[105], Two major war memorials commemorating the dead of the, Deaths caused by the South Korean military, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong military casualties, Disproportion of African American casualties. Additional records relating to the U.S. Army in Vietnam may be found in: The National Archives has received a limited number of records from the U.S. Air Force for the Vietnam War period. 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. The Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File of the Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) Extract Files contains records of 58,220 U.S. military fatal casualties of the Vietnam War. [92], African Americans suffered disproportionately high casualty rates in Vietnam. The total number of officer casualties, commissioned and warrant, are 7,877. For weeks and weeks, a team worked through the list, verifying spellings and ensuring that the computer printout that was to be used for the stenciling was correct. I respect the process, but it can be hard to prove something thats in your heart., Thats what makes it so special when you see the name going up, she added. Corrections? 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. [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. For Reckinger, he was able to reconnect a veteran with a fallen comrade whose face might have been lost to time as old memories faded. The Memorial is dedicated to honor the courage . [1] Vietnam War, (1954-75), a protracted conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam and its allies in South Vietnam, known as the Viet Cong, against the government of South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. [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. These records were transferred into the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration in 2008. 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." They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. "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. Count down from the top of the panel. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial provides a searchable database of names included on the Memorial, as well as lists of casualties. [68] Per the official Vietnamese history, over 10,000 more PAVN soldiers were killed in the final offensive of early 1975. However, there have been no such cases. Lt.Sharon Lane, Capt. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. has the names listed in chronological order by date of loss. 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.' She has written numerous military history books, articles and book reviews and is also an award-winning author. They also assert that the U.S. overall suffered fewer casualties than its opponents. The State of Indiana, Vietnam casualties list by county : list of names reported from Jan. 1, 1961 thru Mar. The chronological order allows veterans who were in a battle to see their friends forever united on the Wall, he explained. The database also estimates combat deaths in Cambodia for the years 196775 to total 259,000. One study estimated that American commanders exaggerated body counts by 100 percent. For those and a handful of other unique circumstances, Doubek made his own list of men who had died due to the injuries in the combat zonesnames that may have been listed by an individual service branch, but not by DoD. [citation needed] Black people often made up a disproportionate 25% or more of combat units, while constituting only 12% of the military. [4] This tank was an upgrade, but it still had flaws. Forces in Southeast Asia, 1950 - 1976 NAID 745 RG, 472, Meritorious Unit Commendations, 1967 - 1971 NAID 4726287 Medal of Honor Awards Case Files, 1965 - ca. 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. I asked if he wanted to see his picture, Reckinger said. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall USA website is dedicated to honoring those who died in the Vietnam War. In 1975 South Vietnam fell to a full-scale invasion by the North. Vietnam Casualties. [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. These numbers do not include civilian and State of Vietnam/ARVN military deaths result from the communist collectivization and land reform in North Vietnam and mass-internment, the refugee crisis and subsequent exodus of Vietnamese people after the Fall of Saigon. Her book Bernard Montgomerys Art of War won a Silver Medal from the Military Writers Society of America. Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History. The following is a chart of all casualties, listed by race, and in descending order. Inscribed on the black granite walls are the names of more than 58,000 men and women who gave their lives or remain missing. Unfortunately, he mistakenly added a small number of names of men who were still alive. [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. 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. [5], In 1995, the Vietnamese government released its estimate of war deaths for the more lengthy period of 195575. In . Kennedys expansion stemmed in part from Cold War-era fears about the domino theory: if communism took hold in Vietnam, it would topple democracies throughout the whole of Southeast Asia, it was thought. [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. Vietnam War, Awards and Decorations of Honor, 1965-1972. 31, 1973 See image 154; Register of Vietnam War casualties from Kentucky; Directory of United States prisoners of war and missing in action as a result of the Vietnam War Kinston, North Carolina : Last Firebase Veterans Archive Project . Moyar, Mark. Estimates of casualties of the Vietnam War vary widely. My most memorable story came from contacting a daughter-in-law of a fallen service member only to find out that her husband had never seen a photo of his father, Hine said. Since body counts were a direct measure of operational success, US "operations reports" often listed civilian deaths as enemy KIA or exaggerated the number. U.S. Navy action reports and war diaries for the Vietnam conflict are in the custody of the Naval History and Heritage Command. The names are listed in chronological order, according to the date of casualty. With this list in hand, he went to the various locations where individual service records were kept to review files. Other volunteers who played a key role include Andrew Johnson, a Wisconsin newspaper publisher; David Hine, who first discovered the effort from a VVMF newsletter; and Herb Reckinger, who began searching for Minnesotans on the Wall in 2014 and expanded to other states. His life mattered. [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. This memorial was built with private contributions from the American people. And they are so respectful when they do the engraving. These numbers are not official statistics and are for informational purposes only. [28][4] Higher estimates place the number of civilian deaths caused by American bombing of North Vietnam in Operation Rolling Thunder at 182,000. Zita is the editor of both Military History Quarterly and Vietnam Magazine. 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. If a person died or went missing in those areas, DoD considered that individual to be a combat zone casualty and eligible for inclusion on the Wall. Seven massacres officially confirmed by the American side. Doubek contacted the National Personnel Records Center, Archives and Records Service, in St. Louis, Mo. The United States committed some 550,000 troops to the Vietnam front at the height of the conflict, suffered more than 58,000 casualties, and engaged in battle after battle with communist forces in the region until its withdrawal in 1973. Researchers should also contact the Marine Corps Archives & Special Collections at, Marine Corps Archives and Special Collections among the more than 58,000 names on the Vietnam . The West Wall May 25, 1968 to May 15, 1975. The U.S. estimated more than 100,000 PAVN killed in the offensive. Our 9 best-selling history titles feature in-depth storytelling and iconic imagery to engage and inform on the people, the wars, and the events that shaped America and the world. Vietnam War casualties from Pennsylvania Click or Tap on name to find a personal memorial page of a casualty from this state. The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died. The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History By Spencer C. Tucker ", Viet Cong and Peoples Army of Vietnam use of terror in the Vietnam War, Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam, United Nations High Commission for Refugees, Vietnamese Casualties During the American War: A New Estimate, "Fifty years of violent war deaths from Vietnam to Bosnia: analysis of data from the world health survey programme", "20 Years After Victory, Vietnamese Communists Ponder How to Celebrate", http://www.pcr.uu.se/research/ucdp/datasets/ucdp_prio_armed_conflict_dataset/, http://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a032189.pdf, Countering Terrorism and Insurgency in the 21st Century, Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the 20th Century. [103], On 9 August 2012, the United States and Vietnam began a cooperative cleaning up of the toxic chemical from part of Da Nang International Airport, marking the first time Washington has been involved in cleaning up Agent Orange in Vietnam. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial stands as a symbol of America's honor and recognition of the men and women who served and sacrificed their lives in the Vietnam War. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. "We had no qualms. 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. The war also spilled over into the neighboring countries of Cambodia and Laos which also endured casualties from aerial bombing and ground fighting. The Army as a branch had 134,982 killed or wounded (9.5 percent), but the Marines suffered 66,227 killed or wounded (22.5 percent) or almost one of every four Marines who served. 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. "Triumph Regained: The Vietnam War, 1965-1968." Pentagon statistics listed 39,000 and 61,000 PRG/DRV dead for the same time period.". The number of these "boat people" leaving Vietnam and arriving safely in another country totalled almost 800,000 between 1975 and 1995. When the Wall was dedicated in 1982, there were 57,939 names inscribed. The last 18 names listed on the bottom of Panel 1, West, also at the apex, are from May 15, 1975. Some common names appear on the Memorial more than once. The idea behind adding faces to the names on The Wall was that even a simple image of a human face not only preserves the memory of the dead but touches the lives of people today. Doubek was tasked with identifying all of the names to be included on the Wall. [29] American bombing in Cambodia is estimated to have killed between 30,000 and 150,000 civilians and combatants. "UCDP/Prio Armed Conflict Database", Uppsala University, sfn error: no target: CITEREFRummel1997 (. On the stencil printouts, each line contained five names per row. Note the panel and line number for the name listed. These were caused by assassinations, massacres, terror tactics, artillery, extensive aerial bombing, and the use of firepower in military operations conducted in heavily populated areas. [65], According to the Vietnamese government's official history, the PAVN suffered over 100,000 casualties during the 1972 Easter Offensive, including 40,000 killed. Congress authorized troop deployment in Vietnam, but, because it did not issue a declaration of war on North Vietnam or the Viet Cong, the Vietnam War is, technically speaking, not considered a war in the United States. OR To shorten the name list, enter 2 or more letters of any part of a name in the box below. [5], Uppsala University in Sweden maintains the Armed Conflict Database. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. During that period, they stated, they lost 849,018 killed plus approximately 232,000 missing and 463,000 wounded. Names that become eligible for inclusion are added once each year, in May, a few weeks before Memorial Day.