Why didn't the participants of the Korean War also fight in the Vietnam War?
score:38
The Korean War and the Vietnam War are fundamentally very different conflicts.
With the former, South Korea was unambiguously invaded by North Korea in an explicit war of conquest. Due to lucky political circumstances, United Nations was able to sanction a military operation to defend South Korea.
The Security Council,
Having determined that the armed attack upon the Republic of Korea by forces from North Korea constitutes a breach of the peace,
(...)
Recommends that the Members of the United Nations furnish such assistance to the Republic of Korea as may be necessary to repel the armed attack and to restore international peace and security in the area.
Thus, the military forces of the free world rallied to South Korea under the banner of the United Nations. While many were also American allies, they joined the fighting not out of treaty obligations to the United States, but instead as member states of the United Nations.
In contrast, the Vietnam War was a essentially a prolonged counter-insurgency operation within the territories of South Vietnam. There was no treaty to oblige American allies to participate in such a conflict. Nor was there any call to arms by the United Nations for defending South Vietnam.
The United States could ask and apply pressure on her allies for help. Nonetheless, with the lack of any real legal obligation, it fell to each government to decide whether participation was worthwhile. New Zealand, for example, was reluctantly pressured into sending a token force. Great Britain resolutely refused to officially participate, but sent assistance covertly - British soldiers ended up fighting in Australian and New Zealand units, for instance.
French arms had already fought in Vietnam before, and were bloodied by it. I don't think French public opinion could have supported a second trip to the quagmire especially now that they had no empire to fight for in Indochina.
Moreover, French-American relations were not the best during the 1960s. Around the same time the Untied States began committing significant combat troops, France was in fact withdrawing from NATO.
Upvote:11
It's pertinent to note that several nations other than the U.S. participated in combat on the side of South Vietnam, with the largest contributions coming from South Korea, Thailand, and Australia. Many others gave civilian or military aid. South Korea deployed 50,000 soldiers over the course of the war, which is more than all the countries in the Korean War coalition (excepting the U.S. and Korea) combined. So while the particulars of international involvement were different, the reality on the ground was similar: majority of troops are from the country in question, most of the rest are from the U.S., and then a moderate percentage are from other nations.
Upvote:17
Let me add a few details to Semaphore's answer. One is that the Vietnam war actually ended with the North Vietnam invasion of South Vietnam. This happened soon after the US withdrawal, and in violation of the peace treaty. The UN Security Council could not react properly because the Soviets had the right of veto in it. (As it could not react in 2014 on the Russian invasion of Ukraine).
An interesting question is why the Soviets did not use their right of veto in the case of Korean war. It turns out that this was just a blunder of the Soviet UN delegation: when the discussion started, they just left the meeting as a protest.
It probably did not cross their minds that in this very meeting a decision on military action could be made. At the time of Vietnam, Soviet diplomats were already more experienced.
More post
- 📝 How was Hoche and Binding's text, arguing for the murder of certain disabled people, received within eugenics movements worldwide?
- 📝 What is the origin of Jataka tales?
- 📝 Exactly what time of the day was the UN charter official?
- 📝 What was the estimated population of the Mississippi Valley before contact with Europeans?
- 📝 Could an amphibious attack have succeeded during the Gulf War?
- 📝 What was the largest battle axe used in battle?
- 📝 What irreplaceable manuscripts were lost in the burning of Jaffna Public Library and what history did they contain (and subsequently lost forever)?
- 📝 Has there been a recorded account of a cabin boy inspiring mutiny on board a ship?
- 📝 What is the royal cypher printed on the UK budget box?
- 📝 In exchange for forbidding strikes, did Napoleon guarantee high wages?
- 📝 War deaths in France, 1919/1920
- 📝 During the execution of the internment of Japanese during ww2 in the USA, did any other Asian Americans have to prove descent?
- 📝 Did galley captains put corks in the mouths of slave rowers to keep them quiet?
- 📝 What is known about the Ubaid lizard-people figurines?
- 📝 Was race really unimportant in the 1660's?
- 📝 What do the modern Japanese people think about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
- 📝 Where and when has Thucydides been studied?
- 📝 Is it true that Plato travelled till Ganges river?
- 📝 Is there a Chinese Intelligence Agency? Why is it not well known?
- 📝 What is the exact date and year when the first car got invented?
- 📝 Why did the north and south struggle to control the territories before the American Civil War?
- 📝 What was the role of the mountain ranges surrounding India in developing India's civilization?
- 📝 Why did Russia, Cuba, NK, China support the Peruvian government during the internal conflict?
- 📝 What's the text in "Mystische Jagd" by Martin Schongauer?
- 📝 Are the Zemstvo Statistics Digitized?
- 📝 Why is there hostility between Russia and the Baltic states?
- 📝 Why is this Roman bust identified as Arminius?
- 📝 Was Hitler hostile to Anglo-Saxons before he became hostile to Jews?
- 📝 What was the technology in pre-war traffic recorders?
- 📝 What are modern theoretical approaches towards history?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Why didn't the participants of the Korean War also fight in the Vietnam War?
- 📝 Why didn't China assist in the Vietnam War like they did in Korea?
- 📝 Did many Nationalist Chinese soldiers fight in the Korean War on the Communist side?
- 📝 Why did the Korean War result in a stalemate?
- 📝 Why didn't Imperial Japan attack the Soviet Union during World War 2?
- 📝 Why did Britain and France not declare war against the Soviet Union when it invaded Poland in WW2?
- 📝 Why didn’t Japan attack the West Coast of the United States during World War II?
- 📝 Why did Hitler declare war on the USA?
- 📝 Why was World War I ended on Nov 11 11:00, rather than immediately upon signing the armistice?
- 📝 Why did the German army execute so few soldiers in World War I compared to most other armies?
- 📝 Why did Chamberlain act to appease Hitler leading up to the outbreak of World War 2?
- 📝 Why were Civil War battle techniques so bloody, if the US had learned guerrilla fighting in the Revolutionary War?
- 📝 Why are the French and Indian Wars / Seven Years' War not considered WW 1?
- 📝 Why did the USSR stop in the Winter War against Finland in 1940?
- 📝 Why did the United States enter World War I?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union not "grant" Inner Mongolia to Mongolia after World War Two?
- 📝 Why was the Western Front so static in World War I?
- 📝 Why was the Cold War carried out over the whole world instead of between Siberia and Alaska?
- 📝 Why did the Arabs start the 1973 War during Ramadan, and did it affect their performance?
- 📝 Why didn't USSR "bust a move" to veto the Korean War?
- 📝 Why did it take so long for the Germans to develop the first tank model in World War I?
- 📝 During World War I, why were church bells stopped until the war was over?
- 📝 Why was the last battle of the War of 1812 fought fully half a year after the official end of the war?
- 📝 Why did Germany decide not to restore the Hohenzollern dynasty to the throne of a German Empire after the defeat of Hitler in World War Two?
- 📝 Why was the Irish War of Independence in 1918 successful when other revolts failed?
- 📝 Why did the British have so few destroyers going into World War II?
- 📝 Why did the Union army favor a "western" route to approaching Richmond during the American Civil War
- 📝 In World War II, why was the ratio of killed to wounded of the Royal Navy twice that of the US Navy?
- 📝 Did the USA win the counter insurgency war in the Vietnam war?
- 📝 Why did World War I victors let Germany pay reparations in German Marks and gave it the option to default via inflation?