Pentagon statistics listed 39,000 and 61,000 PRG/DRV dead for the same time period.". The Viet Cong lost around 1.1 million combatants. Seeing an opportunity to seize control, Ho's Viet Minh . Nick Turse, in his 2013 book, Kill Anything that Moves, argues that a relentless drive toward higher body counts, a widespread use of free-fire zones, rules of engagement where civilians who ran from soldiers or helicopters could be viewed as VC, and a widespread disdain for Vietnamese civilians led to massive civilian casualties and endemic war crimes inflicted by U.S. Week of November 22. U.S. Marines in Vietnam, 1967, Fighting the North Vietnamese, 1984 . The U.S. military reported 58,220 American casualties. AIR FORCE * He further suggests that 222,000 civilians may have been counted as enemy military deaths by the U.S. in compiling its "body count" raising the total to 627,000 killed. Furthermore, the murder of children was not uncommon to prevent them from joining the armed forces in the future, making up around 15% of total deaths. Many of the refugees failed to survive the passage, facing danger from pirates, over-crowded boats, and storms. Corrections? The exact breakdown still remains unclear, although an estimated 273,000 Cambodians and 62,000 Lao lost their lives. 0. This resulted in a dramatic decrease in the proportion of black casualties, and by late 1967, black casualties had fallen to 13%, and were below 10% in 1970 to 1972. Of those killed, 61% were younger than 21 years old. "It was the epitome of immoralityOne of the times I counted bodies after an air strikewhich always ended with two napalm bombs which would just fry everything that was leftI counted sixty-two bodies. Rummel estimates 212,000 killed by Khmer Rouge (19671975), 60,000 killed by U.S. and 1,000 killed by South Vietnam (196773). A Korean War era soldier and later an attorney in Hays, Kansas, Richard became aware that the government had not made public a central source of information regarding the servicemen and women who died as a result of service in Vietnam. combat, provided close combat support or were at least fairly regularly. Since body counts were a direct measure of operational success, US "operations reports" often listed civilian deaths as enemy KIA or exaggerated the number. Another potential limitation is the relatively small sample size of the study. 69th Armor Page: Ray's Home Page: E-Mail Me: Note: NVA casualty data was provided by North Vietnam in a press release to Agence France Presse (AFP) on April 3, 1995, on the 20th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. The war cost the United States over $120 billion and the lives of over 58,000 troops. 58,220. [35], For official US military operations reports, there was no established distinctions between enemy KIA and civilian KIA. Of these, more than 13,000 were killed and 88,000 wounded, nearly a . 20% of black males were combat soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines. Our aim here is to provide a more credibly data-based estimate of Vietnamese war-related deaths from 1965 to 1975 using the analytical tools of modern demography. The 'shameful gamesmanship' practiced by 'certain reporting elements' under pressure to 'produce results' also shrouded the process. Against the background of the Cold War, the Vietnam War embroiled the United States, South Vietnam, and regional allies in a long and costly conflict against the regular forces of North Vietnam and the Communist Viet Cong guerillas. During warfare, some units take more casualties than other units. Casualties - US vs NVA/VC. Deaths in Cambodia and Laos were estimated at 273,000 and 62,000 respectively. It is suspected that over 1.2 million of these deaths were murders. Tensions escalated into armed conflict between the two sides, and in 1961 U.S. President John F. Kennedy chose to expand the military aid program. Estimates for PAVN deaths in the Easter Offensive alone vary from 40,000 to 100,000 in western sources. Its like a teacher waved a magic wand and did the work for me. 38,179 total casualties (KIA and wounded) The 1st Cavalry Division lost the most men, from Aug 1965 to Aug 1972 they had 5,444 KIA, with 26,592 wounded. The steady aeromedical evacuation and in-theater care performed by the Air Force Medical Service (AFMS) in Southeast, The official News page of the Air Force Medical Service, providing the latest articles about Air Force Medicine and the Air Force. Veterans were viewed negatively for their participation in the war, even if it was not by their choice to do so. the Vietnam War). [77] Additionally, according to the U.S. military, they also lost up to 101,511 personnel as defectors due to the Chieu Hoi program,[78] but one analyst speculates that less than 25% of those were genuine. Moyar, Mark. Trade between the two nations ultimately resumed in the 1990s. [68] Per the official Vietnamese history, over 10,000 more PAVN soldiers were killed in the final offensive of early 1975. Unit Best Practice Resources Sample Unit LDP Orders Leadership Toolkits . It was first used in 1962 and was effective at its job. Ho Chi Minh was outraged and began to engage his forces in small fights with South Vietnamese troops. The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died in the war. The Viet Cong used the jungle terrain to their advantage both as a means of hiding, as well as a place to bury pressure-sensor explosives to wipe out unsuspecting bands of patrolling enemy forces. Total. [93][94] With the draft increasing due to the troop buildup in South Vietnam, the military significantly lowered its admission standards. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. lessons in math, English, science, history, and more. In reality, it is a collection of ideas, images, and information that enough people have chosen to preserve and disseminate. Once a unit assignment has been determined, a link to the individual's memorial page is included in the appropriate Unit Index. Cobra helicopters totaled 1,110,716 flight hours in Vietnam. In general, DD1300, DA2496, and DD1330 photographs are copyrighted and should not be copied. LIFE magazine, June 27, 1969, featuring a portrait of U.S. Army specialist William C. Gearing, Jr., one of 242 American servicemen killed in a single week of fighting during the Vietnam War. This group was made up almost entirely of either working-class or rural youth. The forces involved in this war (by the conclusion of the war) included: The war was fought in dense jungle terrain, so the American military developed a chemical solution known as Agent Orange to burn through the brush and lure out the hiding Viet Cong forces. All written content, illustrations, and photography are unique to this website (unless where indicated) and not for reuse/reproduction in any form. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, but his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, continued the work that Kennedy had started. At the heart of the conflict was the desire of North Vietnam, which had defeated the French colonial administration of Vietnam in 1954, to unify the entire country under a single communist regime modeled after those of the Soviet Union and China. Shelby L. Stanton, 'The Rise and Fall of an American Army,' Spa Books, 1989, xvi. Learn about Vietnam war statistics and casualties. Encounter Books, December 2022. Get unlimited access to over 84,000 lessons. An additional 232,000 military personnel were still missing as of 2017, a total of 1,081,000 dead and missing for the American War. Chapter 17 index: "Communists provided further corroboration of the proximity of their casualty figures to American figures in a postwar disclosure of total losses from 1960 to 1975. In 1982 the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C., inscribed with the names of 57,939 members of U.S. armed forces who had died or were missing as a result of the war. Necessarily, more is lost to time than is remembered. Richard Coffelt's health began failing, and on 29 October 2010 he made his last contributions to the Coffelt Database. 28 August 2013. Bomb Tonnages Dropped on Laos and Cambodia, and Weighing Their Implications", "Association between Agent Orange and birth defects: systematic review and meta-analysis", "The History, Toxicity and Adverse Human Health and Environmental Effects Related to the Use of Agent Orange", http://ls-tlss.ucl.ac.uk/course-materials/POLS6016_65225, Story of Tiger Force atrocities had to be told, "On War extra Vietnam's massacre survivors", Counter-Revolutionary Violence: Bloodbaths in Fact & Propaganda, "Anatomy of US and South Korean Massacres in the Vietnamese Year of the Monkey, 1968 | Japan Focus", "VIETNAM KILLINGS LAID TO KOREANS (Published 1970)", "The 'forgotten' My Lai: South Korea's Vietnam War massacres", "Citizens' court to investigate Vietnam War atrocities committed by South Korean troops", "Chuyn 4 CNG TC TM KIM, QUY TP HI CT LIT S T NAY N NM 2020 V NHNG NM TIP THEO, datafile.chinhsachquandoi.gov.vn/Qun%20l%20ch%20o/Chuyn%20%204.doc", "Lost Souls: The Search for Vietnam's 300,000 or More MIAs", 300.000 lit s cha xc nh danh tnh l ni trn tr ln, "North Vietnamese Army's 1972 Eastertide Offensive", i tng V Nguyn Gip vi cng tc hu cn qun i, "2021 NAME ADDITIONS AND STATUS CHANGES ON THE VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL", "US Military Operations: Casualty Breakdown", "Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency Vietnam (PMSEA) Report for CIVILIAN (Unaccounted For)", "Capture Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency Vietnam (PMSEA) Report for CIVILIAN (Accounted For Identified Since 1973)", "Vietnam-era unaccounted for statistical report", "Vietnam Prisoners of War Escapes and Attempts", http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/vietnam/reports/pmsea_escapee.pdf, "Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics", "Learning from America's Wars, Past and Present U.S. Battlefield Medicine Has Come a Long Way, from Antietam to Iraq", "African-Americans In Combat | History Detectives | PBS", "Vietnam War Bomb Explodes Killing Four Children", Vietnam: Report Details Unexploded Ordnance, "Vietnam War Bombs Still Killing People 40 Years Later", "U.S. in first effort to clean up Agent Orange in Vietnam", "U.S. starts its first Agent Orange cleanup in Vietnam", "After the Nightmare: The Population of Cambodia", "KOREA military army official statistics, AUG 28, 2005", "Australian servicemen listed as missing in action in Vietnam", https://books.google.com/books?id=qh5lffww-KsC&lpg=PA53&dq=the%20encyclopedia%20of%20the%20vietnam%20war%20page%2064&pg=PA176&output=embed, "POW Remembers McCain and Tapping Through Walls in Hanoi Prison", "New Zealand Rolls Of Honour By Conflict", "Overview of the war in Vietnam | VietnamWar.govt.nz, New Zealand and the Vietnam War", "America Wasn't the only Foreign Power in the Vietnam War", "Vietnam Reds to hold 17 From Taiwan as Spies", https://kienthuc.net.vn/quan-su/nhung-chuyen-gia-quan-su-lien-xo-trong-khang-chien-chong-my-1796800.html, Vietnamese Casualties During the American war, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vietnam_War_casualties&oldid=1142285241, includes an estimated 50,000/65,000/70,000 civilians killed by U.S/SVN bombing/shelling, includes 360,000/391,000/720,000 civilians, 25,000/50,000/75,000 killed in North Vietnam, 106,000/164,000/227,000 killed in South Vietnam. American civilians were not killed in the Vietnam War. The boat people's first destinations were the Southeast Asian locations of Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. [1] [58] According to Guenter Lewy, the ARVN suffered between 171,331 and 220,357 deaths during the war. "[56] Another Marine commander, Gen. Robert E. Cushman Jr., added, "we had a big problem with atrocities attributed to them, which I sent on down to Saigon. The vietnam war Pictures That Moved Them Most . [20] About 130 American and 16,000 South Vietnamese POWs died in captivity. The sum of those totals is 3,091,000 war deaths between 195575. History 308: Causes and Effects of the Vietnam War, Psychological Research & Experimental Design, All Teacher Certification Test Prep Courses, Participants & Strategies in the Vietnam War, Casualties of the Vietnam War: Causes & Statistics, Primary Source: Brent Scowcroft's 'Escape from South Vietnam' Memorandum, Postwar Relations Between America and Vietnam, Vietnam Veterans Memorial: Description & History, Primary Source: New York Times' Article on Tribute to Vietnam Dead, Vietnam Syndrome: Definition, Causes & Impact, Studying for History 308: Causes & Effects of the Vietnam War, History 106: The Civil War and Reconstruction, ILTS Social Science - History (246): Test Practice and Study Guide, SAT Subject Test World History: Practice and Study Guide, Praxis Elementary Education: Multiple Subjects (5001) Prep, History 307: American Civil Rights Movement, Praxis Fundamental Subjects: Content Knowledge (5511) Prep, Praxis Elementary Education: Social Studies Subtest (5004) Prep, US History - Civil War: Lesson Plans & Resources, 6th Grade World History I: Homeschool Curriculum, The French and Indian War Lesson Plan for Elementary School, Middle Colonies Economic Industry Activities, New England Colonies Economic Industry Activities, Sugar Act Lesson Plan for Elementary School, Sons of Liberty Lesson Plan for Elementary School, Boston Tea Party Activities for 4th Grade, Working Scholars Bringing Tuition-Free College to the Community. North Vietnam had won victory over the French and was likely to make South Vietnam submit to a Communist regime. Apart from these few restrictions, the Coffelt Database is open to the public - just as Richard Coffelt intended. The following year, in 1976, Vietnam was united as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The terms of this expansion included yet more funding and arms, but a key alteration was the commitment of U.S. soldiers to the region. North Vietnam and the United States reached a peace agreement shortly after withdrawal. Although demographers have developed a reper- The Australians committed more forces to the war in Vietnam than any other foreign contributor (except for the United States, that is). [6], A 2008 study by the BMJ (formerly British Medical Journal) came up with a higher toll of 3,812,000 dead in Vietnam between 19552002. The first two names listed on Panel 1, East Wall, at the apex are from July 8, 1959. Those totals include only Vietnamese deaths, and do not include American and other allied military deaths which amounted to about 64,000. Estimates of the total number of deaths in the Vietnam War vary widely. [40][37] Sometimes civilian casualties from airstrikes or artillery barrages against villages were reported as "enemies killed". Civilian deaths were also caused by mortar and artillery, extensive aerial bombing and the use of firepower in military operations conducted in heavily populated areas. The Coffelt Database available on this website is updated almost every night at 3 AM. Though the Vietnamese army incurred more casualties, it was a . Relatively small sample size of the refugees failed to survive the passage, danger. Negatively for their participation in the Vietnam war of black males were combat soldiers, sailors, airmen and.! Was no established distinctions between enemy KIA and civilian KIA his forces in small fights with Vietnamese! 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