“Freedom Is Not Free from Colonialism”

This article analyzes the augmentation of local Korean men to the US Army and UN Command during the Korean War. Scholars have conventionally interpreted Korean augmentee soldiers as having been vital to solving dire manpower needs and “rescuing” the Republic of Korea. Offering an alternative to such positive appraisals, this article dissects the UN Command and analyzes how the colonial techniques of the US and French militaries facilitated the subordination of Korean soldiers. The author demonstrates how the United States borrowed military practices pioneered by the French at their colonial outposts and implemented them on the Korean Peninsula. This scaffolding of transcolonial practices enabled the US Army to maximize Korean augmentee soldiers as dispensable necropolitical labor. By addressing the transcolonial origins of Korean Augmentation Troops to the US Army, this study reconsiders the Korean War as a historic site for consolidating colonial hierarchies between nations during an ostensibly postcolonial period.

Duke Scholars

Author Sung Eun Kim Asian & Middle Eastern Studies