ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that Korea and Vietnam had as many differences as similarities and that the differences may actually be more important. The idea of comparing the wars in Vietnam and Korea is neither novel nor original. A widespread assumption is that the Communist and non-Communist regimes in the Korean and Vietnam Wars were roughly equivalent. By contrast, between 1948 and 1950, South Korea had just broken the back of a large guerrilla uprising in Cholla and Kyongsang provinces. In the Korean War, the possible use of atomic weapons played a major role in the strategic and political calculations of the US and its allies. Chinese Communist prisoners in Korea often referred to the superior weapons of the United Nations Forces as among their most formidable problems Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army prisoners more often mentioned shortages of food and lack of medical care.
