Page 620 - Le Operazioni Interforze e Multinazionali nella Storia Militare - ACTA Tomo I

620 XXXIX Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

A Study on the Combined and Joint Operation of the ROK
Armed Forces through in the Vietnam War

Hong-Guk OH

1. Introduction
am very happy to have been invited to speak for the second time following last
I year’s conference in Sofia. Torino and Korea share a long history together. In 1974,
ROK participated in the automobile show hosted at Torino with our first automobile
invention, the “Pony”.
Thanks to Torino’s help in publicity, the ROK automobile industry was able to flour-
ish and became the first contributor to our economy.
Furthermore, when I enterred the national military academy in 1981, the first foreign
slogan that we were told to learn was, “veni, vidi, vici.” It was Gaius Julius Caesar’s oral
declaration respecting his campaign in BC47. And most recently, here in Torino is where
Yuna-Kim won her first Grand Prix in 2007.

2. The outline of the Vietnam War
This paper aims to trace the development and modernization of the , ROK Forces
while fighting alongside American troops in the Vietnam War . 2013 is a special year, it
th
marks the 60 anniversary of the Korean War armistice.
It also marks the 40 anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. On January 27
th
th
1973, the Paris Peace Conference was held and the US Forces and Combined Forces
finally pulled out of the Vietnamese peninsula. However, two years later, Vietnam con-
tinued to wage war and eventually united under a Socialist leadership.
From the end of World War II to 1979, Vietnam has engaged in military combat for
35 years in a series of 4 different wars. The first Vietnam War, a conflict between North
Vietnam and France, concluded in 1954 with the battle of Dien Bien Phu. The second
Vietnam War started in 1959, included, the Khe shan battle on 1968 and the Spring Of-
fensive in 1972. The Paris Peace Treaty in 1973 put an end to the violence temporarily.
1
2
The North Vietnam started the war again.
Ultimately, Saigon was taken over in April 1975 and socialist Vietnam as we know,
was founded. The unified nation invaded Cambodia in 1978 and fought against China
in 1979. The Vietnam War is often alluded to “the war between chess and the game of
badug ,” or “the battle of bicycles and planes.” In other words, the Vietnamese soldiers
had to face large-scale military offences and weaponry using guerilla tactics.
To understand the circumstances of battle of the time, we can look at the remnants of

1 Harry G. Summers, Jr., On Strategy: The Vietnam War in Context
2 Allan E. Goodman, The search for a Negotiated Settlement of the Vietnam War(Berkeley, CA: Califonia Univ., 1978), p. 6.