Remembering the Second Korean War (1966–1969)

A renewed conflict in the 1960s

(By Office of History, Headquarters, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers USACE LNO trip slides Vietnam 12.8 — https://cdm16021.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15141coll5/id/7053/rec/831, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=90592182)

The Korean War was a devastating conflict that pitted South Korea and the United States (along with a smattering of other UN nations) against North Korea and China. It was a bloody conflict that ultimately led to the status quo seen in Korea today. The country remains divided along the massive Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The conflict famously ended without any official peace agreement, leaving North and South Korea in a state of cold war, which persists to this day. The idea that North and South Korea can go to war once more is one that hangs over the region and the world.

In the 1960s, a new kind of conflict erupted in Korea which has been dubbed by some as the Second Korean War. This is a forgotten conflict that is a fascinating chapter in North and South Korean relations.

During the 1960s, the world watched with morbid curiosity as the United States and South Vietnam struggled to contain a communist insurgency within the country. Despite being better armed, better trained, and better funded, the modern militaries thrown into the jungles of Vietnam continued to struggle to find, contain, and destroy the communist insurgents.

This insurgency, led by the feared Viet Cong, thwarted and frustrated both the United States and South Vietnam for…