Moving beyond the past toward the future

How about starting cultural and education exchange programs for 1,000 middle and high school students a year for a more promising future of the two countries?

Chang Se-jeongThe author is an editorial writer of the JoongAng Ilbo. The date 9/11 pertains to the horrific Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 by al Qaeda. For some elderly Koreans, the date 60 years ago marks the initiation of the historic overseas dispatch of South Korean combat troops to South Vietnam under the regime of Park Chung Hee at the request of the U.S. administration.

Ahn Kyong-hwan, 69, director of external affairs at Hanoi-based Nguyen Trai University, shows his new book “Today’s Vietnam in Six Keywords” in front of the Vietnamese Embassy in Seoul. [CHANG SE-JEONG]

This year marks the 60th anniversary of Korea’s participation in the Vietnam War. Upon the legislative endorsement in July 1964 of the military deployment, the first batch of 140 — including a 130-member team of medical staff and 10 taekwondo trainers — set off from the port of Busan. Combat troops were deployed after the dispatch of military engineering units in February 1965.

According to the memoir published by former Foreign Minister Lee Dong-won in 1992, President Park — who was head of the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction in 1961 — expressed his willingness to support the U.S. engagement in Vietnam in his meeting with President John F. Kennedy during his visit to Washington in November that year. Specifics of the military deployment were discussed during U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk’s trip to Seoul in early 1964. To William Bundy, who visited Seoul in October that year as assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs under President Lyndon Johnson, Park reaffirmed his intent “to help the United States.”

Until the complete withdrawal of foreign troops by March as a result of the Paris Peace Accords signed on Jan. 27, 1973, Korean soldiers fought for South Vietnam for eight years and six months. As many as 325,517 South Korean soldiers took part in the war. Among them, 5,099 were killed and 11,232 wounded. After the last U.S. units pulled out in March 1973, Saigon fell on April 30 and went under Communist North Vietnam’s control.

Throughout the past six decades, the war went mostly forgotten. Only under President Park Geun-hye, daughter of Park Chung Hee, the legal grounds were made in 2016 to commemorate “overseas dispatches of soldiers.” May 29 was officially fixed to commemorate overseas war veterans through the amendment of the War Veterans Act in September 2022. Given the issue’s sensitiveness, the date was set to coincide with the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers.

Local governments and councils have been hosting modest memorial events since last year. But the surviving 170,000 veterans urge the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs to hold the memorial to properly commemorate the fallen soldiers. The conflict over the combat pay the U.S. government paid — $7,400 per person — which largely went into funding the construction of the Gyeongbu Expressway and other industrialization projects also needs to be addressed.

Korea was able to normalize a relationship with Vietnam on Dec. 22, 1992 after the Cold War ended. Bilateral relations have dramatically flourished over the last 32 years. How is the war remembered in today’s Vietnam, where capitalism has come to beat Communism?

I asked Ahn Kyong-hwan, 69, director of external affairs at Hanoi-based Nguyen Trai University. Ahn studied Vietnamese at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies from 1974 at the recommendation of his brother-in-law who fought in the war. Ahn volunteered to work in Vietnam while working at Hyundai Corporation in 1989. He became the first foreigner to earn a doctoral degree in linguistics at Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities. Ahn had taught in Vietnam for 26 years and headed the Vietnam Studies Association in Korea. In May, he published “Today’s Vietnam in Six Keywords.”

Q. Is there any movement of revisiting Korea’s war engagement in Vietnam?A. Not really. Since the Doi Moi (meaning reform and opening) strategy was adopted in December 1986, Vietnam has been keeping to its “bamboo” — or independent and flexible — foreign policy. Vietnamese people wish to move beyond the past and make past foes their new friends.”

What do you think of the court ruling in February last year that found Korean marines responsible for a civilian massacre in 1968 that killed 74 villagers? It’s sad. I can’t see the good in bringing up the tragedy that happened during the war that ended a half a century ago. Vietnam, having survived multiple wars, has been trying hard to put their past behind them and are not pleased with the woeful reminder. The North Vietnamese soldiers who fought with South Korean soldiers remember them as courageous and strong military. The Vietnamese veterans told me that only those who had experienced a war can appreciate the true value of peace.

What can be a win-win strategy for both countries? Support for Vietnam and bolstering bilateral relationship should come forward through the momentum of the 60th anniversary of Korea’s war engagement. Naming streets after Hanoi and Seoul or Ho Chi Minh and Sejong in respective cities can be meaningful. How about starting cultural and education exchange programs for 1,000 middle and high school students a year for a more promising future of the two countries?