베트남파병 한국군의 무공훈장 포상 고찰

Abstract

The Korean armed forces dispatched to the Vietnam War for the first time since the foundation of the nation have had a great effect on the modern history of Korea. Based on Combat Report written by Korean army warriors dispatched to Vietnam and on Commander’s Memoirs, this study considered reward results of Order of Military Merit for the corps-level (4 times) military operations in the Vietnam War in which about 320,000 soldiers were dispatched in 8 years and 6 months from 1964 to 1973. The corps-level military operations in the Vietnam War called ‘Ojakgyo and Honggildong’ were executed twice in 1967 by General Myung-sin Chae, the 1st Commander-in-Chief of the Korean armed forces. Two additional military operations called Doksuri(1) in 1970 and Doksuri (2) were executed by General Se-ho Lee, the 2nd 1st Commander-in-Chief of the Korean armed forces. 150 were killed and 460 were injured out of the 31,060 Korean armed forces dispatched to the Vietnam War who participated in the corps-level military operations (4 times) from 1967 to 1971, in which 2.726 enemies were killed and 566 were captured. The appropriate reward on the right time is very important. 736 persons of Military Merit for the corps-level military operations have been rewarded (2.37%). This is lower than the conferment rate of Order of Military Merit for the Korean War (3.7%) in 1950 and that for the Vietnam War (6.7%). This paper presented the criteria for reward for Order of Military Merit for overseas dispatch troops by analyzing the reward results for the corps-level (4times) military operations in the Vietnam War by operation (4 times), division (from squad to division), position (from combat soldier to division commander) and rank (from soldier to general).