For Koreans, Vietnam War Wounds Heal Slowly

For Koreans, Vietnam War Wounds Heal Slowly

(EXCERPT) News Feature, Ngoc Nguyen, Pacific News Service, Sep 18,
2003

Editor's Note: Once Korea's forgotten war, the Vietnam War is looming
large in the South Korean consciousness.

SEOUL, South Korea--Between 1965 and 1970, more than 310,000 Korean
soldiers fought in the Vietnam War, the largest foreign contingent
after American troops. At the height of the war in 1969, 50,000 Korean
combat soldiers were stationed in Vietnam, outnumbering even North
Vietnamese troops. More than 5,000 South Korean lives were lost.

Yet for decades, Vietnam remained Korea's forgotten war. Now, however,
the country's collective memory of its involvement in Vietnam is
slowly, painfully surfacing.

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 s...

U.S. and friendly nation laws prohibit fully reproducing
copyrighted material. In abidance with our laws this report
cannot be provided in its entirety. However, you can read it
in full today, 18 Sep 2003, at the following URL. (COMBINE
the following lines into your web browser.) The
subject/content of this report is not necessarily the
viewpoint of the distributing Library. This report is provided
for your information and discussion.

http://news.pacificnews.org/news/vie...fdc2a2d6f5726c


---------------------------
Otis Willie
Associate Librarian
The American War Library
http://www.americanwarlibrary.com