A retired colonel, Kim Ki Tae, tells of systematic killings of Vietnamese civilians by Korea soldiers during the Vietnam War.

Hwang Sang Cheol/ reporter of The Hankyoreh21
Translated by Yoon Yong Ah

Who killed whom?

   

Korean soldiers killed so many Vietnamese, but there have been no Korean soldiers who have confessed to their part in these killings. Is all the testimony of the Vietnamese civilian victims of massacre false? And are the eight months of articles reported in The Hankyoreh21 nothing more than exaggerations? Are there no brave veterans who will tell the real story of what happened?
    We would like to introduce Kim Ki Tae, a 65 year old retired colonel, who was a marine captain at the front lines of the Vietnam War for one year. He shared with us all his experiences during his military tour there. He revealed that the stories of atrocities by Korean soldiers are true. Even we, the very people who had reported about it, doubted this truth. "Did Korean troops really systematically kill innocent Vietnamese?" "Was it possible that Korean soldiers shot unarmed women and their babies?" Kim Ki Tae, a Vietnam veteran, discussed all of this in a composed and frank manner, "I was ordered to kill Vietnamese civilians and also shot them myself during the Vietnam War."
    We meet him at a gathering held to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. The Hankyoreh21 is ready to share with the world Kim's frank testimony.

    A bomb pit in Vietnam. Kim remembers the bomb pit, which was left by American F4 fighter-bombers. The huge pit was 7¡­8 m wide and 3¡­4 m deep. He assumes it was made by about a 500-pound bomb. The bomb's explosion must have torn eardrums and wiped out everything within a 5-mile radius. He said that he couldn't forget what happened in the bomb pit!

When it was rainy, in the bomb pit.......

    At 2:00 p.m., Nov. 14, 1966, Kim was standing in a rice field near a hill in western Son Tinh, Quang Ngai, in central Vietnam. Kim Ki Tae, the captain of Company 7, Battalion 2 of the Blue Dragon Unit was 31-years-old at the time and felt troubled. One of his platoon commanders asked Kim to take care of Vietnamese captives. Kim saw 29 Vietnamese men who might be 20-30 years old. All their hands were tied together by rope. Kim noticed that they were all scared to death. The young Vietnamese had been arrested during a search of caves that morning. Even though the search was thorough, Kim's elements had failed to find soldiers in the caves where they had found the young Vietnamese. ` Kim's men were carrying out the last operation of the first stage of the Yong Ahn(Dragon Eyes) plan. Kim's company was 7-8 §° away from Highway 1 linking Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. Once finished, originally Kim had intended to take the Vietnamese captives over to a concentration camp, but Company 7 received a sudden emergency order to rescue Company 6, which was being attacked by guerrillas. They had no time to take captives over to the camp. Kim describes the situation simply by saying, "There was no another way!" All of his men were in a tough situation. Six days of searching operations in the jungle had torn their uniforms and made them angry. Kim issued a brief order, "Take the Vietnamese away." 29 Vietnamese men with their hands tied, who had no idea of what destiny would bring, were pushed into the bomb pit. "Bang, bang, bang..." went the guns of Korean soldiers and the explosions of hand grenades ripped the air. Kim could hear the groans of wounded people and smelled the blood. "Finish this completely," Kim ordered again. Kim's order made soldiers rummage through dead bodies and shoot them again to be sure.
    In the battlefields of the Vietnam War, a Company Captain held the highest rank and could make all important decisions. "My word or look could let tons of people free or could kill them in the Vietnam War. If I said 'set the captives free,' they survived, but if I said 'Hey men, why the hell are you holding captives,' my soldiers took them away and shot them. I think the captives who were killed in the bomb pit might have been farmers." Kim says.
    Kim unfolds a battle map of the Yong Anh(Dragon Eyes) plan in a book, "The War History of the Korean Military During the Vietnam War" and shares a variety of detailed stories about his experiences there. The Yong Anh(Dragon Eyes) plan was a "clean-up operation" of Viet Cong guerrillas by Battalions 1, 2, and 3 of the Blue Dragon Unit conducted November 9-27, 1966. Kim told us all about his experiences during the first stage of the implementation of the ¿ë¾È plan by Battalion 2 (November 9-14).

Start Sweeping-Through

    "Before the operation, Commander Lee Myoung Bok and I survEyesd an operations site from a helicopter. Looking down at the place, I thought that it appeared to be the most peaceful place in the world. Mountains were covered with overgrown trees, and farmers were working with cows in their rice fields." The place was to suffer terrible ravages of the war for the next 19 days. According to "The War History of the Korean Military During the Vietnam War" it is revealed that battles of the ¿ë¾È plan were extremely fierce because of the unexpectedly strong resistance of the enemy. So Commander Lee Bong Chul decided to extend what had been originally a four-day and two-step plan indefinitely.
    It was November 10, 1966, the second day of the Yong Anh(Dragon Eyes) plan and four days before the massacre in the bomb pit by Kim's company. Company 7 visited An Tuyet 3 village, a goal of attack 13 in his battle map. Kim's soldiers encountered no resistance when they passed through there. At An Tuyet 1 village, a goal of attack 14, Kim says, there was a little resistance but it wasn't serious. In both "The War History of Korean Military During the Vietnam War" and "The War History of the Marines in Vietnam" you fail to find any reference to the battles of Company 7. Kim also added he and his men hadn't really been shot at by either villages or the Viet Cong guerrillas in the villages. His men weren't even wounded at An Tuyet village. Kim says, even though there was no fighting, a "sweeping-off" of the village occurred.
    What is "sweeping-off?" Kim says "Sweeping-off is to set fire to all village houses and to shoot all people escaping from the fire. A complete wipe out of a village."
    The next village Kim entered was just a small one and consisted of 30-40 thatched houses. Following Platoons 2 and 3, the leaders of Company 7 entered the village. Kim could only see burning houses and children, women, and old people who had been murdered with smashed heads and arms ripped off of their bodies. Kim also saw a pile of dead Vietnamese bodies. He walked along a narrow road away from burning houses, and couldn't walk easily without stepping over the piles of so many dead bodies on the road. He desperately shouted to his advancing commanders, "No more killing, no more!"
    Kim says he can't count the exact number of dead bodies, but can confirm he saw a terrible number of dead bodies of villagers on the road. He adds that there was no way to go forward without stepping over them. With the premise that he can't recall the exact date, Kim starts to tell the story about a Vietnamese woman at An Tuyet (1). (This story about a Vietnamese woman would be conclusive proof to corroborate testimonies of Vietnamese victims). After gathering villagers together in one place at An Tuyet, Kim found a woman, who was pretty, 20-25 years old, and wearing a black clothes. One of Kim's soldiers asked her where her husband was. She answered that she didn't know. Then Kim's man shouted, 'Bitch! Captain, she must be a wife of a Viet Cong."

Kim's Memories about a Vietnamese Woman

    She wore white and underwear made in France. Because of that expensive underwear, Kim's man alleged that she was a wife of a Viet Cong leader. Then he hit her forehead with his gun. Kim recalls the situation, "She was bleeding heavily from her forehead. I felt sorry for her. I ordered a medic to take care of her." Because they had no anesthetic, the medic started to stitch her forehead with only common needle and threads. During the medical treatment, the woman didn't groan, but stood with her lips pressed tightly closed. "Seeing her, I thought 'How great her animosity against us is not to even moan!' The woman so impressed me that I still remember this incident."
    Both "The War History of the Korean Military During the Vietnam War" and "The War History of the Marines in Vietnam" state that Company 7 attacked goals 13 and 14, carried out a interception operation for Company 5, and transferred to Vinh Loc 2 village in the afternoon. Then they had a fierce fight against the Viet Cong that night.
    Kim adds one more story. He recalls that his company attacked another western village before the interception operation. When Kim's company arrived at a certain village, he saw a group of Vietnamese people sitting on the ground surrounded by his men. Because of Kim's previous order, forbidding any more killings, soldiers didn't kill them and just gathered villagers at the entrance of the village. They were waiting for Kim. It seemed that there were 40-50 people gathered. Some of Kim's soldiers were asking villagers their names and giving them some candy and cigarettes. Most of them were women, children, and the old. Before leaving the village, Kim ordered the fire-arm platoon they followed not to kill them. When he was passing through the village, he heard the roar of gunfire. "What the hell are you doing?" Kim shouted to the platoon. "Nothing special, sir." The soldiers said. Then the explosions of hand grenades tore his eardrums. "What the hell again?" Kim asked again. "Nothing, sir." Kim heard wounded villagers groaning and crying. Kim thought it was already too late. Kim changed the order. "Finish it cleanly!" He saw a Vietnamese run away into a sugar cane field and his man chased the runaway to shot him. "Once we shot innocent civilians, we could not help killing all of them. Because even one survivor could testify about our wrong doings, I had to order this as the captain, 'Finish it completely.' It meant to shoot them again to be sure. Because I have never heard any testimony or reports about our killings, I guess that all the people in the village must have been killed.

Could a war justify all wrong doings during the war?

    Kim's stories are truly significant. Many veterans of the Vietnam War who The Hankyoreh21 met alleged that there was no systematic killings by Korean soldiers during the Vietnam War. All of them insisted, "Only when we were shot at by the Viet Cong guerrillas and when we saw people run away during our operations did we shot them."
    Kim reveals that the probability of systematic killings was high. He says, "Whenever we entered to survey villages, we always gathered villagers together at one place. The decision to kill them or not depended completely on a captain. Whenever we had wounded or dead soldiers, for revenge we had to kill the gathered villagers. Not only the direct order of a captain to kill, but also if the soldiers thought that their captain could not handle the villagers, the soldiers shot the villagers. They also never forgot to shoot them again to be sure." Kim says that his story is true, but he also adds that it was more common that they let Vietnamese captives go free. Kim recalls a new soldier who couldn't pull the trigger on a Viet Cong suspect at first, but got accustomed to kill people. " After he gave 5 or 6-year-old Vietnamese children candies and cigarettes, he shot them in their chest, and then kicked them away. I was surprised at him and asked why he killed such innocent children. He replied, 'Well, because they might be children of the Viet Cong, I prevented their future revenge.' Once soldiers killed people and buried dead bodies, everyone began to think that it was natural to kill people in a war."
    In wartime, what is the value of human life? People say that persons who haven't experienced a war, can not imagine the reality of war. Does this allow us to justify the wrong doings of the Korean soldiers in the Vietnam War, in the name of war? Or is it because it is the past, we can keep all our shameful wrong doings hidden under the name of history?