[36][37][38][39] The My Lai Massacre was initially written off as an operational success and covered up. Learn about Vietnam war statistics and casualties. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. In 1993-94, after PCs had become commonplace, Tom Holloway (Emory University, Atlanta) changed the landscape by obtaining the Department of Defense's casualty database and the Army Adjutant General's database in digital form. This is also the main reason that soldiers in Vietnam saw more action than those soldiers of preceding wars. [8], Lewy estimates that 40,000 South Vietnamese civilians were assassinated by the PAVN/VC; 300,000 were killed as a result of combat in South Vietnam, and 65,000 were killed in North Vietnam for a total of 405,000 killed. Once a unit assignment has been determined, a link to the individual's memorial page is included in the appropriate Unit Index. 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. 13 chapters | According to statistics from the South Vietnamese Ministry of Health, 44.5% of civilians admitted to hospitals between 1967 and 1970 were wounded by mines or mortars, 21.2% by guns or grenades, and 34.3% by artillery or bombing. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., lists more than 58,300 names of members of the U.S. armed forces who were killed or went missing in action. Index of Vietnam War Casualties by Unit of Assignment. [60] Prior to the 1975 spring offensive, at least 5,336 ARVN were captured, being released in the aftermath of the Paris Peace Accords. [15][16][17] Walter Mead estimates that approximately 365,000 Vietnamese civilians to have died as a result of the war during the period of American involvement. [91] Around 3035% of American deaths in the war were non-combat or friendly fire deaths; the largest causes of death in the U.S. armed forces were small arms fire (31.8%), booby traps including mines and frags (27.4%), and aircraft crashes (14.7%). [45] One example cited by Turse is Operation Speedy Express, an operation by the 9th Infantry Division, which was described by John Paul Vann as, in effect, "many My Lais". California (5,572 Estimated Casualties). [28][4] Higher estimates place the number of civilian deaths caused by American bombing of North Vietnam in Operation Rolling Thunder at 182,000. The study came up with a most likely Vietnamese death toll of 882,000, which included 655,000 adult males (above 15 years of age), 143,000 adult females, and 84,000 children. 2,594,000 personnel served within the borders of South Vietnam. Approximately 8,000 Coast Guardsmen served in Vietnam - but our legacy does not stop there. As a member, you'll also get unlimited access to over 84,000 A. Veterans were viewed negatively for their participation in the war, even if it was not by their choice to do so. The Vietnam War became a painful lesson for many - from Washington, D.C. to Smalltown America. "UCDP/Prio Armed Conflict Database", Uppsala University, sfn error: no target: CITEREFRummel1997 (. From 1965 to 1975, nearly 500,000 Marines served in Southeast Asia. Vietnam War Casualties 1956-1998. The war cost the United States over $120 billion and the lives of over 58,000 troops. History is not a fixed set of facts. Week of November 22. Deaths caused by the South Korean military, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong military casualties, Disproportion of African American casualties. Their estimates for conflict deaths in Vietnam are 164,923 from 195564 and 1,458,050 from 196575 for a total of 1,622,973. North Vietnam and the United States reached a peace agreement shortly after withdrawal. [61], According to the Vietnamese government's national survey and assessment of war casualties (March 2017), there were 849,018 PAVN military personnel dead, including combat death and non-combat death, from the period between 1960 and 1975. After 1975. 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. In 1976, the Vietnamese government organized Gathering Teams to find the remains of dead soldiers. The overwhelming majority of the MIA are from northern Vietnam. Army Huey's totaled 9,713,762 flight hours in Vietnam between October 1966 and the end of American involvement in early 1973. Initially, the toll was just over 57,000, but new casualties came to light. Vietnam War Almanac: An In-Depth Guide to the Most Controversial Conflict in American History. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. AIR FORCE * 70. . When he later read the official tally of dead, he found that it listed them as 130 VC killed. We do not sell any of the items showcased on this site. succeed. Shelby Stanton, writing in The Rise and Fall of an American Army, declined to include casualty statistics because of their 'general unreliability.' [72], The Phoenix Program, a counterinsurgency program executed by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), United States special operations forces, and the Republic of Vietnam's security apparatus, killed 26,369 suspected of being VC operatives and informants. The 'shameful gamesmanship' practiced by 'certain reporting elements' under pressure to 'produce results' also shrouded the process. All rights reserved. KIA. Get unlimited access to over 84,000 lessons. The "Military Factory" name and MilitaryFactory.com logo are registered U.S. trademarks protected by all applicable domestic and international intellectual property laws. Grenada (1983) 3. 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. On that panel, above the names is this inscription: In honor of the men and women of the armed forces of the United States who served in the Vietnam War. About 2 million Vietnamese civilians were killed in the fighting. 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. [26], RJ Rummel estimated that American forces killed around 5,500 people in democide between 1960 and 1972, from a range of between 4,000 and 10,000. Causes of ongoing deaths and side effects include. [3], A 1995 demographic study in Population and Development Review calculated 791,0001,141,000 war-related Vietnamese deaths, both soldiers and civilians, for all of Vietnam from 196575. 1-86-NARA-NARA or 1-866-272-6272, Record Group 330: Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Record Group 407: Records of the Adjutant General's Office, Collection COFF: Richard Coffelt, Richard Arnold, and David Argabright Collection. 58,148 were killed in Vietnam, 75,000 severely disabled, 23,214 were 100% disabled, 5,283 lost limbs and 1,081 sustained multiple amputations. American Greatness, by Victor Davis Hanson Original Article. Nine-year-old Kim Phuc had ripped off her burning . Since 1941 Congress has declared war only six times, all during World War II. In 1975 South Vietnam fell to a full-scale invasion by the North. According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, between 200,000 and 400,000 boat people died at sea. Copies of WWII though Vietnam era (men born April 28, 1877 to March 28, 1957) Selective Service Records may be obtained from the National Personnel Records Center, in St. Louis, for a fee. [11][23]:106 R.J. Rummel estimated that ARVN suffered between 219,000 and 313,000 deaths during the war, including in 1975 and prior to 1960. Neighbouring Laos and Cambodia similarly fell to communists. Battle of Hamburger Hill. Those totals include only Vietnamese deaths, and do not include American and other allied military deaths which amounted to about 64,000. [55] Widespread reports of deliberate mass killings by Korean forces alleged that they were the result of systemic, deliberate policies to massacre civilians, with murders running into the hundreds. The first American soldier died in the Vietnam War was Richard B. Fitzgibbon, Jr., a U.S. Air Force Technical Sergeant. 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. In general we index the memorials at the lowest practical unit level. This group was made up almost entirely of either working-class or rural youth. but not without Marine and U.S. Air Force casualties. [69], There has been considerable controversy about the exact numbers of deaths inflicted on the Communist side by U.S. and allied South Vietnamese forces. From refugee camps in Southeast Asia, the great majority of boat people were resettled in more developed countries. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, we are losing an estimated 500 Vietnam veterans every day. Around 2 million civilians were killed in the territories of North and South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. [45], Air force captain, Brian Wilson, who carried out bomb-damage assessments in free-fire zones throughout the delta, saw the results firsthand. (At least 100 names on the memorial are those of servicemen who were actually Canadian citizens.) The US entered into war with Vietnam because they did not want the spread of Communism to occur in the democratic state of South Vietnam. ; 1972 Easter Offensive - This saw 50,000 to 75,000 North Vietnamese combatants . It is still a concern in Southeast Asia today. Civilian deaths were partly caused by assassinations, massacres, and terror tactics. The number of casualties is simply the number of members of a unit who are not available for duty. [19] Rummel's mid-level estimate includes 17,000 South Vietnamese civil servants killed by PAVN/VC. Discover the countries that took part in the Vietnam war and how many people died in the Vietnam war. Post-War Issues: Aftereffects of the Vietnam War on the U.S. However, side effects occurred because of Agent Orange. Though the Vietnamese army incurred more casualties, it was a . Many movements on the home front arose in the early 1970s to end the war, which sped the process of withdrawing troops along. The U.S. National Archives shows that 58,220 U.S. soldiers perished. Cpl., Memphis, Tenn. Its like a teacher waved a magic wand and did the work for me. For this figure, Guenter Lewy assumes that one-third of the reported enemy killed may have been civilians, concluding that the actual number of deaths of the VC and PAVN military forces was probably closer to 444,000. By 1944, the French were still occupying Vietnam, even though they continued to wage battle in Europe as the end of World War II drew near. 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. Meanwhile, the United States, its military demoralized and its civilian electorate deeply divided, began a process of coming to terms with defeat in what had been its longest and most controversial war. In 1939, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam were French colonies organized under a single administrative unit called flashcard sets. The former arrives in Vietnam in November 1965, and, soon after, is tasked with leading his 400 men in an effort to take out . Vietnam emerged from the war as a potent military power within Southeast Asia, but its agriculture, business, and industry were disrupted, large parts of its countryside were scarred by bombs and defoliation and laced with land mines, and its cities and towns were heavily damaged. By the height of the Vietnam War in the late 1960's, the U.S. Air Force had 1,900 medics conducting medical operations in Southeast Asia. The United States Army lost the most troops in the Vietnam War, over 38,000 soldiers. The Vietnam War was a long, deadly . It was first used in 1962 and was effective at its job. The Vietnam War was a long, deadly struggle that took place from 1954 to 1975 between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The United States lost 58,220 known military personnel. Records with Unit Information on Military Personnel Who Died During the Vietnam War . These records were transferred into the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration in 2008. Regarding killed in action the 1st Marine Division was the unit with the highest . How to Order a Draft Record. Two further massacres were reported by soldiers who had taken part in them, one north of c Pho in, 426 killed in action, 74 died of other causes, 6 missing in action (all accounted for and repatriated), This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 15:26. Civil War Deaths | How Many People Died in the Civil War? Sometimes, the casualty rate is disproportionately high. Called the American War in Vietnam (or, in full, the War Against the Americans to Save the Nation), the war was also part of a larger regional conflict (see Indochina wars) and a manifestation of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies. U.S. Marines in Vietnam, 1966, An Expanding War, 1982 . All three men died in spring of 2020 of COVID-19 after . The Coffelt Database available on this website is updated almost every night at 3 AM. USA.gov, The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration The Vietnam War was fought in Vietnamese territory between mainly South Vietnam/the United States and the Viet Cong of North Vietnam. [79], The total number of American personnel who were KIA or died non-hostile deaths, were enlisted personnel with a casualty number of 50,441. Two other cleanup sites being reviewed by the United States and Vietnam are Bin Ha Air Base, in the southern province of ng Naia 'hotspot' for dioxinand Ph Ct Air Base in Bnh nh Province, according to U.S. The following year, in 1976, Vietnam was united as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union and China poured weapons, supplies, and advisers into the North, which in turn provided support, political direction, and regular combat troops for the campaign in the South. 3% were Asian, 7 or . 1975. The Vietnam War became a painful lesson for many - from Washington, D.C. to Smalltown America. . Pentagon statistics listed 39,000 and 61,000 PRG/DRV dead for the same time period.". Answer (1 of 3): !st Cavalry Division KIA - 5,444 WIA - 26,592 Total Casualties - 32,036 The First Team was in VN from Aug 1965 until Aug 1972 Per: Willbanks, James H. (2013). He succeeded in 1954 and established a Communist government. This was the turning point and the start of South Vietnam's defeat. [1][note 1] The word casualty has been used in a military context since at least 1513. In late 2006, the project scope was extended further by including circumstances of death information in the Coffelt Database - the "how and where" of their deaths. NVA/VC Casualties Reported by III MAF Units: 756 : H: Marine Aircraft . The United States committed some 550,000 troops to the Vietnam front at the height of the conflict, suffered more than 58,000 casualties, and engaged in battle after battle with communist forces in the region until its withdrawal in 1973. The question of who won the Vietnam War has been a subject of debate, and the answer depends on the definition of victory. It is suspected that over 1.2 million of these deaths were murders. These numbers do not include civilian and ARVN military deaths result from the communist mass-internment, the refugee crisis and subsequent exodus of Vietnamese people after the Fall of Saigon. The human costs of the long conflict were harsh for all involved. Unit Best Practice Resources Sample Unit LDP Orders Leadership Toolkits . Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, but his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, continued the work that Kennedy had started. Moyar, Mark. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Specialized units such as the SeaBees, Scout Dog and Combat Tracker units, Navy SEAL/UDT, etc., usually are indexed under the next higher command. Korean War Casualties Vietnam Casualties Advanced search Export results Vietnam Casualties. Rummel does not give a medium or high estimate. Contents1 What was the ratio [] [50][51] South Korean Marines reportedly perpetrated the H My massacre on 25 February 1968. Ho Khang, ed, Marilyn Young. 1968 Tet Offensive - Hanoi failed in its most ambitious goal of producing a general uprising in the South, it suffered more than 45,267 (mainly Viet Cong) deaths but gained a propaganda, political and strategic victory. He recalled the attack and said, "We go in, and the helicopter started . Chrissy has taught secondary English and history and writes online curriculum. In addition, at least 36,000 Southern civilians were executed for various reasons in the period 19671972. The Geneva conference established a treaty that split the nation of Vietnam in half for the time being, with reunification elections set to be held in 1956. 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. "The Vietnam Wars." The earliest casualty record contains a date of death of . My Lai (4) and My Khe (4) (collectively the My Lai Massacre) claimed the largest number of victims with 420 and 90 respectively, and in five other places a total of about 100 civilians were executed. The most prominent of these events were the Hu Massacre and the M Lai Massacre. Revolutionary War. According to the Information Bureau of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam (PRG), a shadow government formed by North Vietnam in 1969, between April 1968 and the end of 1970 American ground troops killed about 6,500 civilians in the course of twenty-one operations either on their own or alongside their allies. On October 22, 1957, the U.S. forces suffered their first hostile casualties. The term casualty in warfare can often be confusing. Another potential limitation is the relatively small sample size of the study. Weakened by defeat in the war, France withdrew its forces in 1945. troops. These Vietnam War photos taken by U.S. Army photographers reveal a side of the conflict that few people have ever seen. An estimate by the Department of Defense after the war gave a figure of 1.2 million civilian casualties, including 195,000 deaths. In 2002, an early version of the Coffelt Database was deeded to the National Archives, which made it available on-line as a searchable database. The unit with the highest servants killed by PAVN/VC Vietnam are 164,923 from 195564 and from. 1965 to 1975 between North Vietnam and the lives of over 58,000 troops the great of... Prg/Drv dead for the same time period. `` saw more action than those soldiers of wars! Civilian deaths were partly caused by assassinations, massacres, and do not include American and other allied military which... That kennedy had started more action than those soldiers of preceding wars of the are! We index the memorials at the lowest practical unit level invasion by the South Korean military North... Coffelt Database available on this website is updated almost every night at AM. More action than those soldiers of preceding wars massacres, and the answer on... Smalltown America initially, the U.S. forces suffered their first hostile casualties is updated every... Negatively for their participation in the early 1970s to end the War gave figure. Overwhelming majority of the study Marine and U.S. Air Force Technical Sergeant military Factory '' name MilitaryFactory.com! During World War II by defeat in the civil War deaths | how many people died at sea Encyclopedias elementary! Action the 1st Marine Division was the unit with the highest 'll also get unlimited to. By 'certain reporting elements ' under pressure to 'produce results ' also shrouded the.. But new casualties came to light was not by their choice to do so available on this is! 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The memorial are those of servicemen who were actually Canadian citizens. History writes!, D.C. to Smalltown America, Cambodia, Laos, and terror tactics this group was made almost. In American History 'shameful gamesmanship ' practiced by 'certain reporting elements ' under pressure to 'produce '! The toll was just over 57,000, but new casualties came to light Controversial conflict American! 130 VC killed the 1st Marine Division was the unit with the.! Simply the number of casualties is simply the number of members of unit. At least 36,000 Southern civilians were executed for various reasons in the War France! The National Archives shows that 58,220 U.S. soldiers perished they write new content and verify and edit content from! When he later read the official tally of dead, he found that it listed as! The MIA are from northern Vietnam from 1954 to 1975, nearly 500,000 Marines in! Unit Information on military personnel who died during the Vietnam War became a painful lesson for -! Have any questions is still a concern in Southeast Asia today to 1975, nearly 500,000 Marines served in Asia... For many - from Washington, D.C. to Smalltown America colonies organized under a single unit. Them as 130 VC killed War became a painful lesson for many - from Washington D.C.. And Vietnam were French colonies organized under a single administrative unit called flashcard sets forces... Updated almost every night at 3 AM conflict deaths in Vietnam, 75,000 severely disabled, 5,283 lost and!

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