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South Korean Combat Units Deploy to Vietnam

September 29, 1965

1965-09-29_SouthKoreans
1965-09-29_SouthKoreans
South Korean marines prepare defensive positions near Tuy Hoa, 1965. (U.S. Army Center of Military History)

The first South Korean combat units deploy to Vietnam. The Republic of Korea Army Capital (Tiger) Infantry Division, the 2d Marine (Blue Dragon) Brigade, and supporting elements arrive between September and November 1965. They are based near Qui Nhon and Cam Ranh Bay. By the end of the year, South Korea has nearly 19,000 combat troops in South Vietnam.1

1Stanley Robert Larsen and James Lawton Collins, Jr., Allied Participation in Vietnam, Vietnam Studies (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1985), 128–131; Lee Byeong-cheon, ed., Developmental Dictatorship and the Park Chung-Hee Era: The Shaping of Modernity in the Republic of Korea (Paramus, N.J.: Homa and Sekey Books, 2006), 256–257; Graham A. Cosmas, MACV: The Joint Command in the Years of Escalation, 1962–1967, United States Army in Vietnam (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, 2006), 245; John M. Carland, Stemming the Tide, May 1965–October 1966, United States Army in Vietnam (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, United States Army, 2000), 50. For September 29 date, see Shelby L. Stanton, Vietnam Order of Battle (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpoole Books, 2003), 272; Spencer C. Tucker, ed. The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History, (2nd edition; Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011), 352.