulf of Tonkin incident
Gulf of Tonkin incident
As the situation in South Vietnam worsened, the Johnson administration of the United States increased the number of U.S. troops stationed in South Vietnam. On August 7, 1964, under the pretext of the ''Gulf of Tonkin incident' that a U.S. destroyer was torpedoed by North Vietnam, the war expanded into a full-scale war with North Vietnam. After that, the United States bombarded North Vietnam with about 1 million tons of bombs until 1968 and sent about 550,000 ground troops. Also requested the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO) to send troops, leading Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and the Philippines to participate in the war.[1][6]
In the case of Korea, was the second-largest country after the United States in the Vietnam War, and the large-scale dispatch of Korean troops was the result of the combined interests of both Korea and the United States. It attempted to maintain the size of the U.S. troops stationed on the Korean Peninsula by sending its own troops, and the goal was to strengthen the Korea-U.S. alliance through the dispatch of troops and to expand aid that could be received from the United States. Therefore, when Chairman of the Supreme Council Park Chung-hee visited the United States in November 1961, shortly after the May 16 coup, he proposed sending Korean troops.
The U.S., which had been lukewarm about South Korea's proposal, began its northern campaign after the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 and adopted the "Many Flags" policy, actively asking Free-World countries to send troops. In particular, the Korean military was preferred because it was useful for putting it into combat because it was the same Asian while maintaining cheaper than the U.S. military, but also because of its experience in the Korean War. Since then, as anti-war protests in the country have intensified, it has become more difficult to mobilize military resources in the country. In particular, the 'Brown Memorandum' in March 1966 suggested a counter-payment for sending troops. As a result, Korea dispatched non-combatant personnel centered on medical personnel in September 1964, and more than 300,000 troops to Vietnam for 8 years and 6 months, including the Tiger Unit, the Blue Dragon Unit, and the White Horse Unit.[2]
Park Chung hee
Park Chung hee
3rd President of South Korea in 1963
Brown Memorandum [2]
Brown Memorandum [2]
Among statements in Brown memorandum:
Establish a field broadcasting installation so that South Korean military forces can carry out psychological warfare, jamming operations, and anticommunist broadcasts in addition to providing its soldiers in South Vietnam with amusement, battle news, and home news from South Korea
Give a U.S. strategy for logistical support to South Korean combat forces in South Vietnam, and as soon as practicable, confirm the mission, bivouac location, and command channels of KFV personnel in South Korea
To enable communication between the South Korean military institution and its troops' headquarters in South Vietnam, supply communication equipment only for use by the Korean Forces in Vietnam (KFV)
Pay gratuities and benefits for fatalities or disabilities sustained while serving in the line of duty, as well as covering the salaries of South Vietnamese laborers employed by KFV military units, to the South Korean soldiers serving in Vietnam at the same rate as American military personnel
Richard M. Nixon shaking hands with armed forces in Vietnam[4]
Richard M. Nixon shaking hands with armed forces in Vietnam[4]
The end of the War
The end of the War
The South Vietnamese National Liberation Front (NFL) used the Lunar New Year on January 30, 1968, to capture major facilities of the United States and its allies in major cities. The U.S. and South Vietnamese government forces immediately recaptured the cities and facilities that were taken away, but this incident had an enormous influence on the public opinion of the United States. As it became known that it was difficult to be optimistic about the victory of the war, anti-war public opinion rose in the United States, and eventually, President Johnson failed to win re-election, and Nixon, who put an end to military intervention, was elected president. In 1969, Nixon announced a plan to withdraw the U.S. military, putting forward the 'Nixon Doctrine' as a new diplomatic strategy. Then, the Korean government could no longer find a justification for dispatching troops, and it became difficult to use it as a bargaining chip in relation to the U.S. government. Nevertheless, the South Korean government did not give up the aid or special war that it could obtain as a counter-benefit of the dispatch, and while delaying the withdrawal, the South Korean military also continued to suffer casualties.
Negotiations on a ceasefire between the United States and North Vietnam began in May 1968 but were not successful until 1972. Rather, after the United States intervened militarily in Cambodia's civil war in 1970, expanding the battlefield to all of Indochina, including Cambodia and Laos. When the South Vietnamese National Liberation Front waged a massive uprising in various places in April 1972, the United States intensified its offensive against North Vietnam by installing sea mines at all its ports and mass bombings in Hanoi and Haiphong. However, negotiations on a ceasefire between the United States and North Vietnam resumed secretly in 1972, and a peace treaty was finally signed in Paris on January 27, 1973. The Paris Peace Agreement included a truce between the two Koreas, the formation of a unified government through elections, and the withdrawal of all U.S. troops within 60 days.
After signing a peace agreement, the U.S. military completely withdrew from South Vietnam, and there was an exchange of prisoners between North Vietnam and the U.S. military. The United States drastically reduced the amount of aid to South Vietnam, and the conflict between the South Vietnamese National Liberation Front and the South Vietnamese government has expanded back to an armed conflict since January 1974 against the backdrop of the economic crisis triggered by the oil shock.
Eventually, North Vietnam launched a large-scale offensive in 1975 and captured Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, on April 30 of that year, and was surrendered by the president of South Vietnam, Dương Văn Minh. After Saigon was occupied, the Republic of South Vietnam was established, and on July 2, 1976, North and South Vietnam merged to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, reunifying Vietnam as a single country. Additionally, there were severe problems with soldiers' drug trafficking and abuse. Due to the extreme stresses of long-term war and fighting abroad by dispatch, they started to consume psychoactive substances to reduce the effects of the war. However, the potential of the drug did not last forever, but temporarily. Some of them were patients with PTSD, having a lot of mental symptoms.[9]
The Vietnam War and Korean society
The Vietnam War and Korean society
For the United States, the Vietnam War was the first war to be defeated in history, leaving the trauma of having to be revised to the status of a hegemonic power. The dollar's status declined, and in Asia, improvement of U.S.-China relations was promoted to reduce tensions, and widespread anti-war protests and civil rights movements were triggered internally. On the other hand, in Korean society, the Vietnam War tends to be remembered solely as an unexpected externality. Not only did foreign exchange come in with the salaries of dispatched soldiers and engineers, but also as emerging large companies that were in charge of construction and procurement of goods locally grew rapidly, the ranking of conglomerates in Korea changed. However, the government and businesses did not fully compensate the soldiers or workers sent to Vietnam. In the case of soldiers, the combat allowance was only a quarter of the US military, and the compensation for disasters was extremely small, as the amount received when they were killed in action was slightly more than a year's salary of an office worker at the time. Above all, the foreign currency earned by these soldiers and workers was deducted from the government's expensive fees in the process of transferring and exchanging money domestically. Even a significant number of companies delayed payment without even paying the workers on time.
In addition, the Park Chung-hee administration was able to reorganize its mobilization system through the Vietnam War. As the conscription system based on the Resident Registration Act was established in earnest, a system was established that led to the avoidance of conscription to punishment, and control continued even after the local reserve forces were established to perform military service obligations. In addition, people who were not conscripted as active-duty soldiers, such as training and civil defense training, were included in the control network and were mobilized in the form of consolation projects in the name of supporting soldiers Powell.
Negative effects by Agent Orange
Negative effects by Agent Orange
-Environment and health-
: Strategic herbicidal chemicals sprayed on plants to cause their leaves to fall off and subsequently brings 'Deforestation' and also affect badly to human
The spraying of defoliants and the slaughter of civilians in the name of finding Viet Cong hidden in the jungle are also one of the darkest side of the Vietnam War. The U.S. military's operation to kill the jungle by spraying dioxin-based defoliants(Agent Orange) to seek out Vietnamese left tremendous aftereffects, as well as many participants in the war including Korean soldiers. In 1999, more than 16,000 defoliant victims filed a lawsuit for damages against the defoliants manufacturers Dow Chemical and Monsanto of the United States, but they were not compensated properly.
30 years passed since Agent Orange had spread, and there are still marginal negative aftereffects on people who live in the area where the incident happened. Considering a lot of variables such as location, age, sex, etc. As a result, statistical analysis shows that disability usually appears in women and children such as visual disturbance, hearing disturbance, spine bifida, etc due to remaining contamination. (Yamashita, 2022) [5]
Drop points of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War
An interview of a woman who was directly affected with her family by Agent Orange during the Vietnam War [3]
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This is a child's request that the Vietnam War be ended, and this is the White House's response. [8]
In addition, soldiers often reacted nervously due to the nature of the operation to find guerrillas hiding among civilians in poor circumstances at the time, simultaneously large-scale civilian massacres occurred. It was particularly severe in the central region right after the Lunar New Year's offensive, and the case of the Milai massacre was well known as a case of U.S. military massacre during this period, and the cases of Phong Nhi and Phong Nhat Village in Quang Nam Province were recently known in the case of the Korean military. In 2018, civil society organizations in Korea led the Civil Peace Court, in which victims of Quang Nam's case directly participated as plaintiffs, in the form of mock trials, drawing attention. As such, the Vietnam War has been recognized for a long time in Korean society only from the perspective of special war or strengthening the Korea-U.S. alliance, but discussions on the harm and damage of war participants and their impact on Korean society have recently become active.
Citations
Citations
[1] Lee, Min Young. “The Vietnam War: South Korea’s Search for National Security.” Essay. In The Park Chung Hee Era, 403–404. Havard University Press, 2011.
[2] Lee, Min Young. “The Vietnam War: South Korea’s Search for National Security.” Essay. In The Park Chung Hee Era, 418–419. Havard University Press, 2011.
[3] The Front Raw Network, ed. “Interview - the People vs Agent Orange.” YouTube, July 19, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW5NrW_clIQ.
[4] Nixon White House Photographs. Richard M. Nixon shaking hands with armed forces in Vietnam. Photograph. NLRN-WHPO-1631-12, 1969. NLRN-WHPO-1631-12. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/194650
[5] Yamashita, Nobuaki. “Long-Term Effects of Vietnam War: Agent Orange and the Health of Vietnamese People After 30 Years.” Asian Economic Journal, 2022.
[6] Tovy, Tal. “Radio and Television Report to the American People Following Renewed Aggression in the Gulf of Tonkin.” Essay. In The Gulf of Tonkin, 130–132. New York, 2021.
[7] Ngo Dinh Diem. "Ngo Dinh Diem addresses the US congression". US joint session. US. 1957.
[8] White House Alpha (Alphabetical) Name Files . Letter from Pam Kaplan to President Nixon and White House Response. Photograph. WHCF: Alpha Name Files. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/6721944
[9] Nacu, Florin. “The Vietnam War. Social and Political Issues of an Anti-Communist War.” Revista de Stiinte Politice, 2024.
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