Sorry, Vietnam!
By Oh Young-jin
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The controversy over President Moon Jae-in’s June 6 Memorial Day speech once again forces the nation to face another dark chapter in its history ― its involvement in the Vietnam War. To heal this open wound, the nation should confront what it did wrong and apologize for it if necessary.
President Moon in his speech praised Vietnam War veterans for “an act of patriotism” to help vitalize the nation’s economy, promising proper compensation for their suffering.
Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry criticized the presidential speech, telling Seoul to refrain from hurting Vietnam’s national feelings. Public resentment in Vietnam had risen against Korea, leading the Korean government to clarify Moon’s reference to the veterans’ “personal” sacrifices.
The row was patched up but as if hidden in plain sight, few bothered to point out the ridiculousness by which a patriotic act was overnight relegated to personal sacrifice. Can Korea and Vietnam afford to live any longer in the mutual agreement to look away from their uncomfortable part of history?
No. Korea should stop avoiding defining its participation in the Vietnam conflict. So far, its policy is turning away from any responsibility ― no apology and no compensation ― when it can, and making perfunctory references when confronted. It was a war that everybody wants to forget ― the nation’s young being commandeered for somebody else’s war.
The latest case captures the ambivalence of Moon and the rest of the nation.
From 1965 to 1973, an aggregate number of 313,000 ROK soldiers made their tours with Korea’s presence surging once to 50,000 at one point. Over 5,000 were killed with over 150,000 suffering from exposure from U.S.-sprayed defoliant chemicals. In contrast, reports have about 9,000 Vietnamese civilians killed by Korean soldiers but Korea has not admitted to any civilian massacres.
Although there can be no extenuating circumstances ― Korea was then a poor country in dire need of resources so it jumped on the invitation from the United States to help join in the conflict. Also Korea depended on the U.S. for its defense against the communist North Korea far more then than it does now. Korea was financially rewarded by the U.S. in return, building the Seoul-Busan Expressway and other infrastructure that was pivotal to the nation’s industrialization.
But now it has become big enough to step out of its excuse for fighting somebody else’s war for its own survival. Now, it is time to come clean with its misdeeds, confront them and offer apologies and compensation where needed.
Korea’s honest and responsible attitude will set an example for other countries engaged in conflicts to follow. Under different circumstances, Korea is itself a victim country that was occupied by imperial Japan for 36 years ― its young girls sexually enslaved and its people commandeered and resources expropriated for Japan’s war effort. Korea wants Japan to reflect on its colonial misdeeds and apologize but Japan under its nationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has refused to comply.
If Korea can’t sympathize with the victims of its actions, its stance on Japan can’t but be weakened.
There are mental barriers to overcome. First, why should Korea apologize, when the U.S. doesn’t? In the Vietnam conflict, Korea fought for the U.S. Now the war is over and Korea is on its own so initiating a reconciliatory process is the way to gaining the nation a clean conscience and get on with the relationship with one of the most rapidly developing economies in the world. For the future, this would help Korea apply a more clear set of criteria in deciding about its involvement in foreign conflicts.
Second, Vietnam is also reluctant to reopen its war wounds because its government insists that it was the victor that vanquished the United States. Korea being its important investor adds to its reluctance. Therefore, settling this painful part of history should be a bilateral effort that Korea and Vietnam can start modestly and move on further.
At the end of this road would be a Korea-Vietnam relationship on healthier footing; Korea’s leadership in the global peace effort and, most of them, the lifting of the stigma on tens of thousands of old veterans who are still criticized as mercenaries, although all they did was rise up to the nation’s call. Despite the Memorial Day fumble, President Moon could be the most suitable leader as former human rights lawyer to start this reconciliation effort ― between Vietnam and Korea, and between Korea’s future and its past.
Oh Young-jin is The Korea Times’ chief editorial writer. Contact foolsdie5@ktimes.com and foolsdie@gmail.com.