JOHNSON IN SECRET DEAL FOR KOREAN MERCENARTES
In a May 24 dispatch from Seoul printed in the European edition of the New York Herald Tribune, Arthur J. Dommen reveals that he obtained the text of an American note to the South Korean government involving a secret deal for mercenaries to be used in Vietnam.
"According to the note handed the Korean government March 7, the United States promise includes 'the complete equipping of three regular divisions and plans to expedite ‘the modernization of 17 army divisions and one marine division.
"The United States also promised to provide ‘all equipment, including weapons,' and to bear the financial costs of new Korean’ troops sent to Vietnam."
Dommen continues his sensational revelation of the result of negotiations between American Ambassador Winthrop G. Brown and Korean Foreign Minister Lee Tong Won: "In other paragraphs of the note, the United States committed itself to covering the cost of deploying additional Korean forces to Vietnam. It also committed itself to providing ‘communications facilities for exclusive Republic of Korea use' between South Korea and South Vietnam and to paying for 'mobilization and maintenance in Korea of one reserve division, one brigade and their supporting units' to back up the troops in Vietnam. It also calls for the suspension 'for as long as there are:substantial Republic of Korea forces in the Republic of Vietnam' of the current program of shifting the burden of support of the South Korean armed forces from the U. 5. government to the South Korean government." ~°
Dommen notes that the South Korean government has already sent 24,000 troops to Vietnam and has indicated it will send another division this summer. “The Korean government also has under study a plan to dispatch Korean Air Force pilots and crews to Vietnam."
The cost for the mercenaries is not indicated in the note, but Dommén estimates it will be in the ‘sundreds of millions of dollars.