The Vietnam War, Protest, and Democratization in South Korea

2022 ◽  
pp. 293-323
Author(s):  
Tae Yang Kwak
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
The Vietnam War ◽  
War Protest

Working the Subempire

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simeon Man
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
National Belonging ◽  
Building Projects ◽  
Capitalist World ◽  
The Vietnam War ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
National Economies ◽  
The U.S

This chapter examines the Vietnam War through the lens of South Korea and the Philippines and their respective nation-building projects in the 1960s. It demonstrates how the two countries’ efforts to modernize their national economies dovetailed with and were dependent on their participation in the U.S. war. As the two governments mobilized their citizens for war, they generated discourses of gendered national belonging and racial intimacy with the Vietnamese that obscured their complicity with U.S. imperialism. The chapter further argues that the Vietnam War functioned as an engine of subempire for South Korea and the Philippines, that is, the relations of violence that were necessitated by the two countries’ incorporation into the capitalist world system. The chapter ends by examining the emergent counterpublics in South Korea and the Philippines that challenged their governments’ complicity in the war and their narrowed conception of citizenship and economic development.

Road to Normalization between South Korea and Vietnam: Factors and Policy-making Process

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 160-180
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Middle Power ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
Policy Making Process ◽  
Cold War Era ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
The Vietnam War

Bilateral relations between South Korea and Vietnam have remarkably improved in the past 25 years, since the normalization of relations in 1992. They have been acknowledged positively as the result of a successful process of the diplomatic ties. Meanwhile, it is plausible that conflicting issues were raised while establishing diplomatic ties because the two countries were hostile during the Vietnam War. This research explores the process of normalization, which coincided with their mutual economic and geopolitical interests in international relations in the decline of socialism and the post-Cold War era. As Vietnam urgently needed to establish cooperative relations with capitalist countries, this served as a concession in overcoming the historical legacy of the Vietnam War. The process of diplomatic negotiations between South Korea and Vietnam shows that the foreign policies of small- and middle-power countries are determined not only in cooperation with their allies but also with some degree of relative autonomy in the post-Cold War era. Received 9th December 2019; Revised 2nd March 2020; Accepted 20th March 2020

A tale of two industrial zones: A geopolitical economy of differential development in Ulsan, South Korea, and Kaohsiung, Taiwan

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 457-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinn-yuh Hsu ◽  
Dong-Wan Gimm ◽  
Jim Glassman
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
Industrial Development ◽  
Subsequent Development ◽  
Growth Patterns ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Industrial Projects ◽  
The Vietnam War ◽  
Industrial Zones

Much scholarship on East Asian development has sidelined the crucial role of geopolitics by insisting that wars such as the Vietnam War had limited effects on industrial development and economic growth patterns. We find such arguments unpersuasive, and also unduly reductionist. The Vietnam War, in particular, had unambiguously powerful effects on industrial development in South Korea; but even in cases where the direct effects of war were somewhat less spectacular, such as Taiwan, the reasons for the differences were themselves deeply geopolitical and expressive of decision-making processes centered on the Vietnam War. In this paper, we explore the differential effects of such geopolitical decision-making by contrasting the development trajectories of the Ulsan and Kaohsiung industrial zones during the war period. We show, in addition, that the subsequent development of industrial projects in South Korea and Taiwan has continued to bear some of the marks of Vietnam War-era geopolitical economy.

scholarly journals The Domestic and Geopolitical Ramifications of the Vietnam War on South Korea

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Jade Sears
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
English Literature ◽  
The United States ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
South Korean ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War is a widely examined topic in the field of international relations. However, it is often viewed in terms of the strategic triangle between the United States, China, and the Soviet Union, instead of their allies. While the atrocities committed by the United States in the Vietnam War are often condemned and scrutinized in English literature, those of South Korea, their closest ally, remain less so. This essay outlines the South Korean government's political, economic, and ideological reasons for supporting the United States in Vietnam, the positive and negative consequences of this support, and the atrocities Korean troops committed against Vietnamese civilians. It argues that the legacy of the Vietnam War in South Korea is characterized by denial and neglect to this day. This essay finds that denial and neglect were experienced not only in Vietnam, but also in South Korea by veterans and the Korean government.

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