The Vietnam War became a painful lesson for many - from Washington, D.C. to Smalltown America. The U.S. technically did not lose the Vietnam War, as they withdrew in 1973 to allow South Vietnam to fight their own battles. 3% were Asian, 7 or . The number of these "boat people" leaving Vietnam and arriving safely in another country totalled almost 800,000 between 1975 and 1995. Weakened by defeat in the war, France withdrew its forces in 1945. "Making More Enemies than We Kill? 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. 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. 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. 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. [5], In 1995, the Vietnamese government released its estimate of war deaths for the more lengthy period of 195575. Of the 7877 officer casualties, 7595 or 96.4% were white, 147 or 1.8% were black; 24 or . [52] According to a study conducted in 1968 by a Quaker-funded Vietnamese-speaking American couple, Diane and Michael Jones, there were at least 12 mass killings committed by South Korean forces that approached the scale of the My Lai Massacre, with reports of thousands of routine murders of civilians, primarily the elderly, women and children. 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. 13,091. Vietnam's government claimed that 400,000 people were killed or maimed as a result of after effects, and that 500,000 children were born with birth defects. 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, * lessons in math, English, science, history, and more. [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. "Triumph Regained: The Vietnam War, 1965-1968." 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 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 photographs have become a part of the Coffelt Database. These deaths made up about 40% of the total casualties. "The Vietnam Wars." The oldest man killed was 62 years old. Reference Information Paper 103", "From the Archives: President Nixon welcomes Marines home from Vietnam", "MILITARY: Marine unit that suffered most casualties coming home", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=American_units_with_the_highest_percentage_of_casualties_per_conflict&oldid=1125722100, This page was last edited on 5 December 2022, at 13:58. We do not sell any of the items showcased on this site. The question of who won the Vietnam War has been a subject of debate, and the answer depends on the definition of victory. Deaths in the Vietnam War. A number of incidents occurred during the war in which civilians were deliberately targeted or killed. Many black men who had previously been ineligible could now be drafted, along with many poor and racially intolerant white men from the southern states. 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. [26] The program resulted in an estimated 26,000 to 41,000 killed, with an unknown number possibly being innocent civilians. [58] According to Guenter Lewy, the ARVN suffered between 171,331 and 220,357 deaths during the war. Of the 2.6 million, between 1 and 1.6 million (40-60%) either fought in. Veterans were viewed negatively for their participation in the war, even if it was not by their choice to do so. 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. non-hostile occurrence or who were missing in action or prisoners of war in the Southeast Asian combat area during the Vietnam War, including casualties that occurred in Cambodia, China, Laos, North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and Thailand. Initially, the toll was just over 57,000, but new casualties came to light. Regarding killed in action the 2nd Infantry Division was the unit with the highest ratio with 7,094 KIA and 16,575 wounded. | 9 The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died. 80 lessons 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. This Vietnam War Covert Special Ops Unit Is The Deadliest You Never Heard Of. Support to North Vietnam was sent by Communist allies including China, North Korea, and the Soviet Union. In general we index the memorials at the lowest practical unit level. The names of those who gave their lives and of those who remain missing are inscribed in the order they . War on Terrorism, 2000-2014. Harper Perennial; September 1991. Richard Coffelt's health began failing, and on 29 October 2010 he made his last contributions to the Coffelt Database. California (5,572 Estimated Casualties). [62] Across all three wars including the First Indochina War and the Third Indochina War there was a total of 1,146,250 PAVN/VC confirmed military deaths, included 939,460 with bodies recovered and 207,000 with the bodies unfound. As of 2014, 221 Virginian deaths have been identified. Of those killed, 61% were younger than 21 years old. 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. Others are still yet to be discovered and over 1,200 Americans are still unaccounted for. I would definitely recommend Study.com to my colleagues. Rummel estimates 212,000 killed by Khmer Rouge (19671975), 60,000 killed by U.S. and 1,000 killed by South Vietnam (196773). The Vietnamese, in the midst of the fighting, only had a growing desire to separate from colonial France and create their own nation. Who had the highest casualty rates in the Vietnam War? The Vietnam War became a painful lesson for many - from Washington, D.C. to Smalltown America. Answer (1 of 4): The Army lost the most which makes sense as they had the most number of soldiers serve in Vietnam. The Coffelt Database is an intellectual property with copyrights held by the Coffelt Group and other contributing organizations. A mass exodus in 1975 of people loyal to the South Vietnamese cause was followed by another wave in 1978 of boat people, refugees fleeing the economic restructuring imposed by the communist regime. 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. 7. [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. [68] Per the official Vietnamese history, over 10,000 more PAVN soldiers were killed in the final offensive of early 1975. Causes of ongoing deaths and side effects include. ; 1972 Easter Offensive - This saw 50,000 to 75,000 North Vietnamese combatants . (L Company Ranger 75th Infantry Archives) At only 17 years old, B.C.'s . Devon has tutored for almost two years. Revolutionary War. In Qung Nam Province 4,700 civilians were killed in 1969. The officially-reported numbers and categories below cover American Vietnam War deaths by age group, branch of service, service component, type of death, reason for death, race, religion, sex, state/protectorate and deaths by war year (including post . 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. [22], Thomas Thayer in 1985 estimated that during the 196572 period the VC killed 33,052 South Vietnamese village officials and civil servants.[23]. From a Marine second lieutenant in New Jersey who commanded a rifle platoon in Vietnam. Deaths in Cambodia and Laos were estimated at 273,000 and 62,000 respectively. Army Huey's totaled 9,713,762 flight hours in Vietnam between October 1966 and the end of American involvement in early 1973. Others now continue the work Richard began 30 years ago. More than 8.7 million Americans served on active duty during the Vietnam period (Nov 1, 1955 to May 15, 1975). This list is organized in alphabetical order, and can be used to determine the place on the Vietnam Memorial where an individual's name can be found - the panel and line number to the right of the name. Get unlimited access to over 84,000 lessons. About 2 million Vietnamese civilians were killed in the fighting. Ho Chi Minh created the Viet Cong as a resistance force to French democracy. In my report I described them as so many women between fifteen and twenty-five and so many childrenusually in their mothers' arms or very close to themand so many old people." 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. 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. A casualty is just a soldier who is no longer available for the immediate battle or campaign, the major consideration in combat. The U.S. military reported 58,220 American casualties. [53][54] A separate study was carried out by RAND Corporation employee Terry Rambo, who conducted interviews in 1970 on reported Korean atrocities in ARVN/civilian areas. [49] The Second Marine Brigade perpetrated the Phong Nh and Phong Nht massacre on 12 February 1968. Officer casualties of all branches were overwhelmingly white. During the height of the conflict, Navy personnel scouted the rivers and canals of the sprawling Mekong Delta for communist guerrilla forces, arms, and ammunition. Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition, gives a 1513 reference for military casualty, and an 1844 reference for civilian use. 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. Not until 1995 did Vietnam release its official estimate of war dead: as many as 2 million civilians on both sides and some 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters. 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. [71] The official US Department of Defense figure was 950,765 communist forces killed in Vietnam from 1965 to 1974. Discover the countries that took part in the Vietnam war and how many people died in the Vietnam war. Please direct all other inquiries to militaryfactory AT gmail.com. Back in the US, support for the war waned and calls to withdraw from Vietnam grew louder. 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. Not until 1995 did Vietnam release its official estimate of war dead: as many as 2 million civilians on both sides and some 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters. The United States provided funding and troops to the South Vietnamese effort to prevent Communism from spreading further in East Asia. Australian special operations units would go out into the jungles of Vietnam for weeks at a time, often without saying a word to one another in order to maintain complete silence as they stalked the Northern troops through the jungles. [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). They had been in discussion with the United States, who fully backed their democratic government and offered support to their efforts to remain a sovereign nation. 28 August 2013. Specialized units such as the SeaBees, Scout Dog and Combat Tracker units, Navy SEAL/UDT, etc., usually are indexed under the next higher command. 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. This stemmed from the United States' involvement in the Cold War, which the United States fought to preserve democracy against the forces of Communism springing up in countries such as the Soviet Union and China. Seven massacres officially confirmed by the American side. McNamara claimed this program would provide valuable training, skills and opportunity to America's poora promise that was never carried out. Ambassador to Vietnam David Shear. One escapee died of wounds sustained during his rescue 15 days later. The following is a chart of all casualties, listed by race, and in descending order. We searched NARA's Access to Archival Databases (AAD) and located the following databases pertaining to Vietnam War casualties: Records with Unit Information on Military Personnel Who Died During the Vietnam War database in the Richard Coffelt, Richard Arnold, and David Argabright Collection (COFF) Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File of the . [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". [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. The United States withdrew its forces in 1973, placing the onus on South Vietnam to fight its own battle. South Vietnam supplied a total of 942,000 troops. [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. Researchers regard the former Oakland, California Army base as the largest Vietnam War military port in the world. In the United States, the Vietnam War became known as one of the most unpopular wars that the nation had ever been involved in. By their choice to do so civilians inadvertently killed civilians were killed in 1969 in Cambodia and were! Boat people '' leaving Vietnam and arriving safely in another country totalled almost 800,000 between and. Contributions to the South Vietnamese soldiers died, skills and opportunity to America 's poora promise was. U.S. technically did not lose the Vietnam war - this saw 50,000 75,000. Soviet Union between 1 and 1.6 million ( 40-60 % ) either in. 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