This is definitely some place I need to go and check out the next time I am in Korea:

A Vietnam War veterans memorial village will be dedicated on Thursday in Hwacheon, Gangwon Province, where a total of 300,000 Korean troops underwent training prior to their departure for Indochina in the 1960s and 70s. Weapons used during the undeclared U.S. war will be put on display, and a Vietnamese village and a replica of the network of tunnels used by the victorious Vietcong as their hiding spots and communication and supply routes will be on display. The training camp was built in spring 1965 to prepare troops for combat in Vietnam. That year, more than 90 percent of troops underwent training here prior to their departure. About 30 years after the war ended, all facilities except the skeleton of a cinder block mess hall, have been removed and turned into a farmland.

The governments of Gangwon Province and Hwacheon-gun began construction of the memorial village in 2000, in the belief that it was necessary to build an educational center offering lessons about war. The provincial and county governments spent a total amount of W18 billion (US$1=W1,363) on a 140,000 sq. m lot in Oeum-li, to build a memorial hall, a monument, mock barracks, and six traditional Vietnamese houses, an exhibition hall for field combat equipment, a mock training camp, a drill ground, and a picnic site.

Early this month, the local governments completed a replica of a 157 m-long tunnel furnished with six exhibition halls, including an armory and war council room. Gangwon Province and Hwacheon-gun said they have agreed with a nearby Army unit to operate mock training classes, including a ranger school and a rifle range. At the dedication ceremony on Thursday, the flags of the eight military units that participated in the war will be hoisted, with troops to be attired in combat fatigues of the period. [Chosun Ilbo via Brian in Jeollanam-do]

Brian has more pictures of the memorial village over at his site.

Unfortunately in America few people even know that South Korea fought on the side of the US during the Vietnam War. At the height of the war South Korea had over 47,000 soldiers involved in the conflict, which resulted in the deaths of 4,407 South Korean soldiers and 11,000 more wounded. The reasons for South Korea’s involvement in Vietnam are various to include supporting the US-ROK alliance, valuable combat experience for the ROK Army, and valuable economic assistance from the United States in return. Another reason is that South Korean President Park Chung-hee was also attempting to create a regional defense body with Japan and Taiwan at the time because it was the height of the Cold War and South Korea wasn’t nearly as strong a national power as they are now.

The Koreans I have met who fought in the Vietnam War have always felt unappreciated by the Korean public and feel they are being dismissed as mercenaries for the United States because of the fact that they received high combat pay from the US for their service in Vietnam and the fact that the ROK Army has been accused of many atrocities during the war. However, little focus is ever given to the fact that many ROK veterans were exposed to Agent Orange and many veterans are now dying from this exposure today, plus these soldiers involvement in Vietnam ultimately helped lead to the amazing economic growth South Korea received during this time period.

American Vietnam veterans I have spoke with, spoke highly of the ROK troops in Vietnam though as time went on I was told the quality of the ROK Army soldiers got poorer and poorer. I have also mentioned before Bing West’s book, The Village that also provides descriptions of the ROK military in Vietnam which he describes how the ROK Army operated a number of illegal blackmarket activities during the war. I would be interested to hear what any American veterans of the Vietnam War reading this have to share about what they saw with the ROK Army deployment to Vietnam.

Hopefully one day in Korea that focus on the ROK Army’s involvement in Vietnam will not be one of highlighting the negatives of the ROK’s participation in the war and instead focus on how these soldiers went to fight communist expansionism in Vietnam much like when allied countries came to Korea during the Korean War to fight communist expansionism there. All the soldiers that served in both the Korean and Vietnam Wars should be respected for their service and shouldn’t be dismissed and forgotten. That is why it is good to see that Hwacheon County has decided to erect a memorial in their honor. I only hope the memorial doesn’t turn into an amusement park type of atmosphere, which unfortunately is what has happened at other memorials in Korea.