Korean Reinforcements (PJW)

"Korean Reinforcements" is an excerpt from former Secretary of State James William Fulbright's novel The Mad Man of Korea: The Decade of Tears, published posthumously in 1997.

Korean Reinforcements
In late spring 1964 the situation in Vietnam was getting dire for the South Vietnam government. The government was still stabilizing after the March 31 coup which placed Phan Kaac Suu in charge. With the government unstable, the large scale invasion North Vietnam had been preparing for since President Byrd withdrew from South Vietnam in 1961 had begun. The North Vietnamese Army (NVA) rolled across the border supported by Soviet liaison officers, while the Viet Cong rose up in the countryside. Despite limited British support, the South Vietnamese were losing ground. This was where South Korean dictator Lee Chu-il decided to prove his country's worth.

After taking power in 1962, Chu-il had all but shut off the country from the rest of the world. Spy planes revealed that a few of the smaller cities had been emptied, and our strategists predicted their citizens now tirelessly training for war and building industry in the rural countryside. Whether this would work or not was uncertain, but did not matter to us, since South Korea was still a nominal ally of the United States. After over a year of build-up and industrializing, Chu-il decided to show the nation's progress, troops would be sent to aid South Vietnam in its defense against the "red menace".

Troops and supplies from South Korea began arriving in Saigon mid-June, at the height of the NVA April Offensive. Immediately, the few military advisers that remained there, a lieutenant by the name of Colin Powell, observed that the South Korean army looked nearly as rag-tagged as the Viet Cong. Their uniforms and weapons had been shoddily manufactured, and the leading generals and officers were inexperienced and got their through political connections, due to a purge of military leadership Chu-il earlier committed.

What they lacked in quality they made up for in quantity. The April Offensive ended at the Battle of An Ninh due to South Korean support. From June 26-31 the NVA, supported by the Viet Cong, engaged with South Vietnamese and South Korean forces at the village of An Ninh. The South Vietnamese threw the Koreans into the meat grinder. South Korean weapons jammed and formations broke, but the overwhelming wall of South Korean soldiers could not be passed by the NVA. The April Offensive came to an end with the NVA in retreat, content to consolidate their gains while the Viet Cong continued to harass the south.

An Ninh held but the South Koreans suffered heavy losses. Chu-il seemed content, however, with sending more troops to Vietnam; little did we know, South Korea was suffering from famines and Chu-il hoped sending some of the increasingly bloated army to die in the jungles in Vietnam would be a solution to this problem. By that point, the army was large enough to have part of it deployed it Vietnam while the other protected the homeland.

The South Koreans seemed to enjoy being in Vietnam. All foreign news had been either banned or heavily censored in South Korea, so many Koreans took the opportunity to read up on international news. We could see it in the soldiers' eyes: they did not want to return to South Korea. But for the sake of their families, they had to whenever Chu-il demanded it. But for now Chu-il would let his army rot in Vietnam; when he ordered the armies home, that's when the trouble began.