Was the Korean war bigger than the Vietnam war?

Answer 1

In terms of violence and scale yes. In terms of area and time no.

Korea commenced immediately as a conventional war; with tanks and aircraft, ships and men. But it was confined to the Korean peninsula, and lasted only 3 years.

Vietnam began like a cancer and escalated from a guerrilla war into a conventional war after 1964 (due to the Tonkin Gulf Incident). In Vietnam, which was not a peninsula, bombing and infiltration affected the bordering nations of Cambodia and Laos, and had the potential to spread to further neighboring countries had the US pursued the war with even more determination than it actually did. However, the US desparately tried to confine the war to only South Vietnam, with an aerial war over North Vietnam, and "secret" bombings of Laos and Cambodia.