These deaths made up about 40% of the total casualties. [62] According to the Vice Minister Nguyn B Hoan, in 2022, nearly 200,000 PAVN/VC were still MIA (whose bodies were have not been found), and 300,000 whose bodies have been found, but buried anonymously and never identified. 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. More than 8.7 million Americans served on active duty during the Vietnam period (Nov 1, 1955 to May 15, 1975). Infantry Unit Commander (ARMY) 06/23/66: A Co: GORDON THOMAS: DALTON: Ground Casualty: 4th Bn: Undefined Code: Hostile, Died: Selective Service: South Vietnam: Invalid . [77] Additionally, according to the U.S. military, they also lost up to 101,511 personnel as defectors due to the Chieu Hoi program,[78] but one analyst speculates that less than 25% of those were genuine. The overwhelming majority of the MIA are from northern Vietnam. The number of these "boat people" leaving Vietnam and arriving safely in another country totalled almost 800,000 between 1975 and 1995. Statistical Information about Fatal Casualties of the Vietnam War, Records Relating to American Prisoners of War and Missing in Action from the Vietnam War Era, 1960-1994, Electronic Data Records Relating to Military Objectives and Activities During the Vietnam War, Electronic Records of Korean and Vietnam War Casualties, How to File a FOIA Request for Archival Records, Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) Extract Files, Records on Military Personnel Who Died, Were Missing in Action or Prisoners of War as a Result of the Vietnam War, Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) Files, Records of Deceased, Wounded, Ill, or Injured Army Personnel, Including Dependents and Civilian Employees, Records with Unit Information on Military Personnel Who Died During the Vietnam War. Including 28 civilians, originally there were 52 missing civilians. USA.gov, The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration The dates of death . On Nov. 23, 1968, The Philadelphia Tribune wrote of large . "[56] Investigations by Korean civic groups have alleged that at least 9,000 civilians were massacred by ROK forces. . Sometimes, the casualty rate is disproportionately high. 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. Many were never directly involved in the fighting, but rather were only caught in the crosshairs of South Vietnamese and North Vietnamese forces. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. The Coffelt Database available on this website is updated almost every night at 3 AM. In Qung Nam Province 4,700 civilians were killed in 1969. The former arrives in Vietnam in November 1965, and, soon after, is tasked with leading his 400 men in an effort to take out . Another potential limitation is the relatively small sample size of the study. 88,594. During warfare, some units take more casualties than other units. Though North Vietnam lost, it won a major psychological victory. [66][67] After the U.S.'s withdrawal from the conflict, the Pentagon estimated PAVN/VC deaths at 39,000 in 1973 and 61,000 in 1974. In 1965 alone they comprised 14.1% of total combat deaths, when they only comprised approximately 11% of the total U.S. population in the same year. 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. Ho Chi Minh was outraged and began to engage his forces in small fights with South Vietnamese troops. The war also spilled over into the neighboring countries of Cambodia and Laos which also endured casualties from aerial and ground fighting. 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. An additional 232,000 military personnel were still missing as of 2017, a total of 1,081,000 dead and missing for the American War. exposed to enemy attack. In general we index the memorials at the lowest practical unit level. [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. [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. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. American Greatness, by Victor Davis Hanson Original Article. (deaths in afghan war Afghanistan war casualties). 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. 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. 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. Unit Best Practice Resources Sample Unit LDP Orders Leadership Toolkits . 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. * The 143 men subsequently declared dead between 1973 and 2002 are not included in these totals. Corrections? According to the Vietnamese government, unexploded ordnance has killed some 42,000 people since the end of the war. The war persisted from 1955 to 1975 and most of the fighting took place in South Vietnam; accordingly it suffered the most casualties. In that respect, it failed: the two Vietnams were united under a communist banner in July 1976. harvnb error: no target: CITEREFTurse2013 (. (The estimates for 195564 are much higher than other estimates). [19], Other casualties for the ARVN included up to 1,170,000 military wounded,[59] and 1,000,000 surrendered or captured. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington, D.C.. Major incidents. Week of November 22. Although demographers have developed a reper- Johnson raised the number of South Vietnam deployments to 23,000 U.S. soldiers by the end of his first year in office. I would definitely recommend Study.com to my colleagues. [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 film follows the experiences of both Moore, portrayed by Mel Gibson, and his wife, Julia, played by Madeleine Stowe. [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. He succeeded in 1954 and established a Communist government. "Making More Enemies than We Kill? Before the Second World War, Vietnam was occupied by the colonial French empire. Significant numbers resettled in the United States, Canada, Italy, Australia, France, West Germany, and the United Kingdom.[105]. 1. AIR FORCE * The U.S. Constitution grants Congress sole authority to issue declarations of war. The U.S. military reported 58,220 American casualties. They also assert that the U.S. overall suffered fewer casualties than its opponents. 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. He estimated that victims of democide (deliberate killing of civilians) included 214,000 by North Vietnam/VC and 98,000 by South Vietnam and its allies. The following is a chart of all casualties, listed by race, and in descending order. French Indochina (Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam) - 1,250,000 . Necessarily, more is lost to time than is remembered. The majority of these soldiers were between the ages of 21 and 28. Try refreshing the page, or contact customer support. 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. 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. How to Order a Draft Record. "Triumph Regained: The Vietnam War, 1965-1968." The U.S. technically did not lose the Vietnam War, as they withdrew in 1973 to allow South Vietnam to fight their own battles. Vietnam War: 1964-1973: 58,220: 153,303: 5,283: 1:2.6: 1:29.0 (0.03) Persian Gulf War: However, side effects occurred because of Agent Orange. [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. Enrolling in a course lets you earn progress by passing quizzes and exams. Officer casualties of all branches were overwhelmingly white. 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. Ronald H. Spector is Professor of History and International Affairs in the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. [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. Omissions? In just 30 minutes, they had 30 casualties. That can include disabled by injuries, disabled by psychological trauma, captured, deserted, or missing. [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. Dr. Shulimson heads the History Writing Unit and is a graduate of the University of Buffalo, now the State University of New York at Buffalo. Get unlimited access to over 84,000 lessons. [102] The Red Cross of Vietnam estimates that up to 1 million people are disabled or suffer health problems due to Agent Orange exposure. 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. Colonial France inhabited Vietnam through the end of World War II. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Others are still yet to be discovered and over 1,200 Americans are still unaccounted for. 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The Internet cannot and has not replaced on-the-spot investigation, though; in example, one member of the Coffelt Group has photographed over 80,000 documents at the LBJ and Nixon Presidential Libraries and in the National Archives. Estimates of casualties of the Vietnam War vary widely. The war was fought largely in North Vietnam and South Vietnam, though some fighting did occur in the neighboring territories of Cambodia and Laos. Conflict. Being killed in action was the leading cause of American casualties. 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. The human costs of the long conflict were harsh for all involved. Ambassador to Vietnam David Shear. Answer (1 of 4): The Army lost the most which makes sense as they had the most number of soldiers serve in Vietnam. KIA - Killed in Action WIA - Wounded in Action. Many of these deaths were suspected to be murders, often targeting able-bodied young men who could pose a threat to the other side should they have chosen to join the military. The oldest man killed was 62 years old. In 1980 Richard set out to determine the unit of assignment for each Army soldier who died in Vietnam. [29] American bombing in Cambodia is estimated to have killed between 30,000 and 150,000 civilians and combatants. The majority of the remaining number of casualties were Vietnamese. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. [5], Uppsala University in Sweden maintains the Armed Conflict Database. Of the 7877 officer casualties, 7595 or 96.4% were white, 147 or 1.8% were black; 24 or . Village battles were not uncommon as the two factions fought for control of the region. Vietnam War Casualties, MIA and POWs. [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. Joseph L. Rhodes, 22, Marines, L. Deaths in Cambodia and Laos were estimated at 273,000 and 62,000 respectively. Causes of ongoing deaths and side effects include. Posted By: Jagermeister, 2/27/2023 4:40:17 PM Military historian and Hillsdale College professor Mark Moyar has just published Triumph Regained: The Vietnam War, 1965-1968, which is the second in what will become a massive three-volume revision of the entire Vietnam War. It granted him broad latitude in handling the struggle against communism in Southeast Asia. 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. This group was made up almost entirely of either working-class or rural youth. [65], According to the Vietnamese government's official history, one of the deadliest years was 1972, where they lost over 100,000 casualties. The Vietnam War death toll is estimated to be around 3.8 million casualties in total. The Vietnam War officially came to an end in 1975 when South Vietnam surrendered to North Vietnam, unable to maintain the fight. On October 22, 1957, the U.S. forces suffered their first hostile casualties. 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. [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. . The additional resources allowed the project's scope to expand to include unit of assignment information for all service branches. 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. North Vietnamese troops launched the Tet Offensive in January 1968, which was successful against South Vietnam and the U.S. 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. US Army helicopters pour machine-gun fire into the tree line to cover the advance of ground troops. [60] Prior to the 1975 spring offensive, at least 5,336 ARVN were captured, being released in the aftermath of the Paris Peace Accords. Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010: see the "National Cemeteries and Beneficiaries" section below. The total number of officer casualties, commissioned and warrant, are 7,877. Over 58,000 American lives were lost in the fighting. Civilian deaths were partly caused by assassinations, massacres, and terror tactics. The U.S. National Archives shows that 58,220 U.S. soldiers perished. 1st Battalion, 9th Marines. but not without Marine and U.S. Air Force casualties. I had just returned from Iraq and was working with Vietnam veterans who'd served in . 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. Lebanon (1982-1984) 240. The Viet Cong amassed an estimated 2.3 million troops by 1975. North Vietnam had won victory over the French and was likely to make South Vietnam submit to a Communist regime. [40][37] Sometimes civilian casualties from airstrikes or artillery barrages against villages were reported as "enemies killed". [33][34] The United States government has challenged these figures as being unreliable. This led to increased racial tension in the military. The Vietnam War became a painful lesson for many - from Washington, D.C. to Smalltown America. . Encounter Books, December 2022. WIA. The boat people's first destinations were the Southeast Asian locations of Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Over 58,000 American troops were killed in Vietnam, with more still not identified. [95][98] As a result, by the war's completion, total black casualties averaged 12.5% of US combat deaths, approximately equal to percentage of draft-eligible black men, though still slightly higher than the 10% who served in the military. [6], A 2008 study by the BMJ (formerly British Medical Journal) came up with a higher toll of 3,812,000 dead in Vietnam between 19552002. In the United States, the Vietnam War became known as one of the most unpopular wars that the nation had ever been involved in. The 2nd Marine Brigade reportedly perpetrated the Binh Tai Massacre on 9 October 1966. The war persisted from 1955 to 1975 and most of the fighting took place in South Vietnam; accordingly it suffered the most 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. Chapter 14: "The cease-fire war claimed 26,500 ARVN dead in 1973, and almost 30,000 in 1974. 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. 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. Once a unit assignment has been determined, a link to the individual's memorial page is included in the appropriate Unit Index. As of 2014, 221 Virginian deaths have been identified. Rummel estimates 212,000 killed by Khmer Rouge (19671975), 60,000 killed by U.S. and 1,000 killed by South Vietnam (196773). There are some limitations on the search capabilities and downloading records en masse is not allowed. 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. Richard Coffelt's health began failing, and on 29 October 2010 he made his last contributions to the Coffelt Database. 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. Major Bruce Crandall made over 20 flights into intense enemy fire during a battle in the Ia Drang Valley, South Vietnam, in November 1965, evacuating 70 wounded and delivering ammunition. In the late 1990s, others joined Richard's effort, contributing information and collating the collected material into digital form using the Holloway database as a baseline. Data for deaths in Laos is incomplete. The first American soldier died in the Vietnam War was Richard B. Fitzgibbon, Jr., a U.S. Air Force Technical Sergeant. [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. 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. Of these, more than 13,000 were killed and 88,000 wounded, nearly a . The "Holloway Database" effectively became the public's sole source of information regarding all our Vietnam dead. "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. This is also the main reason that soldiers in Vietnam saw more action than those soldiers of preceding wars. American Foreign Policy in the First Indochina War. Veterans were viewed negatively for their participation in the war, even if it was not by their choice to do so. The Vietnam War was a long, deadly . 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. He recalled the attack and said, "We go in, and the helicopter started . 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 . The question of who won the Vietnam War has been a subject of debate, and the answer depends on the definition of victory. Of those killed, 61% were younger than 21 years old. [98], Unexploded ordnance continue to detonate and kill people today. Others now continue the work Richard began 30 years ago. WWII POWs; WWII Enlistments; Japan POWs; Korean War Casualties; Displaying 1 - 20 . The 'shameful gamesmanship' practiced by 'certain reporting elements' under pressure to 'produce results' also shrouded the process. 62. Chrissy has taught secondary English and history and writes online curriculum. Vietnam War, Awards and Decorations of Honor, 1965-1972. History is not a fixed set of facts. lessons in math, English, science, history, and more. In general we index the memorials at the lowest practical unit level. Search and destroy was a term to describe operations aimed at flushing the Viet Cong out of hiding, while body count was the measuring stick for operation success and this resulted in exaggeration and listing civilian deaths as enemy KIA. An addition 3 million Vietnamese were left wounded and around 12 million were refugees. The South Vietnamese government, on the other hand, fought to preserve a Vietnam more closely aligned with the West. [95][96], The number of US military personnel in Vietnam jumped from 23,300 in 1965 to 465,600 by the end of 1967. [50][51] South Korean Marines reportedly perpetrated the H My massacre on 25 February 1968. [71] The official US Department of Defense figure was 950,765 communist forces killed in Vietnam from 1965 to 1974. [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. 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 . Principal Wars in Which the US Participated . 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. ; 1972 Easter Offensive - This saw 50,000 to 75,000 North Vietnamese combatants . (1) GROUND FORCE PERSONNEL, including Army aviation, generally are indexed at the Regimental level but there are exceptions. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. From a Marine second lieutenant in New Jersey who commanded a rifle platoon in Vietnam. 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. ARMY * 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. American civilians were not killed in the Vietnam War. Shelby Stanton, writing in The Rise and Fall of an American Army, declined to include casualty statistics because of their 'general unreliability.' The "patrol boat: riverine," or Navy PBR, was the first watercraft built for the so-called brown water navy in Vietnam. For the period of the Vietnam War the totals are 1,310,000 between 1955 and 1964, 1,700,000 between 196574 and 810,000 between 1975 and 1984. 151. He received his B.A. Vancouver's Rob McSorley is one of at least 134 Canadians killed in action fighting for U.S. forces during the Vietnam War. 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. Once a unit assignment has been a subject of debate, and Vietnam ) - 1,250,000 the Coffelt Database in... From 195564 and 1,458,050 from 196575 for a total of 1,081,000 dead and missing for the included. War Afghanistan War casualties ; Displaying 1 - 20 Americans are still yet to be around 3.8 million in... Were Vietnamese descending order and said, & quot ; section below casualties for the ARVN included up to military... The `` Holloway Database '' effectively became the public 's sole source of information regarding our... 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