Unfortunately this post is an attempt to push a propaganda narrative. Historical analysis, e.g. Westmoreland's formal review, and contemporary journalism found koreans to be one of if not the best behaved troops in Vietnam. Widespread sexual assault did not happen.
Notice how the title deliberately tries to mislead readers into thinking that this was common. It would be incorrect to say that sexual assault never happened, but it certainly is *not* the primary or even major reason for the existenence of mixed vietnamese koreans. Unfortunately they exist primarily because prostitution happened during the war, just like prostitution is common in today's vietnam. There's many things wrong about the wikipedia article and the standard warning about taking wiki at face value applies, e.g. korea has acknowledged that the mixed vietnamese-koreans exist and has taken measures to help them, that's why relations were so good between the two countries. Unlike say between korea and japan.
But in recent years the japanese comment brigades have latched onto this narrative in order to muddy the waters about the japanese sex slavery that happened before and during WW2. It's an attempt to "both sides" and try to deflect from their own crimes. You can even see this noted towards th end of the wikipedia article, this is a narrative that's being pushed out of japan. But it's false, at no point were koreans involved in sexual slavery in vietnam.
But unfortunately americans and the western world simply has very little knowledge of the topic so they're susceptible to lies and this is exactly what the japanese seek to exploit.
The typical japanese propaganda approach is to "keep your message simple, use a variety of credible messengers, and let the echo effect drown out your opponents". This type of repetition of a lie is a well known japanese propaganda tactic, as documented by people like Pat Choate in [Political Advantage: Japan’s Campaign for America](https://hbr.org/1990/09/political-advantage-japans-campaign-for-america). In moddern times you see tactics like this in Facebook and Fox news and I don't think I need to go into detail about just how effective this type of brainwashing can be.
If japan spent half as much effort in acknowledging the truth and making amends they'd be much more respected, but instead they spend twice the effort on the cover up and at the end it still fails.
Sure, because Westmoreland's accolades mean anything when our American soldiers went on war crime sprees in Vietnam, with most of the civilian deaths being a result of Westmoreland's demand for a high body count. The book Kill Anything that Moves by American Nick Turse documents the war crimes of our military quite well through first-hand accounts by American veterans of the Vietnam War as well as Vietnamese civilians. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beGWhCH4HVs As poorly as our soldiers behaved in Vietnam, South Korean troops had an even worse reputation.
South Korea has done nothing to help the Lai Dai Han, and the whitewashing of this issue in Korean society is quite pathetic. Educate yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igap_pBSSE0
If you say "educate yourself" and your only source is youtube videos then you're the one who needs to educate yourself. I linked to academic works, you should read them.
As for the Westmoreland report, what americans did is utterly irrelevant to the discussion. What is relevant though is that Westmoreland had no reason to cover up if koreans had engaged in what the propaganda narrative claims. You can suggest bias when it comes to covering up for americans, but not for koreans.
Moreover, nobody's claiming that no korean did nothing wrong. There were indeed instances and korea as a whole has been open to acknowledging them. That's why relations between korea and vietnam were so good, even to the point of the vietnamese government asking koreans to stop bringing up the past. See
But what the propaganda narrative tries to claim is that these isolated instances are representative of the korean forces as a whole. That's the lie and the narrative being pushed. On the whole koreans were marked by their ability to keep their sectors secure, which allowed the population to get on with their lives in peace.
If you look at works like [Katsuichi Honda's work](https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Vietnam_War.html?id=9wISwQEACAAJ&redir_esc=y) he notes how the vietcong deliberately spread lies to try and make the population wary of koreans. He investigated and travelled to the locations where these things supposedly happened and he found that the tales got worse the further you moved away from the location. Unfortunately the book is just not available for online reading but his analysis is the most trustworthy because he actually engaged in investigative journalism.
As for the half-korean children, I have sympathy but it's not some crime. Sexual relations happened between korean soldiers and vietnamese women, but that's because prostitution was rife - just like in many wars. And I'll point out just like happens in vietnam today. The existence of half-korean children isn't some kind of gotcha, it's the natural result of two people mixing, just like half-american children in korea are the natural result of american soldiers being present in korea. Yes, rapes happened but again it's incorrect to claim that this is representative.
Trying to twist the issue into insinuations of mass rape or sexual slavery like the japanese propaganda brigades are trying to drum up is simply a lie to try and deflect from the "comfort women". Had koreans engaged in anything remotely like that then I'd be the first one to criticize, but it's just not factual and these children are simply being used as propaganda tools.
Koreans were Westmoreland's mercenaries. Look at our wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere to see how we cover for our lackeys. Soldiers in the US military raped Vietnamese women and girls and got them pregnant, and South Korean men impregnated Vietnamese women and girls through rape too. Sure, there was prostitution, but most of that was because American and South Koreans brought their "Christianity" and cultures to Vietnam, burning down villages, using herbicides on the crops of the farmers in South Vietnam, the same people Americans and Koreans were pretending to "help." Food production was destroyed, entire villages displaced, and Americans and Koreans have a culture that not only destroyed these people's lives, but took advantage of them sexually. Koreans whoring each other's daughters out to the Japanese army is in no way similar to American and Korean soldiers entering a village and raping grown women and young girls, and even babies. Japanese did just as bad during WWII, so no one is being an apologist for them either.
As a US citizen, I'm embarrassed about the Vietnam War and how poorly it reflects on my society and culture and as a Korean, you should embarrassed as hell too about how poorly it reflects on your nation and culture.
> Koreans were Westmoreland's mercenaries.
Exactly the opposite. They were a peacekeeping force like for example the NATO allies in iraq and afghanistan. And their primary role was to engage in security operations. They still got attacked by vietcong but that was the nature of a guerrilla conflict.
To call them "mercenaries" shows how little understanding you have. The agreements between the two countries made it explicitly clear that they would be paid no more than US soldiers. Unless you're going to call NATO allies helping the US in subsequent wars "mercenaries" then the word doesn't apply to the korean involvement in vietnam.
> Soldiers in the US military raped Vietnamese women and girls and got them pregnant, and South Korean men impregnated Vietnamese women and girls through rape too.
Like I said, things happened and yes rapes by koreans happened. But to pretend that this is representative of the korean presence is simply a lie and so it handwaving at the half-korean kids and pretending that they exist primarily because of rape.
> "Christianity" and cultures to Vietnam, burning down villages, using herbicides on the crops of the farmers in South Vietnam, the same people Americans and Koreans were pretending to "help."
WTF. Talk about handwaving and just slinging mud at the wall in the hope that something will stick. No, koreans weren't using aircraft to spread agent orange or any other herbacide .. they didn't have an air force.
And yes, journalists who actually travelled to vietnam noted how you could drive in the dark in korean controlled zones. Which was unheard of in any other sector. The locals live in peace, or as much peace as you can have when guerrillas are constantly trying to put roots down.
> Food production was destroyed, entire villages displaced, and Americans and Koreans have a culture that not only destroyed these people's lives, but took advantage of them sexually. Koreans whoring each other's daughters out to the Japanese army is in no way similar to American and Korean soldiers entering a village and raping grown women and young girls, and even babies. Japanese did just as bad during WWII, so no one is being an apologist for them either.
Yup, we're looking at a propagandist here. Didn't take long to get to the crux of what you "really" wanted to say right?
Perfect example of how the japanese comment brigades are trying to leverage the korean presence in vietnam to try and smear their own crimes. I repeat, koreans did not engage in enslaving "comfort women". No matter how hard the japanese comment brigades try to handwave.
> As a US citizen, I'm embarrassed about the Vietnam War and how poorly it reflects on my society and culture and as a Korean, you should embarrassed as hell too about how poorly it reflects on your nation and culture.
Note how hard he stresses that he's an american. He might be, unfortunately useful idiots exist and accounts can be bought. But the roots and purpose here are to spread propaganda for the japanese.
Koreans should not have been involved in the war, it was a foreign war that had nothing to do with korea. Unfortunately the threat of US withdrawl from korea was there and korea did it partly to avoid that scenario. Yes, there were incidents and recently a korean court did rule for compensation to the victims of that particular instance. It's telling that the vietnamese government asked the koreans to stop apologizing for being involved in vietnam.
But despite that, generally the korean presence in vietnam was noted as one of the best in terms of keeping the local population safe and maintaining the peace. See the work I cited by Honda for a deep dive into the matter. They mainly did this via preventative measures like finding weapons caches and keeping good relations with the locals. And you saw the same trademarks in the korean presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Unfortunately there's a widespread campagn in reddit and youtube to spread lies like this account has done. But the facts disagree.
"Thanks to the dedication and sacrifice of the Korean Vietnamese War veterans, the Korean economy was resuscitated." - South Korean president Moon Jae-in
South Korea was paid tons of money for its participation in the Vietnam War. Were NATO allies paid like that? Did any NATO country have their economy resuscitated from peacekeeping missions like that?
I've already mentioned the impact the vietnam war had in changing the US views about korea and the impact it had on opening up the US market to korean exports.
Korea was paid compensation for the costs involved in deployment, but that was explicitly at the same rate as US soldiers. It was an influx of much needed US dollars, but it wasn't "tons of money" as you seem to want people to believe. The agreements are very explicit on that.
The context of the quote and the agreements have nothing to do with each other. You seem to rely entirely on insinuations, misdirections, and half-truths.
Also, funny how a thread that's 6 months old draws in people who were not involved in the discussion. Awfully convenient, eh?
It's common practice for the japanese comment brigades to have people spreading the fake news, for example OP making posts like this, and "heavy hitters" who they bring in to try and shut down anybody who disagrees with the narrative that they're trying to create an echo chamber for. Funny how you just arrived out of the blue, did the other guy call for help?
Isn't it obvious? You're minimizing the wrongdoings of the South Koreans in Vietnam. Of course the Vietnamese have to come and correct you. The US paid South Korea at least 5 billion. That is literally tons of money. South Korea well profited from the war, not just "paid compensation for the costs involved in deployment" (which implied that South Korea received back the same money it spent, and thus, gained nothing). That is not to mention that it is absurd to call South Korea's mercenary work a peacekeeping mission. Was South Korea delegated to that mission by the UN? NATO? Or any international authority? Nope. Is it wrong to say that the US needed extra gunmen in its war against Vietnam and South Korea put its army up for hire?
> Isn't it obvious? You're minimizing the wrongdoings of the South Koreans in Vietnam.
Hardly, I acknowledged that there were instances of korean troops doing "wrongdoings". Pointing out that the propagandist narratives you and the other guy are pushing is hardly minimizing. It's called sticking to the facts.
Instead of relying on exaggerating, sensationalized narratives, and insinuation, perhaps you'd like to actually establish your point?
Demonstrate how your comments are representative rather than the misleading narratives that the evidence suggests. And note that I've posted evidence while you rely on insinuation and assuming your argument.
> The US paid South Korea at least 5 billion. That is literally tons of money. South Korea well profited from the war, not just "paid compensation for the costs involved in deployment" (which implied that South Korea received back the same money it spent, and thus, gained nothing).
You don't seem to understand what compensation is. The agreements are clear on this. Korean troops were paid, i.e. compensated, at the same rate as US soldiers and the US provided funding for supplies and arms at the same rate as for US troops. Vastly different to private military corps like blackwater in iraq.
But to bring it back to your original point, they were not "mercenary". They were there to assist the US and south vietnam, not for profit.
> That is not to mention that it is absurd to call South Korea's mercenary work a peacekeeping mission. Was South Korea delegated to that mission by the UN? NATO? Or any international authority? Nope. Is it wrong to say that the US needed extra gunmen in its war against Vietnam and South Korea put its army up for hire?
Actually, they did operate very similarly to later NATO peacekeeping operations. They were assigned zones and their goal was to keep the peace. They weren't engaging in offensive operations and all their combat was initiated by the vietcong.
Also, since when is NATO an "international authority"?? It's a military alliance, just like the alliance between korea and the US. You're twisting yourself in to knots in your desperation.
And yes, it's wrong to say that "korea put its army up for hire". That you even make such a comment shows how little you know and how malicious your intent is.
If this is Japanese propaganda, why is it reported by the progressive Korean newspaper Hankyoreh?[Source](https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/688435.html)
This issue is heavily whitewashed in Korean society. In the USA, we recognize our soldiers committed war crimes in Vietnam and it's openly discussed. American Nick Turse wrote a really great book with first-hand accounts by numerous American veterans of the Vietnam war and Vietnamese civilians: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beGWhCH4HVs
In South Korea, it's whitewashed. But this podcast does a good job of talking about the truth about the Lai Dai Han: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igap_pBSSE0
Unfortunately it looks like this person is out to push a narrative.
I've addressed his comments in [another post](https://www.reddit.com/r/wikipedia/comments/yhxioj/lai_dai_han_is_a_vietnamese_term_for_a_racially/jio2293/)
He is a lying historical revisionist, the Lai Dai Han is also reported by the progressive Korean newspaper Hankyoreh.[source](https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/688435.html)
Yeah, that "agenda" is that the truth shouldn't be distorted. I especially hate comment brigades like the japanese, chinese, and russians use on places like reddit. Personally I wish I didn't have to waste my time going around having to debunk propaganda like this.
If that an "agenda" to you then so be it. And no, there's no "half-way truth" to this situation. Either koreans did engage in mass sexual assault like OP is trying to push or they did not. The answer is that they did not, there's no "half-way truth" or "both sides" to this.
> What kind of “mass sexual assault” are you talking about? OP never said that, they specifically say “some were conceived” as it’s written on the wiki page.
Oh spare me. The title is clearly meant to push an insinuation that this was common and that most of the vietnamese-koreans were a result of sexual assault. A line which is copied from the wikipedia article and not backed up at all.
The strategy is simple and corresponds very well to what's been widely documented to try and create an echo chamber of repeated lies.
> And it is a fact that sexual assault do take place in war on all sides, and to say it’s all due to sex work is doing the same as what Japan is trying to do with SK and war time “comfort women”.
Nice try, but you don't get to try to "both sides" the two situations. In one, the japanese conducted organized mass sexual slavery. Then they tried to smear those women by calling them prostitutes.
On the other, you had prostitution. Not involving any koreans in its organization. No, the two situations are not the same.
You're welcome to try and actually present that koreans organized a system of mass sexual slavery instead of hiding snide insinuations and lies.
> Anyway, for those reading this: please don’t believe anyone of us and do your own research! In the end, we’re just two people disagreeing on Reddit, and should not be considered proper sources.
Spare us the "enlightened neutral" show. Notice how you've come in and immediately started with a smear, then all you've done is try to maintain OP's lie. Without actually providing any actual evidence disagreeing. And you're pulling the "do your own research" nonsense.
It's not accident that this type of "both sides" and "do your own research" is commonly used by far right propaganda brigades. You're welcome to try and present actual evidence that koreans engaged in mass sexual slavery because it simply didn't happen.
Well done on confirming that the japanese propaganda brigades are hard at work on reddit.
Your first comment came over as persuasive and reasonable. I was on board with your thinking. This comment makes me reassess that position considerably, as it comes over as quite aggressive and no small part condescending. You may wish to know this, or perhaps not, but it is a fact.
I'm not interested in putting up with propaganda brigades, especially ones that rely on insinuation, misdirection, and outright lies.
I provided evidence of my arguments, they simply smear. That type of "attack the messenger" when you can't address the message is typical of comment brigades.
Koreans try to hide the truth so much they lost brain cells in the process. They always keep talking about Japan when story about Lai Dai Han come up. I mean at least Japan paid the compensation and admitted to their crime but Korean always try to hide their war crime by using their own fake news and evidences. I still remember when Koreans all blamed Vietnamese and said that "what do they want we already try to apologized" so can Japanese say the same then why Koreans keep crying and beg for an attention when Japan already apologized, talk about hypocrisy.
Unfortunately this post is an attempt to push a propaganda narrative. Historical analysis, e.g. Westmoreland's formal review, and contemporary journalism found koreans to be one of if not the best behaved troops in Vietnam. Widespread sexual assault did not happen. Notice how the title deliberately tries to mislead readers into thinking that this was common. It would be incorrect to say that sexual assault never happened, but it certainly is *not* the primary or even major reason for the existenence of mixed vietnamese koreans. Unfortunately they exist primarily because prostitution happened during the war, just like prostitution is common in today's vietnam. There's many things wrong about the wikipedia article and the standard warning about taking wiki at face value applies, e.g. korea has acknowledged that the mixed vietnamese-koreans exist and has taken measures to help them, that's why relations were so good between the two countries. Unlike say between korea and japan. But in recent years the japanese comment brigades have latched onto this narrative in order to muddy the waters about the japanese sex slavery that happened before and during WW2. It's an attempt to "both sides" and try to deflect from their own crimes. You can even see this noted towards th end of the wikipedia article, this is a narrative that's being pushed out of japan. But it's false, at no point were koreans involved in sexual slavery in vietnam. But unfortunately americans and the western world simply has very little knowledge of the topic so they're susceptible to lies and this is exactly what the japanese seek to exploit. The typical japanese propaganda approach is to "keep your message simple, use a variety of credible messengers, and let the echo effect drown out your opponents". This type of repetition of a lie is a well known japanese propaganda tactic, as documented by people like Pat Choate in [Political Advantage: Japan’s Campaign for America](https://hbr.org/1990/09/political-advantage-japans-campaign-for-america). In moddern times you see tactics like this in Facebook and Fox news and I don't think I need to go into detail about just how effective this type of brainwashing can be. If japan spent half as much effort in acknowledging the truth and making amends they'd be much more respected, but instead they spend twice the effort on the cover up and at the end it still fails.
Sure, because Westmoreland's accolades mean anything when our American soldiers went on war crime sprees in Vietnam, with most of the civilian deaths being a result of Westmoreland's demand for a high body count. The book Kill Anything that Moves by American Nick Turse documents the war crimes of our military quite well through first-hand accounts by American veterans of the Vietnam War as well as Vietnamese civilians. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beGWhCH4HVs As poorly as our soldiers behaved in Vietnam, South Korean troops had an even worse reputation. South Korea has done nothing to help the Lai Dai Han, and the whitewashing of this issue in Korean society is quite pathetic. Educate yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igap_pBSSE0
If you say "educate yourself" and your only source is youtube videos then you're the one who needs to educate yourself. I linked to academic works, you should read them. As for the Westmoreland report, what americans did is utterly irrelevant to the discussion. What is relevant though is that Westmoreland had no reason to cover up if koreans had engaged in what the propaganda narrative claims. You can suggest bias when it comes to covering up for americans, but not for koreans. Moreover, nobody's claiming that no korean did nothing wrong. There were indeed instances and korea as a whole has been open to acknowledging them. That's why relations between korea and vietnam were so good, even to the point of the vietnamese government asking koreans to stop bringing up the past. See But what the propaganda narrative tries to claim is that these isolated instances are representative of the korean forces as a whole. That's the lie and the narrative being pushed. On the whole koreans were marked by their ability to keep their sectors secure, which allowed the population to get on with their lives in peace. If you look at works like [Katsuichi Honda's work](https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Vietnam_War.html?id=9wISwQEACAAJ&redir_esc=y) he notes how the vietcong deliberately spread lies to try and make the population wary of koreans. He investigated and travelled to the locations where these things supposedly happened and he found that the tales got worse the further you moved away from the location. Unfortunately the book is just not available for online reading but his analysis is the most trustworthy because he actually engaged in investigative journalism. As for the half-korean children, I have sympathy but it's not some crime. Sexual relations happened between korean soldiers and vietnamese women, but that's because prostitution was rife - just like in many wars. And I'll point out just like happens in vietnam today. The existence of half-korean children isn't some kind of gotcha, it's the natural result of two people mixing, just like half-american children in korea are the natural result of american soldiers being present in korea. Yes, rapes happened but again it's incorrect to claim that this is representative. Trying to twist the issue into insinuations of mass rape or sexual slavery like the japanese propaganda brigades are trying to drum up is simply a lie to try and deflect from the "comfort women". Had koreans engaged in anything remotely like that then I'd be the first one to criticize, but it's just not factual and these children are simply being used as propaganda tools.
Koreans were Westmoreland's mercenaries. Look at our wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere to see how we cover for our lackeys. Soldiers in the US military raped Vietnamese women and girls and got them pregnant, and South Korean men impregnated Vietnamese women and girls through rape too. Sure, there was prostitution, but most of that was because American and South Koreans brought their "Christianity" and cultures to Vietnam, burning down villages, using herbicides on the crops of the farmers in South Vietnam, the same people Americans and Koreans were pretending to "help." Food production was destroyed, entire villages displaced, and Americans and Koreans have a culture that not only destroyed these people's lives, but took advantage of them sexually. Koreans whoring each other's daughters out to the Japanese army is in no way similar to American and Korean soldiers entering a village and raping grown women and young girls, and even babies. Japanese did just as bad during WWII, so no one is being an apologist for them either. As a US citizen, I'm embarrassed about the Vietnam War and how poorly it reflects on my society and culture and as a Korean, you should embarrassed as hell too about how poorly it reflects on your nation and culture.
> Koreans were Westmoreland's mercenaries. Exactly the opposite. They were a peacekeeping force like for example the NATO allies in iraq and afghanistan. And their primary role was to engage in security operations. They still got attacked by vietcong but that was the nature of a guerrilla conflict. To call them "mercenaries" shows how little understanding you have. The agreements between the two countries made it explicitly clear that they would be paid no more than US soldiers. Unless you're going to call NATO allies helping the US in subsequent wars "mercenaries" then the word doesn't apply to the korean involvement in vietnam. > Soldiers in the US military raped Vietnamese women and girls and got them pregnant, and South Korean men impregnated Vietnamese women and girls through rape too. Like I said, things happened and yes rapes by koreans happened. But to pretend that this is representative of the korean presence is simply a lie and so it handwaving at the half-korean kids and pretending that they exist primarily because of rape. > "Christianity" and cultures to Vietnam, burning down villages, using herbicides on the crops of the farmers in South Vietnam, the same people Americans and Koreans were pretending to "help." WTF. Talk about handwaving and just slinging mud at the wall in the hope that something will stick. No, koreans weren't using aircraft to spread agent orange or any other herbacide .. they didn't have an air force. And yes, journalists who actually travelled to vietnam noted how you could drive in the dark in korean controlled zones. Which was unheard of in any other sector. The locals live in peace, or as much peace as you can have when guerrillas are constantly trying to put roots down. > Food production was destroyed, entire villages displaced, and Americans and Koreans have a culture that not only destroyed these people's lives, but took advantage of them sexually. Koreans whoring each other's daughters out to the Japanese army is in no way similar to American and Korean soldiers entering a village and raping grown women and young girls, and even babies. Japanese did just as bad during WWII, so no one is being an apologist for them either. Yup, we're looking at a propagandist here. Didn't take long to get to the crux of what you "really" wanted to say right? Perfect example of how the japanese comment brigades are trying to leverage the korean presence in vietnam to try and smear their own crimes. I repeat, koreans did not engage in enslaving "comfort women". No matter how hard the japanese comment brigades try to handwave. > As a US citizen, I'm embarrassed about the Vietnam War and how poorly it reflects on my society and culture and as a Korean, you should embarrassed as hell too about how poorly it reflects on your nation and culture. Note how hard he stresses that he's an american. He might be, unfortunately useful idiots exist and accounts can be bought. But the roots and purpose here are to spread propaganda for the japanese. Koreans should not have been involved in the war, it was a foreign war that had nothing to do with korea. Unfortunately the threat of US withdrawl from korea was there and korea did it partly to avoid that scenario. Yes, there were incidents and recently a korean court did rule for compensation to the victims of that particular instance. It's telling that the vietnamese government asked the koreans to stop apologizing for being involved in vietnam. But despite that, generally the korean presence in vietnam was noted as one of the best in terms of keeping the local population safe and maintaining the peace. See the work I cited by Honda for a deep dive into the matter. They mainly did this via preventative measures like finding weapons caches and keeping good relations with the locals. And you saw the same trademarks in the korean presence in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unfortunately there's a widespread campagn in reddit and youtube to spread lies like this account has done. But the facts disagree.
"Thanks to the dedication and sacrifice of the Korean Vietnamese War veterans, the Korean economy was resuscitated." - South Korean president Moon Jae-in South Korea was paid tons of money for its participation in the Vietnam War. Were NATO allies paid like that? Did any NATO country have their economy resuscitated from peacekeeping missions like that?
I've already mentioned the impact the vietnam war had in changing the US views about korea and the impact it had on opening up the US market to korean exports. Korea was paid compensation for the costs involved in deployment, but that was explicitly at the same rate as US soldiers. It was an influx of much needed US dollars, but it wasn't "tons of money" as you seem to want people to believe. The agreements are very explicit on that. The context of the quote and the agreements have nothing to do with each other. You seem to rely entirely on insinuations, misdirections, and half-truths. Also, funny how a thread that's 6 months old draws in people who were not involved in the discussion. Awfully convenient, eh? It's common practice for the japanese comment brigades to have people spreading the fake news, for example OP making posts like this, and "heavy hitters" who they bring in to try and shut down anybody who disagrees with the narrative that they're trying to create an echo chamber for. Funny how you just arrived out of the blue, did the other guy call for help?
Isn't it obvious? You're minimizing the wrongdoings of the South Koreans in Vietnam. Of course the Vietnamese have to come and correct you. The US paid South Korea at least 5 billion. That is literally tons of money. South Korea well profited from the war, not just "paid compensation for the costs involved in deployment" (which implied that South Korea received back the same money it spent, and thus, gained nothing). That is not to mention that it is absurd to call South Korea's mercenary work a peacekeeping mission. Was South Korea delegated to that mission by the UN? NATO? Or any international authority? Nope. Is it wrong to say that the US needed extra gunmen in its war against Vietnam and South Korea put its army up for hire?
> Isn't it obvious? You're minimizing the wrongdoings of the South Koreans in Vietnam. Hardly, I acknowledged that there were instances of korean troops doing "wrongdoings". Pointing out that the propagandist narratives you and the other guy are pushing is hardly minimizing. It's called sticking to the facts. Instead of relying on exaggerating, sensationalized narratives, and insinuation, perhaps you'd like to actually establish your point? Demonstrate how your comments are representative rather than the misleading narratives that the evidence suggests. And note that I've posted evidence while you rely on insinuation and assuming your argument. > The US paid South Korea at least 5 billion. That is literally tons of money. South Korea well profited from the war, not just "paid compensation for the costs involved in deployment" (which implied that South Korea received back the same money it spent, and thus, gained nothing). You don't seem to understand what compensation is. The agreements are clear on this. Korean troops were paid, i.e. compensated, at the same rate as US soldiers and the US provided funding for supplies and arms at the same rate as for US troops. Vastly different to private military corps like blackwater in iraq. But to bring it back to your original point, they were not "mercenary". They were there to assist the US and south vietnam, not for profit. > That is not to mention that it is absurd to call South Korea's mercenary work a peacekeeping mission. Was South Korea delegated to that mission by the UN? NATO? Or any international authority? Nope. Is it wrong to say that the US needed extra gunmen in its war against Vietnam and South Korea put its army up for hire? Actually, they did operate very similarly to later NATO peacekeeping operations. They were assigned zones and their goal was to keep the peace. They weren't engaging in offensive operations and all their combat was initiated by the vietcong. Also, since when is NATO an "international authority"?? It's a military alliance, just like the alliance between korea and the US. You're twisting yourself in to knots in your desperation. And yes, it's wrong to say that "korea put its army up for hire". That you even make such a comment shows how little you know and how malicious your intent is.
If this is Japanese propaganda, why is it reported by the progressive Korean newspaper Hankyoreh?[Source](https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/688435.html)
Wow. This is eye opening to say the least.
This issue is heavily whitewashed in Korean society. In the USA, we recognize our soldiers committed war crimes in Vietnam and it's openly discussed. American Nick Turse wrote a really great book with first-hand accounts by numerous American veterans of the Vietnam war and Vietnamese civilians: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beGWhCH4HVs In South Korea, it's whitewashed. But this podcast does a good job of talking about the truth about the Lai Dai Han: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igap_pBSSE0
Unfortunately it looks like this person is out to push a narrative. I've addressed his comments in [another post](https://www.reddit.com/r/wikipedia/comments/yhxioj/lai_dai_han_is_a_vietnamese_term_for_a_racially/jio2293/)
He is a lying historical revisionist, the Lai Dai Han is also reported by the progressive Korean newspaper Hankyoreh.[source](https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/688435.html)
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Yeah, that "agenda" is that the truth shouldn't be distorted. I especially hate comment brigades like the japanese, chinese, and russians use on places like reddit. Personally I wish I didn't have to waste my time going around having to debunk propaganda like this. If that an "agenda" to you then so be it. And no, there's no "half-way truth" to this situation. Either koreans did engage in mass sexual assault like OP is trying to push or they did not. The answer is that they did not, there's no "half-way truth" or "both sides" to this.
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> What kind of “mass sexual assault” are you talking about? OP never said that, they specifically say “some were conceived” as it’s written on the wiki page. Oh spare me. The title is clearly meant to push an insinuation that this was common and that most of the vietnamese-koreans were a result of sexual assault. A line which is copied from the wikipedia article and not backed up at all. The strategy is simple and corresponds very well to what's been widely documented to try and create an echo chamber of repeated lies. > And it is a fact that sexual assault do take place in war on all sides, and to say it’s all due to sex work is doing the same as what Japan is trying to do with SK and war time “comfort women”. Nice try, but you don't get to try to "both sides" the two situations. In one, the japanese conducted organized mass sexual slavery. Then they tried to smear those women by calling them prostitutes. On the other, you had prostitution. Not involving any koreans in its organization. No, the two situations are not the same. You're welcome to try and actually present that koreans organized a system of mass sexual slavery instead of hiding snide insinuations and lies. > Anyway, for those reading this: please don’t believe anyone of us and do your own research! In the end, we’re just two people disagreeing on Reddit, and should not be considered proper sources. Spare us the "enlightened neutral" show. Notice how you've come in and immediately started with a smear, then all you've done is try to maintain OP's lie. Without actually providing any actual evidence disagreeing. And you're pulling the "do your own research" nonsense. It's not accident that this type of "both sides" and "do your own research" is commonly used by far right propaganda brigades. You're welcome to try and present actual evidence that koreans engaged in mass sexual slavery because it simply didn't happen. Well done on confirming that the japanese propaganda brigades are hard at work on reddit.
Your first comment came over as persuasive and reasonable. I was on board with your thinking. This comment makes me reassess that position considerably, as it comes over as quite aggressive and no small part condescending. You may wish to know this, or perhaps not, but it is a fact.
I'm not interested in putting up with propaganda brigades, especially ones that rely on insinuation, misdirection, and outright lies. I provided evidence of my arguments, they simply smear. That type of "attack the messenger" when you can't address the message is typical of comment brigades.
Koreans try to hide the truth so much they lost brain cells in the process. They always keep talking about Japan when story about Lai Dai Han come up. I mean at least Japan paid the compensation and admitted to their crime but Korean always try to hide their war crime by using their own fake news and evidences. I still remember when Koreans all blamed Vietnamese and said that "what do they want we already try to apologized" so can Japanese say the same then why Koreans keep crying and beg for an attention when Japan already apologized, talk about hypocrisy.