Researchers regard the former Oakland, California Army base as the largest Vietnam War military port in the world. U.S. military advisers, present in small numbers throughout the 1950s, were introduced on a large scale beginning in 1961, and active combat units were introduced in 1965. Vietnam War Casualties 1956-1998. Not all mines were detonated during the war and as a result they are still being either dug up or mistakenly stepped on today. "[56] Another Marine commander, Gen. Robert E. Cushman Jr., added, "we had a big problem with atrocities attributed to them, which I sent on down to Saigon. These alphabetical indexes are for your convenience but do not represent the order of names on the Wall. The following is a chart of all casualties, listed by race, and in descending order. 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. 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. Numbers certainly do not tell the whole story - or all of them - but they certainly paint a picture of lives lost and families devastated. 20% of black males were combat soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines. 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. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. 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 . 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. Being killed in action was the leading cause of American casualties. Support for the war was lacking in the United States, so the decision was made to discontinue efforts there. Unit Best Practice Resources Sample Unit LDP Orders Leadership Toolkits . 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. KIA. 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. Who had the highest casualty rates in the Vietnam War? The United States provided funding and troops to the South Vietnamese effort to prevent Communism from spreading further in East Asia. Chrissy has taught secondary English and history and writes online curriculum. 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 . Regarding killed in action the 1st Marine Division was the unit with the highest . 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. One of the first Black officers to lead a Special Forces team in combat will receive the Medal of Honor, the nation's top award for bravery on the battlefield, A South Korean court has ordered the government to pay $24,000 to a Vietnamese woman who survived a gunshot wound but lost several relatives when South Korean marines rampaged through her village during the Vietnam War in 1968, De-escalation, negotiation, and Vietnamization, The United States negotiates a withdrawal, 9 Questions About the Vietnam War Answered, https://www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War, Vietnam War - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), Vietnam War - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up), Biden to award Medal of Honor to Vietnam-era Army officer, Court says South Korea responsible for Vietnam War massacre. 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. 13,091. 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. [79], The total number of American personnel who were KIA or died non-hostile deaths, were enlisted personnel with a casualty number of 50,441. [19], Other casualties for the ARVN included up to 1,170,000 military wounded,[59] and 1,000,000 surrendered or captured. Its like a teacher waved a magic wand and did the work for me. 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." 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. 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. [68] Per the official Vietnamese history, over 10,000 more PAVN soldiers were killed in the final offensive of early 1975. 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. [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. Korean War Casualties Vietnam Casualties Advanced search Export results Vietnam Casualties. Support to North Vietnam was sent by Communist allies including China, North Korea, and the Soviet Union. The former arrives in Vietnam in November 1965, and, soon after, is tasked with leading his 400 men in an effort to take out . The United States entered Vietnam with the principal purpose of preventing a communist takeover of the region. Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010: see the "National Cemeteries and Beneficiaries" section below. Estimates for PAVN deaths in the Easter Offensive alone vary from 40,000 to 100,000 in western sources. * During January 1973, 29 Americans died in Vietnam--19 as a result of hostile action. We do not sell any of the items showcased on this site. United States, National Archives, Korean War and Vietnam War Records; United States Vietnam War 1964 to 1972; Related Websites: NARA Series Description; NARA Reference Information Paper 90 Prisoners of War and Missing in Action from the Vietnam War Era; NARA State-Level Fatal Casualty Lists for the Vietnam War Others now continue the work Richard began 30 years ago. 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. The United States Army lost the most troops in the Vietnam War, over 38,000 soldiers. Richard Coffelt's health began failing, and on 29 October 2010 he made his last contributions to the Coffelt Database. (1) GROUND FORCE PERSONNEL, including Army aviation, generally are indexed at the Regimental level but there are exceptions. * The 143 men subsequently declared dead between 1973 and 2002 are not included in these totals. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. [60] Prior to the 1975 spring offensive, at least 5,336 ARVN were captured, being released in the aftermath of the Paris Peace Accords. 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. Civilian deaths caused by both sides amounted to a significant percentage of total deaths. [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. On Nov. 23, 1968, The Philadelphia Tribune wrote of large . The names of those who gave their lives and of those who remain missing are inscribed in the order they . There are some limitations on the search capabilities and downloading records en masse is not allowed. In 1975 South Vietnam fell to a full-scale invasion by the North. [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. Lochren) subtracted the muster figures (262-47=215)(82.1%) and asserted that "[every one of the] 215 [missing men] lay upon the field. Despite the loss of members of the unit on that day and one later in the week, Don praised the unit's overall performance. 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. In just 30 minutes, they had 30 casualties. . In 1995 Vietnam . [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). Others are still yet to be discovered and over 1,200 Americans are still unaccounted for. [49] The Second Marine Brigade perpetrated the Phong Nh and Phong Nht massacre on 12 February 1968. That can include disabled by injuries, disabled by psychological trauma, captured, deserted, or missing. The Virtual Wall uses the Coffelt Database (CDB) for unit assignment information. [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. 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 overwhelming majority of the MIA are from northern Vietnam. Marine Corps Casualties: 1775-2015 . Rummel does not give a medium or high estimate. To arrive at the casualty figure of 215, the Regimental Historian (Lt. Wm. In 2002, an early version of the Coffelt Database was deeded to the National Archives, which made it available on-line as a searchable database. Village battles were not uncommon as the two factions fought for control of the region. This Vietnam War Covert Special Ops Unit Is The Deadliest You Never Heard Of. Seven massacres officially confirmed by the American side. During that period, they stated, they lost 849,018 killed plus approximately 232,000 missing and 463,000 wounded. The following year, in 1976, Vietnam was united as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. [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. 13 chapters | copyright 2003-2023 Study.com. "Making More Enemies than We Kill? The South Vietnamese government, on the other hand, fought to preserve a Vietnam more closely aligned with the West. In the summer of 2017, I was a U.S. Army lieutenant in the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Johnson raised the number of South Vietnam deployments to 23,000 U.S. soldiers by the end of his first year in office. [95][96], The number of US military personnel in Vietnam jumped from 23,300 in 1965 to 465,600 by the end of 1967. Many deaths, however, were not completely targeted as they were the result of chance, being in the wrong place at the wrong time. North Vietnamese troops launched the Tet Offensive in January 1968, which was successful against South Vietnam and the U.S. Many movements on the home front arose in the early 1970s to end the war, which sped the process of withdrawing troops along. This prompted the official start of the Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War. Vancouver's Rob McSorley is one of at least 134 Canadians killed in action fighting for U.S. forces during the Vietnam War. Last combat unit departs Vietnam ending the ground war August 11, 1972. . Vietnam War Casualties, MIA and POWs. [24] Benjamin Valentino estimates 110,000310,000 deaths as a "possible case" of "counter-guerrilla mass killings" by U.S. and South Vietnamese forces during the war. French Indochina (Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam) - 1,250,000 . 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-war). The Coffelt Database of Vietnam War casualties has its roots in an effort begun by Richard Donham Coffelt. Few Marines units were involved in the U.S. military actions in Cambodia or Laos, and while 1. st. . Two major war memorials commemorating the dead soldiers in the Second Indochina War (a.k.a. In October 1966, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara initiated Project 100,000 which further lowered military standards for 100,000 additional draftees per year. History is not a fixed set of facts. The war persisted from 1955 to 1975 and most of the fighting took place in South Vietnam; accordingly it suffered the most casualties. 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. [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. 7. Ronald H. Spector is Professor of History and International Affairs in the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. [75], The PAVN/VC forces suffered around 600,000 wounded during the war,[76] and prior to the 1975 spring offensive, lost at least 26,880 soldiers taken prisoner - being released after the 1973 Peace Accords. 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 . [102] The Red Cross of Vietnam estimates that up to 1 million people are disabled or suffer health problems due to Agent Orange exposure. succeed. [27] Estimates for the number of North Vietnamese civilian deaths resulting from US bombing range from 30,00065,000. The Viet Cong used the jungle terrain to their advantage both as a means of hiding, as well as a place to bury pressure-sensor explosives to wipe out unsuspecting bands of patrolling enemy forces. 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. Vietnam War Almanac: An In-Depth Guide to the Most Controversial Conflict in American History. During warfare, some units take more casualties than other units. Discover the countries that took part in the Vietnam war and how many people died in the Vietnam war. [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. The Vietnam War was costly to the U.S. Marine Corps. ^ 1st Cavalry Division was the unit with most casualties suffered during the Vietnam War with 32,036; including 5,444 KIA and 26,592 wounded. They also assert that the U.S. overall suffered fewer casualties than its opponents. Following its 1945 defeat in World War II, Japan withdrew its forces from Vietnam, leaving the French-educated Emperor Bao Dai in control. 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. 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. For details of the total number of Australians who died during the Vietnam War, 1962- 1975, please refer to Deaths as a result of service with Australian units.. Statistics: Total Australian service casualties in the Vietnam War, 1962-72 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. 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. All rights reserved. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, but his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, continued the work that Kennedy had started. California (5,572 Estimated Casualties). Deaths in the Vietnam War. Casualties - US vs NVA/VC. [40][37] Sometimes civilian casualties from airstrikes or artillery barrages against villages were reported as "enemies killed". 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. (deaths in afghan war Afghanistan war casualties). According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, between 200,000 and 400,000 boat people died at sea. [32] and studies have shown higher rates of casualties, health effects, and next-generation birth defects in Vietnamese peoples. Another potential limitation is the relatively small sample size of the study. Back in the US, support for the war waned and calls to withdraw from Vietnam grew louder. 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. Five men killed in Vietnam were only 16 years old. [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. Cemeteries and Beneficiaries & quot ; National Cemeteries and Beneficiaries & quot National. 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