One of the most noteworthy assets of the Korean troops was their discipline; it was immediately clear that Korean soldiers were well prepared, trained, and dedicated. Each regiment arrived, established base camps, and immediately went out on training missions which, in turn, led to combat missions under its capable officers. Korean discipline is a self-discipline, an inner discipline; a sense for self-preservation serves as a spark to generate initiative to get out of any predicament the Korean soldier may find himself in when his leaders are not around. Another indication of his discipline, and his fierce pride, is his personal appearance. Rarely could one find a Korean soldier who did not appear immaculate, whether he was assigned to an administrative or a combat area.
In any assessment of the Koreans' contributions in South Vietnam it must be underlined that they provided the man-to-man equivalent of the Americans in that Southeast Asian country. In other words, every Korean soldier sent to South Vietnam saved sending an American or other allied soldier. The Koreans, who asked for very little credit, have received almost no recognition in the U.S. press and it is doubtful if many Americans fully appreciate their contributions in South Vietnam. In addition to saving roughly 50,000 U.S. troops from being deployed to South Vietnam, the Koreans provided protection to the South Vietnamese for a distance of several hundred miles up and down the coast, preventing a renewal of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong harassment and domination.
In mid-January 1966 when General Westmoreland was asked to evaluate the Korean forces then in Vietnam, he indicated that for the first two or three months after their arrival Korean senior commanders had closely controlled the offensive operations of their forces in order to train their troops for combat in their new environment. This policy had given the impression that the Koreans lacked aggressiveness and were reluctant to take casualties. In Operation FLYING TIGER in early January of 1966, the Koreans accounted for 192 Viet Cong killed as against only eleven Koreans. This feat, coupled with Korean success in Operation JEFFERSON, constituted a valid indication of the Koreans' combat effectiveness.
The Koreans had an initial period of difficulty in their relations with the Vietnamese military forces because they were better equipped than the troops of the Vietnamese Army and those of the Regional Forces and Popular Forces, because of language barriers, and because of the Oriental "face" problem. The attitude of the Vietnamese Army quickly changed, however, and its
