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RangerMcGreggor
Joined: 12 Jan 2011
Location: Somewhere in Korea
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 Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 9:23 pm Post subject: |
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| southernman wrote: |
The Korean's who served in the Vietnamese war were ruthless and possibly the most feared of all the allied soldiers. |
I remember reading in books that Korean soldiers often got the most protest in Vietnam due to numerous stories of atrocities. The ROK military and USA military looked upon them as gods, as they blew us away when it came to anti-insurgency tactics. |
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BoholDiver
Joined: 03 Oct 2009
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 10:52 pm Post subject: |
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Not hard to believe. Human rights and the Geneva Conventions are inconvenient.
| RangerMcGreggor wrote: |
| southernman wrote: |
The Korean's who served in the Vietnamese war were ruthless and possibly the most feared of all the allied soldiers. |
I remember reading in books that Korean soldiers often got the most protest in Vietnam due to numerous stories of atrocities. The ROK military and USA military looked upon them as gods, as they blew us away when it came to anti-insurgency tactics. |
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Fishead soup
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 11:12 pm Post subject: |
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| eamo wrote: |
| Fishead soup wrote: |
| Fox wrote: |
| rollo wrote: |
| Eamo: think it through if the U.s. had not stopped Stalin you would not have a job. |
I don't understand why you keep pushing this idea. Even if you want to assume that, had the United States not intervened in Korea it would be impossible to get work teaching English in the hypothetical unified Korea (which isn't a given), what makes you think he couldn't have simply gotten a job somewhere else? |
Makes lots of sense. There are EFL/ESL jobs in Vietnam |
There are even ESL jobs in North Korea.........and they actually prefer British passport holders like me! |
There you go. They even have nureabangs where you can sing" Anarchy in the UK" |
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rollo
Joined: 10 May 2006
Location: China
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| Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 3:02 am Post subject: |
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Well there you go Eamo. Head off to the North. I under stand where you are coming from . Stalin was a great guy and those East European countries really prospered under Soviet rule. Kim will welcome you and maybe trow in a few of the pleasure brigade to help you make the transition. Great nightlife up there I understand. Enjoy
It is difficult to compare the two wars the Korean war Russia and the U.S. were fighting to for strategic position and the U.s. wanted to give the Korean people an option on how they wanted to be governed China intervened when the U.s. threatened its strategic position.
Vietnam just neo- colonialism and arrogance |
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Slowmotion
Joined: 15 Aug 2009
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| Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 4:54 am Post subject: |
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| RangerMcGreggor wrote: |
| southernman wrote: |
The Korean's who served in the Vietnamese war were ruthless and possibly the most feared of all the allied soldiers. |
I remember reading in books that Korean soldiers often got the most protest in Vietnam due to numerous stories of atrocities. The ROK military and USA military looked upon them as gods, as they blew us away when it came to anti-insurgency tactics. |
I wonder why in that era the Korean soldiers became such bad asses, cuz in the Korea war they weren't and they aren't exactly the most renowned now.
My dad was a Vietnam vet and he cosigned the Koreans as being highly feared. |
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eamo
Joined: 08 Mar 2003
Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.
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| Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 5:48 am Post subject: |
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| rollo wrote: |
Well there you go Eamo. Head off to the North. I under stand where you are coming from . Stalin was a great guy and those East European countries really prospered under Soviet rule. Kim will welcome you and maybe trow in a few of the pleasure brigade to help you make the transition. Great nightlife up there I understand. Enjoy
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Lol......you were wrong about the not getting a job quip so you jump bizzarely to the conclusion that I must be a fan of Stalin and want to live in NK!!  |
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Summer Wine
Joined: 20 Mar 2005
Location: Next to a River
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| Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 7:02 am Post subject: |
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| My dad was a Vietnam vet and he cosigned the Koreans as being highly feared. |
They and the Thais had a take no prisoners attitude which also seemed to translate to villages and villagers from what I read.
Though, thats how the Koreans and Thais defeated the insurgency inthier own countries, so we shouldn't be suprised.
Also they were probably more boots on the ground (than US reported patrols who called in that they were on patrol rather than actually walked it) and may have even walked more like vietnamese making it difficult to distinguish them from a distance for the locals, therefore the NVA was less aware when they turned up.
Though, from what I heard it sounds like most of SKs troops came from Jeollanam-do and were forced into it due to poverty and the perception of Jeollanam-do in SK as being expendable.
Though this is getting more into a different area of discussion. |
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conrad2
Joined: 05 Nov 2009
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| Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 11:05 am Post subject: |
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| Summer Wine wrote: |
| Quote: |
| My dad was a Vietnam vet and he cosigned the Koreans as being highly feared. |
They and the Thais had a take no prisoners attitude which also seemed to translate to villages and villagers from what I read.
Though, thats how the Koreans and Thais defeated the insurgency inthier own countries, so we shouldn't be suprised.
Also they were probably more boots on the ground (than US reported patrols who called in that they were on patrol rather than actually walked it) and may have even walked more like vietnamese making it difficult to distinguish them from a distance for the locals, therefore the NVA was less aware when they turned up.
Though, from what I heard it sounds like most of SKs troops came from Jeollanam-do and were forced into it due to poverty and the perception of Jeollanam-do in SK as being expendable.
Though this is getting more into a different area of discussion. |
Everyone in Korea at that time suffered from poverty. There was no shortage of Korean volunteers happy to go fight in Vietnam. It was considered better than going up to the DMZ and the US actually paid their soldiers. A lot of the brutality demostrated by the Korean troops stemmed from their hatred of commies. |
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Summer Wine
Joined: 20 Mar 2005
Location: Next to a River
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| Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 11:36 am Post subject: |
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| Everyone in Korea at that time suffered from poverty. There was no shortage of Korean volunteers happy to go fight in Vietnam. It was considered better than going up to the DMZ and the US actually paid their soldiers. A lot of the brutality demostrated by the Korean troops stemmed from their hatred of commies. |
If you say so.
The Koreans I spoke with seemed to give the impression that they weren't given much choice in the matter. They were voluntered as the saying goes.
Though that happened not just in Korea. |
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smee18
Joined: 24 Mar 2009
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2011 4:25 am Post subject: |
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| Here's a difference for you: America LOST the Vietnam war. |
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BoholDiver
Joined: 03 Oct 2009
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2011 2:36 pm Post subject: |
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From what I heard, Koreans were basically mercs for US. They paid a fair wage for a country with less than 10% of America's GDP at the time. Then President Park pocketed 95% of the money and gave the families peanuts.
| Summer Wine wrote: |
| Quote: |
| Everyone in Korea at that time suffered from poverty. There was no shortage of Korean volunteers happy to go fight in Vietnam. It was considered better than going up to the DMZ and the US actually paid their soldiers. A lot of the brutality demostrated by the Korean troops stemmed from their hatred of commies. |
If you say so.
The Koreans I spoke with seemed to give the impression that they weren't given much choice in the matter. They were voluntered as the saying goes.
Though that happened not just in Korea. |
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sirius black
Joined: 04 Jun 2010
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| Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2011 2:51 pm Post subject: |
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The Korean war is technically not over. It is only a cease fire. America kinda sorta won the Korean war. The first opbjective was just to get the north out of SK. The objective changed to go into the north and drive them out and making the whole pennisula democratic. The chinese got involved and the USSR gave aid (MIGs) drove us back and a stalemate ensued that resulted in today's border.
It was actually Kennedy that got us into the Vietnam war. Also, the war was doomed from the start because it was micromanaged by Johnson. There were too many resstrictions on what the US military could and couldn't do which handicapped the troops. There was even one report of Johnson personally instructing fighter pilots on occasion.
Also, Aussies and Kiwis fought in the war as well. The Aussies faced similar welcomes as some american military and were called baby killers, etc by their people.
Taiwanese soldiers also served.
One of the great 'crimes' by the US government in the war was leaving American troops there. America had agreed to some money being paid for reparations and the north kept some American soldiers as an insurance policy for the payment and the US reneged on the payment. |
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southernman
Joined: 15 Jan 2010
Location: On the mainland again
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| Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2011 4:19 pm Post subject: |
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| Slowmotion wrote: |
| RangerMcGreggor wrote: |
| southernman wrote: |
The Korean's who served in the Vietnamese war were ruthless and possibly the most feared of all the allied soldiers. |
I remember reading in books that Korean soldiers often got the most protest in Vietnam due to numerous stories of atrocities. The ROK military and USA military looked upon them as gods, as they blew us away when it came to anti-insurgency tactics. |
I wonder why in that era the Korean soldiers became such bad asses, cuz in the Korea war they weren't and they aren't exactly the most renowned now.
My dad was a Vietnam vet and he cosigned the Koreans as being highly feared. |
During the second world war some Koreans acted as guards for the Japanese in prisoner of war camps and dentention centres. They were far worse and more cruel that the Japanese. Many ex prisoners from NZ, Aussie and the UK wrote about this.
Possibly, the Vietnamese War being so close after the Korean war was an outlet for the soldiers concerned to act as brutally as they did. Being such a Nationalistic and historically 'Hermit' country it must have caused some embarassement to be bailed out by foreigners again. |
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Summer Wine
Joined: 20 Mar 2005
Location: Next to a River
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| Posted: Sun May 01, 2011 4:27 am Post subject: |
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| Possibly, the Vietnamese War being so close after the Korean war was an outlet for the soldiers concerned to act as brutally as they did. Being such a Nationalistic and historically 'Hermit' country it must have caused some embarassement to be bailed out by foreigners again. |
I would argue that it was just Korean style. Embarrasment would not have been the issue.
We have all listened to people, read books and realised that life is never as clean as we would like to pretend.
Go to Gwangju in Jeollanamdo and read the memorial to those who died in the 1980's uprising or remember the newspaper posts in the 1980s of those prisoners who supposedly jumped from KCIA headquarters windows. Most were opposition members.
Korea does not have as nice as history as we would wish it. Its not embarrasment, its the human spirit that resides in us all.
Humanity is not nice.  |
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young_clinton
Joined: 09 Sep 2009
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| Posted: Sun May 01, 2011 5:41 am Post subject: |
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| smee18 wrote: |
| Here's a difference for you: America LOST the Vietnam war. |
The US could have won the war if it was willing to go one step further. Engage North Vietnam in full combat and use absolutely overwhelming air attacks. The US lost because it didn't want to destroy Vietnam, which in my opinion is noble. The main reason for the entry of the USA into the Vietnam war was communism's motley history, Stalin, Mao, Kim Il Sung (Lenin wasn't that great either, neither are the SE Asian communist leaders). The USA didn't understand the SE Asian culture and just how different it was from the West in just about every way and in fact still is. Anybody who has been to Thailand knows how different the culture is over here. A big question is, with the nasty insurgency that occured in Vietnam, how come the Bush administration didn't understand what was going to happen in Iraq? |
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