WWII POWs; WWII Enlistments; Japan POWs; Korean War Casualties; Displaying 1 - 20 . Five men killed in Vietnam were only 16 years old. A. The U.S. military reported 58,220 American casualties. In 1975 South Vietnam fell to a full-scale invasion by the North. 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. Lewy reduced the number of Viet Cong (VC) and People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) battle deaths claimed by the U.S. by 30 percent (in accordance with the opinion of United States Department of Defense officials), and assumed that one third of the reported battle deaths of the PAVN/VC may have actually been civilians. On Nov. 23, 1968, The Philadelphia Tribune wrote of large . 2,594,000 personnel served within the borders of South Vietnam. Before the Second World War, Vietnam was occupied by the colonial French empire. [35], For official US military operations reports, there was no established distinctions between enemy KIA and civilian KIA. The film follows the experiences of both Moore, portrayed by Mel Gibson, and his wife, Julia, played by Madeleine Stowe. When reunification elections were set to start, South Vietnamese government officials refused to participate. From a Marine second lieutenant in New Jersey who commanded a rifle platoon in Vietnam. The Viet Cong lost around 1.1 million combatants. Others are still yet to be discovered and over 1,200 Americans are still unaccounted for. The costs and casualties of the growing war proved too much for the United States to bear, and U.S. combat units were withdrawn by 1973. As this was two years before the IBM PC (personal computer) came on the market, the work necessarily was done the old-fashioned way: by library research, travel, and in hand-writing. [50][51] South Korean Marines reportedly perpetrated the H My massacre on 25 February 1968. [93][94] With the draft increasing due to the troop buildup in South Vietnam, the military significantly lowered its admission standards. 62. [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. [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. 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. Last combat unit departs Vietnam ending the ground war August 11, 1972. . 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. 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. (1) GROUND FORCE PERSONNEL, including Army aviation, generally are indexed at the Regimental level but there are exceptions. Officer casualties of all branches were overwhelmingly white. Of the 7877 officer casualties, 7595 or 96.4% were white, 147 or 1.8% were black; 24 or . North Vietnam had won victory over the French and was likely to make South Vietnam submit to a Communist regime. Deaths in the Vietnam War. He recalled the attack and said, "We go in, and the helicopter started . Vietnam War: 1964-1973: 58,220: 153,303: 5,283: 1:2.6: 1:29.0 (0.03) Persian Gulf War: When he later read the official tally of dead, he found that it listed them as 130 VC killed. According to the Information Bureau of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam (PRG), a shadow government formed by North Vietnam in 1969, between April 1968 and the end of 1970 American ground troops killed about 6,500 civilians in the course of twenty-one operations either on their own or alongside their allies. The Coffelt Database available on this website is updated almost every night at 3 AM. 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. My Lai (4) and My Khe (4) (collectively the My Lai Massacre) claimed the largest number of victims with 420 and 90 respectively, and in five other places a total of about 100 civilians were executed. 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. [5], In 1995, the Vietnamese government released its estimate of war deaths for the more lengthy period of 195575. The war persisted from 1955 to 1975 and most of the fighting took place in South Vietnam; accordingly it suffered the most casualties. And John Sullivan enlisted in the Navy after graduating high school and served as a second class machinist mate during the Vietnam War. The Coffelt Database of Vietnam War casualties has its roots in an effort begun by Richard Donham Coffelt. Who had the highest casualty rates in the Vietnam War? 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. AIR FORCE * Others now continue the work Richard began 30 years ago. In 1976, the Vietnamese government organized Gathering Teams to find the remains of dead soldiers. combat, provided close combat support or were at least fairly regularly. It was first used in 1962 and was effective at its job. 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. 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 U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died. Two major war memorials commemorating the dead soldiers in the Second Indochina War (a.k.a. Unit Best Practice Resources Sample Unit LDP Orders Leadership Toolkits . The forces involved in this war (by the conclusion of the war) included: The war was fought in dense jungle terrain, so the American military developed a chemical solution known as Agent Orange to burn through the brush and lure out the hiding Viet Cong forces. Unit: Nickname: KIA: Comment: 1st Cavalry Division: First . Many were never directly involved in the fighting, but rather were only caught in the crosshairs of South Vietnamese and North Vietnamese forces. In 1980 Richard set out to determine the unit of assignment for each Army soldier who died in Vietnam. 13 chapters | This series contains records of U.S. military officers and soldiers who died as a result of either a hostile or nonhostile 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 . They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. * The last U.S. infantry unit was pulled from the field on Aug. 11, 1972, so U.S. casualties dramatically declined. In just 30 minutes, they had 30 casualties. 70. . Following the end of French colonial rule in 1954 and break-up of the former French Indochina, the United States assumed the political mentorship and primary . 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. The Vietnamese newspaper Nhn Dn reported in 2012 that the U.S. government was providing $41 million to the project, which aimed to reduce the contamination level in 73,000 m of soil by late 2016. The Vietnam War was a costly conflict between all sides from both a financial and military perspective. Colonial France inhabited Vietnam through the end of World War II. The human costs of the long conflict were harsh for all involved. An estimated two million civilians of all nationalities, including those of Cambodia and Laos, were killed in the fighting. 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. Although North Vietnamese and Viet Cong casualty counts vary wildly, it is generally understood that they suffered several times the number of American casualties. Nine-year-old Kim Phuc had ripped off her burning . Civilian deaths caused by both sides amounted to a significant percentage of total deaths. Aid sent from other nations to the South Vietnamese effort waged about 5,000 total deaths. Both were present at the Battle of Ia Drang, the first large-scale engagement of the Vietnam War. Of the 4953 Navy and Air Force casualties, both officer and enlisted, 4, 736 or 96% were white. [95] Of the 27 million draft-age men between 1964 and 1973, 40% were drafted into military service, and only 10% were actually sent to Vietnam. On October 22, 1957, the U.S. forces suffered their first hostile casualties. [32] and studies have shown higher rates of casualties, health effects, and next-generation birth defects in Vietnamese peoples. They have a Bachelor's in Air Traffic Management from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and minored in Aviation Safety and Homeland Security. [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 U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died in the war. The United States has spent over $65 million since 1998 as part of unexploded ordnance clearing operations. US Army helicopters pour machine-gun fire into the tree line to cover the advance of ground troops. More than 58,000 American casualties of the Vietnam War are commemorated on the Vietnam Wall in Washington, DC. The Vietnam War became a painful lesson for many - from Washington, D.C. to Smalltown America. The South Vietnamese government, on the other hand, fought to preserve a Vietnam more closely aligned with the West. 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. History 308: Causes and Effects of the Vietnam War, Psychological Research & Experimental Design, All Teacher Certification Test Prep Courses, Participants & Strategies in the Vietnam War, Casualties of the Vietnam War: Causes & Statistics, Primary Source: Brent Scowcroft's 'Escape from South Vietnam' Memorandum, Postwar Relations Between America and Vietnam, Vietnam Veterans Memorial: Description & History, Primary Source: New York Times' Article on Tribute to Vietnam Dead, Vietnam Syndrome: Definition, Causes & Impact, Studying for History 308: Causes & Effects of the Vietnam War, History 106: The Civil War and Reconstruction, ILTS Social Science - History (246): Test Practice and Study Guide, SAT Subject Test World History: Practice and Study Guide, Praxis Elementary Education: Multiple Subjects (5001) Prep, History 307: American Civil Rights Movement, Praxis Fundamental Subjects: Content Knowledge (5511) Prep, Praxis Elementary Education: Social Studies Subtest (5004) Prep, US History - Civil War: Lesson Plans & Resources, 6th Grade World History I: Homeschool Curriculum, The French and Indian War Lesson Plan for Elementary School, Middle Colonies Economic Industry Activities, New England Colonies Economic Industry Activities, Sugar Act Lesson Plan for Elementary School, Sons of Liberty Lesson Plan for Elementary School, Boston Tea Party Activities for 4th Grade, Working Scholars Bringing Tuition-Free College to the Community. [19], Other casualties for the ARVN included up to 1,170,000 military wounded,[59] and 1,000,000 surrendered or captured. 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. The most prominent of these events were the Hu Massacre and the M Lai Massacre. As of 2014, 221 Virginian deaths have been identified. 8. Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History. [22], Thomas Thayer in 1985 estimated that during the 196572 period the VC killed 33,052 South Vietnamese village officials and civil servants.[23]. [19] Rummel's mid-level estimate includes 17,000 South Vietnamese civil servants killed by PAVN/VC. from Johns Hopkins and his MA and Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. copyright 2003-2023 Study.com. ; 1972 Easter Offensive - This saw 50,000 to 75,000 North Vietnamese combatants . It often refers not to those that are killed on the battlefield but to those who can no longer fight. Estimates for PAVN deaths in the Easter Offensive alone vary from 40,000 to 100,000 in western sources. Around 3.8 million casualties were suffered in total between both sides, with nearly half being civilian deaths. The names of those who gave their lives and of those who remain missing are inscribed in the order they . Ultimately, by the end of the war, India had suffered over two million fatalities. [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. He succeeded in 1954 and established a Communist government. MARINE CORPS * An estimate by the Department of Defense after the war gave a figure of 1.2 million civilian casualties, including 195,000 deaths. Apart from these few restrictions, the Coffelt Database is open to the public - just as Richard Coffelt intended. (At least 100 names on the memorial are those of servicemen who were actually Canadian citizens.) . Ordering Information for Electronic Records. The Viet Cong amassed an estimated 2.3 million troops by 1975. And John Sullivan enlisted in the Second World War, Vietnam was by. Occupied by the colonial French empire between all sides from both a financial and military perspective has roots. 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