SOUTH KOREAN SOLDIERS TOO FOUGHT ALONGSIDE THE AMERICANS IN VIETNAM
In total, between 1965 and 1973, 312,853 South Korean soldiers fought in Vietnam; Vietnam's Ministry of Culture and Communications estimated they killed 41,400 North Vietnamese Army soldiers and 5,000 civilians. South Korean troops were hampered by their lack of command of any of the major languages in the country or among their allies. They were also accused of war atrocities, and are known to have left behind thousands of children of mixed Korean and Vietnamese descent.-------------------------------------------------
A South Korean Soldier in Vietnam....
Kim Young Man fought alongside U.S. troops in Vietnam. While American forces provided artillery backup, Korean soldiers like Kim were stationed on the front lines. His job was to keep allied forces alive by killing as many of the enemy as possible.
Today, interviewed by telephone, Kim struggles to talk about killing Vietnamese during the battle.
"War is not a game," he says. "We fought. We killed people, what else should I say?" Kim speaks softly, gets choked up, breaks off the conversation several times and then calls back.
Living with decades of guilt, Kim says it took him a long time to admit Korean soldiers had massacred thousands of Vietnamese, including civilians.
"We had the pride of joining the war for a long time," says Kim. "That's why most veterans exaggerate or boast the Vietnam War experience rather than reflect that war is fundamentally wrong and we did something wrong there."
Vietnamese-Korean mixed children
The fathers include both members of the South Korean military and Korean workers who were stationed in Vietnam during the War. The children were usually abandoned by their fathers. South Koreans kidnapped young Vietnamese girls to sell them as a "Comfort Women" or also known as "Lai Daihan" or "Sex Slaves". The Viet Cong registered a complaint during the war that South Koreans were abducting and raping large numbers of Vietnamese women.
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