I wondered to myself if South Korea were involved in the Vietnam war, since it was little more than 10 years since the Korean war, and the South Koreans must have still been very much anti-Communist, and probably still itching to strike a blow against the Commies, not far from home. It turns out that not only were they there in Vietnam, but they suffered the next heaviest losses after the Americans on the anti-Communist side, with 5,000 killed and 10,000 wounded. Only a fraction of the number of 58,000 Americans killed, and an even smaller fraction compared to the casualties of South Vietnamese forces, but with that level of casualties, they must have had tens of thousands of personnel “in the Nam”. Incidentally, aside from the Australian and New Zealand troops also fighting against the North and Viet Cong, there were forces from Thailand, who lost a few hundred men. On the Communist side, there were about 1,400 dead attributed to China, and 16 Soviet personnel were killed. I’m assuming the Chinese and Soviets were not there in big numbers, or it would have been a very different war. Seems like there’s always something new to learn about Vietnam.
Posted on: Sat, 05 Oct 2013 16:26:44 +0000