The Vietnam War death toll is estimated to be around 3.8 million casualties in total. For example, during the Seven Days Battles in the American Civil War (June 25 to July 1, 1862) there were 5,228 killed, 23,824 wounded and 7,007 missing or taken prisoner for a total of 36,059 casualties. The former arrives in Vietnam in November 1965, and, soon after, is tasked with leading his 400 men in an effort to take out . 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. Following its 1945 defeat in World War II, Japan withdrew its forces from Vietnam, leaving the French-educated Emperor Bao Dai in control. Vietnam War Casualties record set contains 58,192 additional names of service people who lost their lives while serving overseas. 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. Deaths in the Vietnam War. In general, DD1300, DA2496, and DD1330 photographs are copyrighted and should not be copied. Enrolling in a course lets you earn progress by passing quizzes and exams. It is suspected that over 1.2 million of these deaths were murders. 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. 80 lessons 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 . 20% of black males were combat soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines. In addition to patrolling, Navy PBRs participated with . Johnson raised the number of South Vietnam deployments to 23,000 U.S. soldiers by the end of his first year in office. [92], African Americans suffered disproportionately high casualty rates in Vietnam. Records with Unit Information on Military Personnel Who Died During the Vietnam War . From 1965 to 1975, nearly 500,000 Marines served in Southeast Asia. The overwhelming majority of the MIA are from northern Vietnam. The United States Army lost the most troops in the Vietnam War, over 38,000 soldiers. The human costs of the long conflict were harsh for all involved. However, from a constitutional perspective, this conflict did not technically count as a war. Civilian deaths were partly caused by assassinations, massacres, and terror tactics. Veterans were viewed negatively for their participation in the war, even if it was not by their choice to do so. [50][51] South Korean Marines reportedly perpetrated the H My massacre on 25 February 1968. When he later read the official tally of dead, he found that it listed them as 130 VC killed. According to a 2009 study, one third of land in the central provinces of Vietnam is still contaminated with unexploded mines and ordnance. In the days before "embeds" this generation's enforced melding of photographer and military unit there was a certain sense of . Before the Second World War, Vietnam was occupied by the colonial French empire. Trade between the two nations ultimately resumed in the 1990s. [55] These policies were also reported on by US commanders, with one US Marine General stating "whenever the Korean marines received fire "or think [they got] fired on from a village they'd divert from their march and go over and completely level the village it would be a lesson to (the Vietnamese). The United States had provided funding, armaments, and training to South Vietnams government and military since Vietnams partition into the communist North and the democratic South in 1954. A. Pentagon statistics listed 39,000 and 61,000 PRG/DRV dead for the same time period.". The Vietnam War is one of the most unpopular wars in American history. MARINE CORPS * but not without Marine and U.S. Air Force casualties. Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History. The overwhelming majority of the MIA are from northern Vietnam. Morning muster on July 2 for the eight companies (A,B,D,E,G,H,I & K) involved in the suicidal attack was 262, and evening muster on the same day was 47. In 1976, the Vietnamese government organized Gathering Teams to find the remains of dead soldiers. Five men killed in Vietnam were only 16 years old. 7,484 women served in Vietnam, of whom 6,250 or 83.5% were nurses. [28][4] Higher estimates place the number of civilian deaths caused by American bombing of North Vietnam in Operation Rolling Thunder at 182,000. 151. [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. His estimate of total deaths is reflected in the table. This totals, from a range of between 16,000 and 167,000 deaths caused by South Vietnam during the (Dim-era), and 42,000 and 118,000 deaths caused by South Vietnam in the post Dim-era), excluding PAVN forces killed by the ARVN in combat. [73][74], Historian Christian Appy states "search and destroy was the principal tactic; and the enemy body count was the primary measure of progress" in the US strategy of attrition. The war also spilled over into the neighboring countries of Cambodia and Laos which also endured casualties from aerial and ground fighting. Back in the US, support for the war waned and calls to withdraw from Vietnam grew louder. (At least 100 names on the memorial are those of servicemen who were actually Canadian citizens.) Of these, more than 13,000 were killed and 88,000 wounded, nearly a . Between October 1966 and June 1969, 246,000 soldiers were recruited through Project 100,000, of whom 41% were black; black people only made up about 11% of the population of the US. Shelby L. Stanton, 'The Rise and Fall of an American Army,' Spa Books, 1989, xvi. The following general rules are observed: (2) AVIATION UNIT PERSONNEL in the Navy, Marines, and Air Force are indexed at the, (3) NAVAL PERSONNEL, other than aviation personnel, are indexed by, * The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died. In 1975 South Vietnam fell to a full-scale invasion by the North. The sum of those totals is 3,091,000 war deaths between 195575. WWII POWs; WWII Enlistments; Japan POWs; Korean War Casualties; Displaying 1 - 20 . [48] In December 1966, the Blue Dragon Brigade reportedly perpetrated the Bnh Ha massacre. Chart and statistics of US death/wounded in war as well as amputation ratios in the Afghanistan war compared with other major operations. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). 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. Sometimes, the casualty rate is disproportionately high. War on Terrorism, 2000-2014. This Vietnam War Covert Special Ops Unit Is The Deadliest You Never Heard Of. Estimates include both civilian and military deaths in North and South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The war was fought on Vietnamese land, in addition to the territories of Cambodia and Laos. Since body counts were a direct measure of operational success, US "operations reports" often listed civilian deaths as enemy KIA or exaggerated the number. Ho Chi Minh was outraged and began to engage his forces in small fights with South Vietnamese troops. As before, emphasis was placed on obtaining hard documentation, a task made easier as material became available on the Internet from governmental and private organizations. 11,465 of those killed were younger than 20 years old. [26] The program resulted in an estimated 26,000 to 41,000 killed, with an unknown number possibly being innocent civilians. The numbers below are not exact, as there are still personnel who have not been identified or are identified as missing. exposed to enemy attack. 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). Casualties - US vs NVA/VC. How to Order a Draft Record. Its like a teacher waved a magic wand and did the work for me. 8. The war cost the United States over $120 billion and the lives of over 58,000 troops. [101], Agent Orange and similar chemical defoliants have also caused a considerable number of deaths and injuries over the years, including among the US Air Force crew that handled them. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. The question of who won the Vietnam War has been a subject of debate, and the answer depends on the definition of victory. Specialized units such as the SeaBees, Scout Dog and Combat Tracker units, Navy SEAL/UDT, etc., usually are indexed under the next higher command. Data for this series of conflicts includes military personnel killed in the attacks on the USS Cole on October 12, 2000, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, and in Afghanistan and elsewhere since those dates. [62], According to American writer Joseph Babcock, the Vietnamese government estimated 300,000 PAVN/VC missing-in-action (MIA) in 2019, but that the real number of MIA is widely believed to be closer to 500,000 people, whose bodies were either never found or buried anonymously and never identified. Principal Wars in Which the US Participated . Vietnam Syndrome Overview & Analysis | What is Vietnam Syndrome? The Coffelt Database available on this website is updated almost every night at 3 AM. The Domino Theory & the Vietnam War | Significance & Eisenhower's Speech, History of the Vietnam War: Certificate Program, Middle School US History: Help and Review, Middle School US History: Tutoring Solution, DSST A History of the Vietnam War: Study Guide & Test Prep, CLEP History of the United States II: Study Guide & Test Prep, Post-Civil War U.S. History: Help and Review, American History Since 1865: Tutoring Solution, Post-Civil War American History: Homework Help, DSST The Civil War & Reconstruction: Study Guide & Test Prep, The Civil War and Reconstruction: Certificate Program, The Civil War and Reconstruction: Help and Review, Create an account to start this course today. Political turbulence there and two alleged North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. naval vessels spurred Johnson to demand the passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964. [95][96], The number of US military personnel in Vietnam jumped from 23,300 in 1965 to 465,600 by the end of 1967. Using the university's mainframe computers to read the reel-to-reel computer tapes, Tom integrated the two databases and converted the information into a commonly used small-computer format. [46], The ROK Capital Division reportedly perpetrated the Bnh An/Ty Vinh massacre in February/March 1966. Over 58,000 American troops were killed in Vietnam, with more still not identified. 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. Over the following years, additions to the list have brought the total past 58,200. [5], In 1995, the Vietnamese government released its estimate of war deaths for the more lengthy period of 195575. Many of the refugees failed to survive the passage, facing danger from pirates, over-crowded boats, and storms. French Indochina (Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam) - 1,250,000 . 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. Casualties fluctuated considerably from year to year, but a degree of accuracy can be inferred from the fact that 500,000 was 59 percent of the 849,018 total and that 59 percent of the war's days had passed by the time of Fallaci's conversation with Giap. An addition 3 million Vietnamese were left wounded and around 12 million were refugees. In 1980 Richard set out to determine the unit of assignment for each Army soldier who died in Vietnam. 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. U.S. Marines in Vietnam, 1967, Fighting the North Vietnamese, 1984 . During that period, they stated, they lost 849,018 killed plus approximately 232,000 missing and 463,000 wounded. Per war: 191,605 deaths in the First Indochina War, 849,018 deaths in the Second Indochina War (Vietnam War), and 105,627 deaths in the Third Indochina War. Those who argue that the United States won the war point to the fact that the U.S. defeated communist forces during most of Vietnams major battles. 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. 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Approximately 232,000 missing and 463,000 wounded many of the refugees failed to survive the passage, danger... Of black males were combat soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines waved a magic wand and the! The neighboring countries of Cambodia and Laos, Japan withdrew its forces from grew., Japan withdrew its forces from Vietnam, of whom 6,250 or 83.5 were.

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