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. [60] Prior to the 1975 spring offensive, at least 5,336 ARVN were captured, being released in the aftermath of the Paris Peace Accords. succeed. [11], Author Mark Woodruff noted that when the Vietnamese Government finally revealed its estimated losses (in April 1995) as being 1.1 million dead or missing, U.S body count figures had actually underestimated enemy losses. Despite the loss of members of the unit on that day and one later in the week, Don praised the unit's overall performance. Civilian deaths were partly caused by assassinations, massacres, and terror tactics. Who had the highest casualty rates in the Vietnam War? Learn about Vietnam war statistics and casualties. McNamara claimed this program would provide valuable training, skills and opportunity to America's poora promise that was never carried out. 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. One escapee died of wounds sustained during his rescue 15 days later. Ordering Information for Electronic Records. [64] According to the Vietnamese government, from 1994 to 2012, 172,460 PAVN/VC bodies were found, including 15,989 in Cambodia, and 14,549 in Laos, and around 10,000 bodies were found from 2012 to 2015, reducing the number of MIA from 390,000 (1993) to 207,000 (2016). 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. 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. [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. Accurate assessments of PAVN/VC losses, he wrote, were 'largely impossible due to lack of disclosure by the Vietnamese government, terrain, destruction of remains by firepower, and [inability] to confirm artillery and aerial kills.' The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died in the war. 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. Updates? [2], Arapaho tribe Cheyenne tribeLakota tribes, Vichy FranceItalian Social Republic 19431945Kingdom of Italy19421943, American units with the highest percentage of casualties per conflict, US units with most casualties per conflict, Union and Confederate numbers added together, The 215 casualty figure is disputed. Many deaths, however, were not completely targeted as they were the result of chance, being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Village battles were not uncommon as the two factions fought for control of the region. In 1968 US soldiers murdered several hundred Vietnamese civilians in the single . 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. 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. 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. Numbers certainly do not tell the whole story - or all of them - but they certainly paint a picture of lives lost and families devastated. U.S. Army Personnel and Dependent Casualties, 1961-1981 85% of the records in this database are related to the Vietnam Conflict. copyright 2003-2023 Study.com. Ultimately, by the end of the war, India had suffered over two million fatalities. [21] During the peak war years, another scholar Guenter Lewy attributed almost a third of civilian deaths to the VC. [36][37][38][39] The My Lai Massacre was initially written off as an operational success and covered up. Records with Unit Information on Military Personnel Who Died During the Vietnam War . [29] American bombing in Cambodia is estimated to have killed between 30,000 and 150,000 civilians and combatants. The Vietnam War became a painful lesson for many - from Washington, D.C. to Smalltown America. The United States entered Vietnam with the principal purpose of preventing a communist takeover of the region. In general we index the memorials at the lowest practical unit level. The Viet Cong amassed an estimated 2.3 million troops by 1975. This Vietnam War Covert Special Ops Unit Is The Deadliest You Never Heard Of. the Vietnam War). [27] Estimates for the number of North Vietnamese civilian deaths resulting from US bombing range from 30,00065,000. The human costs of the long conflict were harsh for all involved. The United States has spent over $65 million since 1998 as part of unexploded ordnance clearing operations. 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. [7], R. J. Rummel's mid-range estimate in 1997 was that the total deaths due to the Vietnam War totaled 2,450,000 from 195475. Around half a million Vietnamese children were born with birth defects because of its use, and American soldiers and their families report side effects from being exposed to the chemical. Killed in Action (KIA); Died while Missing. The number of casualties is simply the number of members of a unit who are not available for duty. Persian Gulf (1988) (Oil Platforms) 2. Ambassador to Vietnam David Shear. Vietnam War: 1964-1973: 58,220: 153,303: 5,283: 1:2.6: 1:29.0 (0.03) Persian Gulf War: 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. A South Vietnamese plane seeking Vietcong hiding places accidentally dropped its flaming napalm on civilians and government troops instead. The U.S. National Archives shows that 58,220 U.S. soldiers perished. It is estimated that South Vietnam lost between 200,000 and 250,000 fighters. South Vietnam supplied a total of 942,000 troops. 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. 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. Total. 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. Over 58,000 American lives were lost in the fighting. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. In addition to patrolling, Navy PBRs participated with . 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. How to Order a Draft Record. American civilians were not killed in the Vietnam War. 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. [14], German historian Bernd Greiner mentions the following war crimes reported and/or investigated by the Peers Commission and the Vietnam War Crimes Working Group, among other sources:[43]. 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. Chart and statistics of US death/wounded in war as well as amputation ratios in the Afghanistan war compared with other major operations. [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 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. As a member, you'll also get unlimited access to over 84,000 NAVY * Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Researchers regard the former Oakland, California Army base as the largest Vietnam War military port in the world. 7. Casualty Data For The Vietnam War. As of 2014, 221 Virginian deaths have been identified. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. These deaths made up about 40% of the total casualties. After 1975. Da Nang was the primary storage site of the chemical. Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition, gives a 1513 reference for military casualty, and an 1844 reference for civilian use. More than 58,000 American casualties of the Vietnam War are commemorated on the Vietnam Wall in Washington, DC. Of the 4953 Navy and Air Force casualties, both officer and enlisted, 4, 736 or 96% were white. They also assert that the U.S. overall suffered fewer casualties than its opponents. 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