EARLY EPISODE: South Korea in the Vietnam War

Please also do Thailand in Vietnam war. There’s a book called “In Buddha's Company”. It’s an interesting story I think

Herman Bottcher. I have found some primary-source material on Bottcher. Maybe not enough for an episode, but I will share what I have if there is any interest.

(Disclaimer: The fact that the person telling you a war story is someone you respect, like, or who shares your DNA does not mean the story is completely true.) 1. My father was a USAF E-9 deployed to Cam Ranh Bay in 1965-1966. The American base there was protected in part by a detachment of ROK Marines who operated outside the wire. A rumor circulated that an ROK NCO who caught one of his men asleep on duty killed the poor guy with his bare hands. The Koreans considered this a perfectly reasonable thing to do. 2. I met an archivist who was drafted during the war. He got into military language school and learned Korean in a ploy to stay out of Vietnam. However, he immediately found himself in Vietnam where he was assigned as a translator/liaison to Korean troops who routinely engaged in suicidal tactics. He was wounded several times, barely surviving the war.

Red Riding Trilogy for those interested in nonce island things, except that has a vaguely happy ending

Peru is rather nice I was there back in February

sounds like yall could use a research assistant/correspondant or some shit

oh BOY it’s aboutta be real nutjob junta behavior up in this bi

Yeah the ETA is real interesting especially the story around how the assassins of Blanco got their own account of events published

It's second hand, but my dad told me the story of his college roommate who had served in Vietnam. His roommate told him about a time when his squad was going to be doing a joint patrol with a South Korean unit. They ended up getting delayed and having to catch up with the South Korean unit. "They didn't even leave the dogs alive," was told to my dad.

Tom's renditions of Springsteen win at all levels

It's incredible to me how much money capitalists will spend on doing warcrimes instead of investing in the population at home

I heard about South Korea in Vietnam from the manga Sunken Rock (?). Dry humping America’s imperialist project turns you evil and possibly rich.

Woooo mercenaries!

Some example of Seantor Young, mentioned in the ep: "In the U.S. Senate, Young was well known for his biting responses to abusive, offensive, or ignorant letters from constituents. On one occasion, he wrote, "Dear Sir: It appears to me that you have been grossly misinformed, or are exceedingly stupid. Which is it?" On another, he received a hostile letter that ended with the constituent's phone number and the message, "I would welcome the opportunity to have intercourse with you." Young wrote back, "you sir, can have intercourse with yourself."

It's just the Israel thing, "oh we are supremely and mystically oppressed and that's why butchering Palestinians is actually totally okay and also it never happened and also they deserved it." And also perpetuating a pointless forever war off an infinite money glitch from the United States.

My late father in law served in Vietnam and he said that everyone was afraid of the South Koreans. Didnt go into detail but no one wanted any part of them

Yaaaay! A Tom-free episode! Edit: Oh, nevermind.

Who else is disappointed we didn't get a stupid boat episode here? (Lovingly disappointed, of course)

As a Canadian, anytime someone says "x regiment or military group was feared" means that they were war criminals. My grade 12 history teacher LOVED a quote that said "When Germans heard Canadians were on the line, they prepared for the worst" as some patriotic drivel ignoring that im its context the Canadian military in WW1 was infamous for looting and executing POWs.

You guys should do an episode on the Detroit Winter Soldier hearings.

Oh hell yeah, Tom. Peru is a beautiful country, I hope you enjoy it. I went there in highschool and loved it.

Wow, this was a depressing episode. May Nonce Island sink into the sea.

The current dictator of North Korea went to school in Switzerland, so, y’know.

The things Nick Turse heard about for 'Kill Anything that Moves' (2013) were bad enough, but part of what made his translator refuse to work with him again for follow-up studies was that the survivors kept saying things like 'Well, we didn't even have it that bad. It was just Americans, not Koreans'. And they refused to elaborate

Really interesting answers to the question from the legion today. Sorry the UK is too nonce infested to even talk about it, Nate.

So basically the modern industrial and economic development of South Korea is built on their war crime participation in the Vietnam War. They traded the lives of Korean men directly for economic aid.

Haven't listened to the entire episode yet (fantastic so far) but some of the airborne brigades that operated/committed horrible war crimes in Vietnam were then later sent to murder hundreds of S.Korean students and civilians in Gwangju in 1980.

I think Joe is calling out Last Podcast on the Left for the series on Mi Lai. There was lots of of conflation of the NVA and the NLF. It drove me almost to madness. Joe stealing a joke from Archer. The Dane Cook one.

I have a black belt in Taekwondo (wtf!) and it is just foot fencing

Praise

First time I found out S Korea was in Vietnam was fairly decent Korean horror movie R Point set there