conference proceedings - Australian Army

162
THE AUSTRALIAN ARMY AND THE VIETNAM WAR 1962–1972
Johnson authorised an ‘18,000 to 20,000-man increase in US military support forces’ and
‘urgent exploration’ with Korea, Australia, and New Zealand for a ‘rapid deployment
of significant combat elements’ in proportion with American escalation. 51 Since the US
had only a slim chance of getting sizable forces from the latter two, this instruction was
essentially a proposal for a US-Korean military alliance in Vietnam.
Park’s state visit to Washington in mid-may 1965, which coincided with the fourth
anniversary of his coup, opened the formal negotiations for South Korea’s intervention
in the Vietnam War. It was Park’s moment of personal triumph. Four years earlier
Washington sought to exploit Park’s insecurities to undertake measures that, in the
short run, threatened the survival of his government. Now, Park was a state guest of a
US that was confronted with the most tenacious enemy it had encountered but without
the commitment of meaningful assistance from its treaty partners. Reflecting his sense
of urgency, Johnson requested from Park a combat division at four different points
throughout their conversation. In return, Johnson assured Park that ‘Korean aid to
Viet-Nam would mean that there would be kept in Korea a military strength equivalent
to that at present so that Korean security would not suffer’. At the same time, Johnson
pledged to ‘see to it that troops and money enough will be provided to ensure’ Korea’s
security. 52 With this statement Johnson made a dramatic turnabout in his policy vis-à-vis
South Korea. As late as two months prior to the meeting, the Johnson Administration
was going forward with the decision to ‘subtract 9,000 spaces from present authorized
strength of 8th US Army amounting to 51,000’. No longer would Johnson seek a
reduction of forces in any form. The American president in essence notified Park that
his administration’s campaign to de-conventionalise the Korean forces would halt as
long as South Koreans were fighting in Vietnam. 53 The following day Park returned to
the White House for a second meeting with Johnson and confided that South Korea’s
‘well-trained and well-disciplined [soldiers] really formed part of [the] US forces’.
Korean soldiers were ‘ready to fight against Communism’ and that ‘they would be
with the United States’. Park also reminded Johnson that his forces were ‘dependent
on US assistance’. Park’s assurance was ‘very heartening’, said Johnson. 54 Five months
later the first contingent of Korean combat forces left for South Vietnam. After eleven
years of rebuffing Korea’s offer to enter the fray, and failing to win significant troop
commitment from SEATO allies, the US embraced South Korea as a combat-sharing
partner in the jungles of South Vietnam. By the end of 1966, there were 50,000 South
51. NSAm 328, 6 April 1965, reprinted in US Department of Defense, Pentagon Papers, Senator Gravel
Edition, vol. III (Boston: Beacon Press, 1971), 702-3.
52. memorandum of Conversation: US Korean Relations, 17 may 1965, ‘memos, Vol. II, 7/64-8/65’, Box
254, Korea Country File, LBJL.
53. Telegram 866 from Seoul, 15 march 1965, FRUS 1964-1968, Korea, 61.
54. memorandum of Conversation: Visit of President Park, Communiqué meeting, 18 may 1965, ‘memos,
Vol. II, 7/64-8/65’, Box 254, Korea Country File, LBJL.