Member-only story
Two Wars, One Struggle: The North and South Korean involvement in the Vietnam War
(This was research that I undertook in the final year of my BA in History in 2017. I have published it on my medium so more people can read it. It got marked as a 1st, although I don’t remember if it was a 75 mark or a 78)
The war in Vietnam was the second war in Asia between a communist North and an American back capitalist South. In 1950, a Northern invasion on the Korean peninsula prompted a brutal conflict that would end in 1953, with the South making minor territorial gains. After the war, the two states shared an uneasy truce while both establishing themselves on the world stage. They took a keen interest in the ongoing insurgency, and eventual war, in Vietnam. The North Koreans were ideologically sympathetic to the struggle of the North Vietnamese. They provided aid, men and training but were held back by divisions in the communist bloc. The Chinese in particular were keen to isolate Vietnam so it would gain the most influence in the region. Their sway over the North Koreans forced them to limit their assistance in the conflict. Some North Vietnamese also felt the Koreans were using the war as a smokescreen to launch a new invasion of South Korea.
The South Koreans were also ideologically sympathetic to their counterparts in Vietnam in their fight against communism. They had a great deal more influence than North Korea and they became the second largest foreign force in the conflict, performing well in most combat scenarios. However, the motives of the South Korean government was largely to please their American allies. They did not want the US to pull out of South Korea, so they felt sending troops to fight in America’s war would secure their own future but they often clashed with the Nixon administration over the specifics of their deployment. Like the relationship between North Vietnam and Korea, the South Vietnamese were often sceptical of the South Koreans motives and often viewed them as an American mercenary force. While the South Koreans were not as ideologically committed to the struggle, they had greater influence on the conflict than their Northern neighbours.
North Korea, North Vietnam and the wider communist world
