[21] During the peak war years, another scholar Guenter Lewy attributed almost a third of civilian deaths to the VC. Many of the refugees failed to survive the passage, facing danger from pirates, over-crowded boats, and storms. Rummel calculated PAVN/VC deaths at 1,062,000 and ARVN and allied war deaths of 741,000, with both totals including civilians inadvertently killed. Furthermore, domestic unrest and the financial cost of war made peaceand troop withdrawalsa necessity, not a choice. These are the most accurate estimates of the death tolls for each group of fighters: Civilians made up a large portion of the casualties in the Vietnam War. McNamara claimed this program would provide valuable training, skills and opportunity to America's poora promise that was never carried out. Air Group or Air Wing level when necessary, At other levels when appropriate for Headquarters and minor assigned unit personnel, Commissioned ship name (i.e., "USS WHATEVER"), Task Force level (TF 115, TF 116, TF 117) for personnel assigned to the riverine and coastal forces, Naval Support Activity level for the shore establishment, Fleet Marine Force unit for Navy personnel assigned to FMF units, SEAL/UDT and SeaBee personnel are indexed under the next higher command. The Vietnam War is one of the most unpopular wars in American history. [25], Operating under the direction of the CIA and other US and South Vietnamese Intel organizations and carried out by ARVN units alongside US advisers was the Phoenix Program, intended to neutralise the VC political infrastructure, whom were the civilian administration of the Viet Cong/Provisional Revolutionary Government via infiltration, capture, counter-terrorism, interrogation, and assassination. exposed to enemy attack. [95][96], The number of US military personnel in Vietnam jumped from 23,300 in 1965 to 465,600 by the end of 1967. Those totals include only Vietnamese deaths, and do not include American and other allied military deaths which amounted to about 64,000. [60] Prior to the 1975 spring offensive, at least 5,336 ARVN were captured, being released in the aftermath of the Paris Peace Accords. Weakened by defeat in the war, France withdrew its forces in 1945. Based on unit surveys, . In 1995 Vietnam released its official estimate of the number of people killed during the Vietnam War: as many as 2,000,000 civilians on both sides and some 1,100,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters. 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. COAST GUARD *, Copyright 1997-2018 www.VirtualWall.org, Ltd (TM), Division level indexes are used for Division HQ and minor assigned unit personnel, Brigade level indexes are used for Brigade HQ and minor assigned unit personnel, Aviation Group level indexes are used for Group HQ and minor assigned unit personnel, Aviation Battalion level indexes are used for Bn HQ, minor assigned units, and Aviation Companies which stayed with a single Battalion throughout their time in Vietnam, Separate Battalion indexes are used for Battalions not assigned to a Regiment, Aviation Companies that served with two or more Aviation Battalions while in Vietnam are indexed separately. Back in the US, support for the war waned and calls to withdraw from Vietnam grew louder. [5], Uppsala University in Sweden maintains the Armed Conflict Database. 80 lessons During that period, they stated, they lost 849,018 killed plus approximately 232,000 missing and 463,000 wounded. Not all mines were detonated during the war and as a result they are still being either dug up or mistakenly stepped on today. That can include disabled by injuries, disabled by psychological trauma, captured, deserted, or missing. [99][100] In 2012 alone, unexploded ordnance and claimed 500 casualties in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, according to activists and Vietnamese government databases. [42] This might partially explain the discrepancies between recovered weapons and body-count figures, along with exaggeration, although the NVA and VC also went to great lengths to recover weapons from the battlefield. In the United States, the Vietnam War became known as one of the most unpopular wars . A South Vietnamese plane seeking Vietcong hiding places accidentally dropped its flaming napalm on civilians and government troops instead. Ambassador to Vietnam David Shear. Once a unit assignment has been determined, a link to the individual's memorial page is included in the appropriate Unit Index. Lebanon (1982-1984) 240. Both American/South Vietnamese forces and the Viet Cong can be held accountable for the number of civilian deaths, but the Viet Cong had a larger hand in overtaking villages and using more offensive military tactics to draw out the South Vietnamese forces. He received his B.A. 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. 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. Some Vietnam War veterans that died between 1966 and 1968 came from Los Angeles, Sacramento, Yuba City, San Diego, Santa Ana and Whittier or Stockton.. California has the highest veteran count of all the U.S. states, totaling 596,130. "[56] Investigations by Korean civic groups have alleged that at least 9,000 civilians were massacred by ROK forces. Many movements on the home front arose in the early 1970s to end the war, which sped the process of withdrawing troops along. 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. Fighting continued on a lesser scale for some time afterwards and refugee numbers rose sharply due to the continued conflict, but the development of a strong trading market in the 80s helped the nation become more unified. French Indochina (Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam) - 1,250,000 . USA.gov, The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration SOG had a casualty rate of 100 percenteveryone who served in SOG was either wounded, most multiple times, or . Data for deaths in Laos is incomplete. The United States lost 58,220 known military personnel. Deaths in the Vietnam War. Vietnam Syndrome Overview & Analysis | What is Vietnam Syndrome? The Vietnam War was fought between 1954 (following the departure of the French) through 1975, when South Vietnam surrendered to North Vietnam. Cobra helicopters totaled 1,110,716 flight hours in Vietnam. Da Nang was the primary storage site of the chemical. The government of Vietnam says that 4 million of its citizens were exposed to Agent Orange, and as many as 3 million have suffered illnesses because of it; these figures include the children of people who were exposed. Including 28 civilians, originally there were 52 missing civilians. 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. The above figures on missing and wounded were calculated using Hanoi's declared casualty ratios for the period of 1945 to 1979, during which time the Communists incurred 1.1 million killed, 300,000 missing, and 600,000 wounded. 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. [29] American bombing in Cambodia is estimated to have killed between 30,000 and 150,000 civilians and combatants. Cpl., Memphis, Tenn. . Conflict. He estimates that between 30 and 46% of the total war deaths were civilians. [1][note 1] The word casualty has been used in a military context since at least 1513. [50][51] South Korean Marines reportedly perpetrated the H My massacre on 25 February 1968. The killed in action figure comes from "Special Subject 4: The Work of Locating and Recovering the Remains of Martyrs From Now Until 2020 And Later Years," downloaded from the Vietnamese government website datafile on 1 December 2017. The United States also reduced support troops, and in March 1971 the 5th Special Forces Group, the first American unit deployed to South Vietnam, withdrew to Fort Bragg, . He took over the city of Hanoi and declared independence from France in 1954. PAVN and VC losses were reported as 1.1 million dead and civilian deaths of Vietnamese on both sides totaled 2.0 million. AIR FORCE * 13 chapters | The following is a chart of all casualties, listed by race, and in descending order. 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. Operation Rolling Thunder History & Facts | What Was Operation Rolling Thunder? 0. Grand total of war deaths: Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos (1954-75) 1,450,000: 2,450,000: 3,595,000: Civilian deaths in the Vietnam War . Vietnam War Casualties, MIA and POWs. . American civilians were not killed in the Vietnam War. All three men died in spring of 2020 of COVID-19 after . About 2 million Vietnamese civilians were killed in the fighting. (deaths in afghan war Afghanistan war casualties). Grenada (1983) 3. The war was fought on Vietnamese land, in addition to the territories of Cambodia and Laos. Among other countries that fought for South Vietnam, South Korea had more than 4,000 dead, Thailand about 350, Australia more than 500, and New Zealand some three dozen. According to a 2009 study, one third of land in the central provinces of Vietnam is still contaminated with unexploded mines and ordnance. WWII POWs; WWII Enlistments; Japan POWs; Korean War Casualties; Displaying 1 - 20 . [citation needed] Black people often made up a disproportionate 25% or more of combat units, while constituting only 12% of the military. [65], According to the Vietnamese government's official history, one of the deadliest years was 1972, where they lost over 100,000 casualties. The Virtual Wall uses the Coffelt Database (CDB) for unit assignment information. ; 1972 Easter Offensive - This saw 50,000 to 75,000 North Vietnamese combatants . Ronald H. Spector is Professor of History and International Affairs in the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. Estimates include both civilian and military deaths in North and South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Neighbouring Laos and Cambodia similarly fell to communists. US Army helicopters pour machine-gun fire into the tree line to cover the advance of ground troops. Those who argue that the United States opponents won the war cite the United States overall objectives and outcomes. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. The Vietnam War began mainly over political conflict between Ho Chi Minh's Communist state of North Vietnam and the U.S.-supported democracy of South Vietnam. These estimates probably include deaths of Vietnamese soldiers in Laos and Cambodia, but do not include deaths of South Vietnamese and allied soldiers which would add nearly 300,000 for a grand total of 3.4 million military and civilian dead. In October 1966, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara initiated Project 100,000 which further lowered military standards for 100,000 additional draftees per year. A casualty is just a soldier who is no longer available for the immediate battle or campaign, the major consideration in combat. The National Liberation Front & People's Army of Vietnam | History, Purpose & Strategy, 1973 Paris Peace Accords Overview | Talks, Terms & Agreement, Vietnamization Policy & Significance | Nixon's Plan to Withdraw American Forces, Operation Ranch Hand: Definition, Strategy & Impact, Significant Events in the First Indochina War, Causes of American Defeat in the Vietnam War, Communism Spreads During the Vietnam War: Cambodia and Laos. The human costs of the long conflict were harsh for all involved. 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). [26] The program resulted in an estimated 26,000 to 41,000 killed, with an unknown number possibly being innocent civilians. [25][30], 18.2 million gallons of Agent Orange, some of which was contaminated with Dioxin, was sprayed by the U.S. military over more than 10% of Southern Vietnam[31] as part of the U.S. herbicidal warfare program Operation Ranch Hand during the Vietnam War, from 1961 to 1971. The war was fought largely in North Vietnam and South Vietnam, though some fighting did occur in the neighboring territories of Cambodia and Laos. Index of Vietnam War Casualties by Unit of Assignment. 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. Killed in Action (KIA); Died while Missing. 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. * From 1956-1964, 417Americans died in Vietnam. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, but his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, continued the work that Kennedy had started. The most prominent of these events were the Hu Massacre and the M Lai Massacre. 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. Principal Wars in Which the US Participated . Estimates for PAVN deaths in the Easter Offensive alone vary from 40,000 to 100,000 in western sources. [104], Following the end of the war, many refugees fled Vietnam by boat and ship. Its like a teacher waved a magic wand and did the work for me. The United States has spent over $65 million since 1998 as part of unexploded ordnance clearing operations. lessons in math, English, science, history, and more. Regarding killed in action the 1st Marine Division was the unit with the highest . Seven massacres officially confirmed by the American side. The United States entered Vietnam with the principal purpose of preventing a communist takeover of the region. The Vietnamese, in the midst of the fighting, only had a growing desire to separate from colonial France and create their own nation. Being killed in action was the leading cause of American casualties. Since 1941 Congress has declared war only six times, all during World War II. American Foreign Policy in the First Indochina War. (L Company Ranger 75th Infantry Archives) At only 17 years old, B.C.'s . Who had the highest casualty rates in the Vietnam War? Vietnam War Casualties 1956-1998. . This includes US military officers and soldiers who died as a result of either a hostile or non-hostile occurrence, or who were missing in action or prisoners of war during the Vietnam War. 70. . Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History. [18], R. J. Rummel estimated that PAVN/VC forces killed around 164,000 civilians in democide between 1954 and 1975 in South Vietnam, from a range of between 106,000 and 227,000, plus another 50,000 killed in North Vietnam. 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. The United States withdrew its forces in 1973, placing the onus on South Vietnam to fight its own battle. [93][97], Civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, John Lewis, Muhammad Ali and others, criticized the racial disparity in both casualties and representation in the entire military, prompting the Pentagon to order cutbacks in the number of African Americans in combat positions. [1] 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. Among other countries that fought for South Vietnam on a smaller scale, South Korea suffered more than 4,000 dead, Thailand about 350, Australia more than 500, and New Zealand some three dozen. [70], RJ Rummel estimates 1,011,000 PAVN/VC combatant deaths. Not all of these were military personnel; nearly half of the deaths of the Vietnam War were the deaths of civilians caught in the fighting. Commander George L. Jackson said, "In response to this criticism, the Department of Defense took steps to readjust force levels in order to achieve an equitable proportion and employment of Negroes in Vietnam." Ho Khang, ed, Marilyn Young. The Viet Cong lost around 1.1 million combatants. Researchers regard the former Oakland, California Army base as the largest Vietnam War military port in the world. However, from a constitutional perspective, this conflict did not technically count as a war. [103], On 9 August 2012, the United States and Vietnam began a cooperative cleaning up of the toxic chemical from part of Da Nang International Airport, marking the first time Washington has been involved in cleaning up Agent Orange in Vietnam. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. 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. 13,091. "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. For more information see Vietnam War casualties and Aircraft losses of the Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos . but not without Marine and U.S. Air Force casualties. I would definitely recommend Study.com to my colleagues. According to RJ Rummel, from 1964 to 1975, an estimated 1,500 people died during the forced relocations of 1,200,000 civilians, another 5,000 prisoners died from ill-treatment and about 30,000 suspected communists and fighters were executed. 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. [58] According to Guenter Lewy, the ARVN suffered between 171,331 and 220,357 deaths during the war. Perpetrated the H My Massacre on 25 February 1968 note 1 ] the word casualty been! 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