This I do (line 687), assuming a very low annual rate of .75 to 2 percent for the first six years and .5 percent thereafter. That works out to an almost incomprehensible one planeload every eight minutes for nearly a decade. Half the victims are children. 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. U.S. and South Vietnamese troops eventually pushed back the Communist assault, delivering heavy casualties to NVA and Viet Cong units in the process. One is that of the separate civilian and military consolidations (line 207); the other is of the preliminary North Vietnam/Viet Cong, South Vietnam, United States, and other third party sub-totals (line 208). Surely those who were forced to face death at sea, or risked it out of mortal fear of the regime or because their lives and families had been irretrievably ruined by it, should be counted as democide (by analogy consider that if children fled their family in winter because they fear being killed or are brutally abused, and then die of exposure in the snow, the parents could be tried for murder). Estimates can include both civilian and military deaths in North and South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. For the seven years of war 1965 to 1971, American troop strength averaged 365,571 personnel.14 This means that by bombing, shelling, and during ground combat, the equivalent of about one Vietnamese per month was murdered for every 5,583 American military personnel. I divide estimates of war-dead and their calculations or consolidations into those for the Viet Minh (lines 3 to 4), France (lines 7 to 18), civilians (lines 22 to 25), military (lines 28 to 30), and total war-dead (lines 33 to 44). I list related estimates and their consolidations for civilians (lines 188 to 193), military (lines 196 to 199), and combined (lines 202 to 206), and then check the latter by two sums. (line 279). President Eisenhower's Domino Theory cemented U.S. involvement in Vietnam over the years. Since many estimates here and later will be so extrapolated, the date taken for the beginning of the war is statistically important. The probable democide for this four year period then totals 283,000 North Vietnamese (line 329). A new nation. Nixon Prolonged Vietnam War for Political GainAnd Johnson Knew About By the time of the last sortie, in April 1973, Pentagon statistics reveal, U.S. aircraft had dumped 2,093,100 tons of ordnance on the landlocked country, which is about twice the size of Pennsylvania, with a population then under 3 million. American civilians were not killed in the Vietnam War. READ MORE:Why Were Vietnam War Vets Treated Poorly When They Returned? The resulting dead, when added to the civilian war-dead determined above (line 800) would add near 100,000 to the low and bring it close to the summed low (line 802). Given the extent and nature of this war for Americans, it seems that a low of near 25 Vietnamese so murdered per month is probably a rock bottom figure, especially considering that this is less than one such killing per day for all American ground action in all of South Vietnam. lessons in math, English, science, history, and more. Lao scrap dealers buy metal cluster bomb casings and plane parts from local villagers in Laos, in 1991. The reason for this periodization is that there were many more inmates during the earlier period and most important, this period was more deadly. But, no matter how careful, accidents happened. Should they ever be captured by bad guys, they crowed, they'd buy their freedom with the gold. Second, crush the indigenous Communist force, the Pathet Lao, most camped around the Plain of Jars, located where the trunk of the palm tree-shaped country meets the crown. North Vietnam immediately broke the accord, however, moving troops and supplies through Laos rather than traversing the heavily guarded demilitarized zone that separated it from South Vietnam. An estimated two million civilians of all nationalities, including those of Cambodia and Laos, were killed in the fighting. Totaling all this (lines 575 and 576) gives South Vietnamese democide during these years as 42,000 to 118,000 people, virtually all Vietnamese (line 577). South Vietnamese military personnel deaths were estimated between 180,000 and 250,000. 15.See Rummel (1990, p. 28; 1991, Table IIA.1, lines 378-382, "War isn't this century's biggest killer", "Democide in totalitarian states: mortacracies and megamurderers", "The Holocaust in comparative and historical perspective". I will use them to calculate the democide rates (line 908 to 942). All rights reserved. Then I give population estimates for the whole country (lines 864 to 876), North Vietnam (lines 879 to 890), and South Vietnam (lines 894 to 905). It was first used in 1962 and was effective at its job. The South Vietnamese security forces, including the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), Regional and Popular Forces, Montagnard irregulars and National Police totaled 567,246 personnel. There is no easy way of dealing with this except to study carefully those presumably more objective post-war accounts.12 To at least determine a provisional high, I recorded all estimates, even if manifestly propaganda (e.g., lines 595 and 597). I queried Harff and Gurr, the author's of the estimate, by letter, but received no response. Vietnam War | Facts, Summary, Years, Timeline, Casualties - Britannica Gen. Patrick S. Ryder. The Vietnam War began mainly over political conflict between Ho Chi Minh's Communist state of North Vietnam and the U.S.-supported democracy of South Vietnam. This also assumes that the zones were about a quarter to a third less deadly then the camps in the early period and half as deadly later. Vietnamese boat people ( Vietnamese: Thuyn nhn Vit Nam) were refugees who fled Vietnam by boat and ship following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. Chapter 11: Barbarous Mexico What the proportion is between the two types of refugees is unknown. South Vietnam supplied a total of 942,000 troops. Meanwhile, President Richard Nixon authorized a cross-border invasion of Laos in 1971. At its peak in 1968, New Zealand's military force numbered only 548. Both North Vietnam and South Vietnam were involved in other wars and suffered rebellions of one-sort or another. And the illusory playthings are cluster bombs. 16, 2023, 4:36 PM ET (AP) Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked Pentagon Papers exposing Vietnam War secrets, dies at 92 Even if labeled "war-dead" the estimate may cover all killed during the war, which would include democide (e.g., possibly line 133). But to Americans on the ground, the campaign quickly became known as "The Secret War." hide caption. This was almost 7 percent of the mid-period population (line 867), or roughly one out of fourteen people. Tet is a huge holiday in Vietnam marking the start of the Lunar New Year. in Social Studies Education. As can be seen, the two different ways of determining North Vietnamese and Viet Cong war-dead yield roughly equal mid and high totals. It is estimated that South Vietnam lost between 200,000 and 250,000 fighters. The total war-dead is the figure of interest here, but before accepting its consolidation (line 44) it can be checked against two other ways of getting the total. Consequently, in consolidating the "land reform" dead (line 309), I made sure that the figures subsumed the consolidated killed estimates (line 299), that this in turn subsumed the consolidated execution estimates (line 289), and that this subsumed the rent reduction killed (line 279). Above this range I show two other estimates of these dead (lines 344 and 345), one at 700,000 and the other at 500,000 dead. As of January 15, 2018, 1,601 American soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War remained unaccounted for. Chapter 3 Japan's Savage Military However, side effects occurred because of Agent Orange. Thieus government, corrupt and inefficient as ever, now faced enormous difficulties with inflation, unemployment, apathy, and an enormous desertion rate in the army. People's Army of Vietnam /Viet Cong 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. Vietnam War casualties The Memorial to the Revolutionary Martyrs, Hanoi The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington, D.C. Two major war memorials commemorating the dead of the Indochina Wars Estimates of casualties of the Vietnam War vary widely. Tet Offensive - Wikipedia It is much larger than even the high and is given in the source without explanation, justification, or citation.11 I therefore ignore it. That insurgency drew heavy U.S. bombing. hide caption. Ho led the North, whereas the U.S.-backed Ngo Dinh Diem took charge of the South. This is not to deny that the Viet Cong, many of whom were recruited in South Vietnam, may have assassinated officials or executed civilians on their own. Running along a dusty, red-dirt road through a tiny village were five boys who, spotting my foreign face, came to a sudden, noisy halt. The Vietnam War officially came to an end in 1975 when South Vietnam surrendered to North Vietnam, unable to maintain the fight. The first war was that against the French, defined here as beginning when the Viet Minh established the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in September 1945 and lasting until July 1954. The majority of these soldiers were between the ages of 21 and 28. Yet the Vietnamese didnt do all the fighting. In the first few years of the Vietnam War, there had been decreased fighting around the holiday, so U.S. troops and its . These deaths made up about 40% of the total casualties. It wanted no part of the new conflict. Survival was better than that -- but life in the camp was profoundly depressing. But perhaps their biggest role was preemptive: They made it clear that if U.S. ground troops invaded North Vietnam, then they would respond in kind. I spoke through my interpreter to a small, dark-skinned boy whose left arm ended just above the elbow and whose left eye socket was sealed shut with pink scar tissue. Pulitzer Prize-winner Lewis M. Simons is the author of To Tell the Truth: My Life as a Foreign Correspondent. 2.7 million American troops were sent to South Vietnam. When the Second Indochina War, or Vietnam War, as its known in the United States, began soon after, France stayed well away. He was 7. For these actions, however, they were ultimately answerable to North Vietnamese superiors. As a result, the Vietnamese suffered the highest casualties in the conflict. This I will not do, since so much of the North's democide in the South during 1954 to 1975 was in areas controlled by the government. Students analyze a letter to President Kennedy from a woman who had just lost her brother in South Vietnam and consider Kennedy's reply which explains his rationale for sending US military to that country. View of a collection of defused cluster bombs and grenades used by an international bomb disposal group for training in Savannakhet, Laos, on May 2, 2006. Clearly there is little difference between the two ways of assessing the democide and a final total is determined as usual (line 433). By 1975, when North Vietnamese troops took Saigon and reunified the nation under communist rule, an estimated 1 million to 3 million Vietnamese had perished, many of them civilians. The South Vietnamese who fled the fall of Saigon -- and those who returned Not only is Vietnam's history complex, therefore, but the estimates of those killed in war and democide differ considerably by perpetrator, victims, time, and place. An estimated 80 million over 30% of those dropped failed to detonate. Throughout the guerrilla period and during the war they shelled and attacked civilians in strategic hamlets and refugee camps, attacked refugees fleeing on the roads in order to create chaos, shelled civilians in most government controlled cities and towns, and purposely mined and booby-trapped civilian areas (as of mining roads traveled by civilian buses). In a tiny village not far from the Plain of Jars burial grounds, ground zero of the day, I met children and their parents who had survived bomb drops, only to be grievously injured by inadvertently stepping on or digging up unexploded bomblets. On April 30 what remained of the South Vietnamese government surrendered unconditionally, and NVA tank columns occupied Saigon without a struggle. So, too, did a legitimate fear of Communism, Moise says. About this Resource Grade Level 9 10 11 12 Time Required 1-2 hours Curricular Resource Type Lesson Plans & Activities [25] Protests, campaigning and the atmosphere of elections had been interpreted by the Politburo of the Communist Party of Vietnam and L Dun as signs that the population would embrace a 'general uprising' against the government of South Vietnam. Trade between the two nations ultimately resumed in the 1990s. Chapter 7: Poland's Ethnic Cleansing Others are still yet to be discovered and over 1,200 Americans are still unaccounted for. I calculate another by applying the consolidated percentage mortality to the consolidated number fleeing (line 750). (The two countries were undergoing a bitter split at the time.). See how communist forces turned Saigon into Ho Chi Minh City and created the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, De-escalation, negotiation, and Vietnamization, The United States negotiates a withdrawal, Pop Quiz: 19 Things to Know About the Vietnam War, 9 Questions About the Vietnam War Answered, Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger during the Fall of Saigon. Create your account. The estimated range of refugees killed in one case (line 454) may seem relatively high but is probably conservative. Vietnam War By 1967 growing numbers of Americans were becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the war. Financial aid, along with a desire to curry favor with the United States, drew in additional countries as well. To compensate for this over the twenty-one years, I extrapolated the low for only fourteen years, the high for eighteen. Finally, we must recognize that aside from what was estimated above, there was throughout American involvement a background of small level atrocities (such as the killing of Viet Cong trying to surrender or of innocent peasants simply because they were running away) and massacres (such as wiping out the inhabitants of a village from which a sniper had been firing). Chapter 2: Pre-Twentieth Century Democide Many movements on the home front arose in the early 1970s to end the war, which sped the process of withdrawing troops along. In April 2020, the. We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us. Attempting to get my bearings, I spent most of that weeklong visit in Vientiane, interviewing Lao government officials and some of the American diplomats who selected bombing targets on maps behind the fortified, windowless walls of the U.S. Embassy. Estimates of this for various periods are shown in the table (line 638 to 668), and consolidated for 1975 to 1980, and 1981 to 1987 (lines 669 and 670). This amounts to 346,000 to 2,438,000 Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians, probably about 1,040,000. Moreover, in the Paris Agreement of 1973 signed with the United States, North Vietnam officially recognized the sovereignty of South Vietnam. 6. Laos was originally neutral in the conflict, but the North Vietnamese moved troops through the country and supported a communist insurgency. But members of Congress, like most of their constituents, were ready to wash their hands of a long and futile war. Munitions experts say it could take a century to complete. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. Of the 200,000 refugees that fled the Highlands offensive by the North in March 1975, only 45,000 made it to Tuy-Hoa. SURVIVING COMMUNIST 'REEDUCATION CAMP' - The Washington Post Vietnamese boat people awaiting rescue. About 2 million Vietnamese civilians were killed in the fighting. Finally I can calculate an overall war-dead total. History of Ho Chi Minh City Before 1955 Vietnam War After 1975 Metro Names ( district names) Organised crime Vietnam portal v t e 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, CLEP History of the United States I - Early Colonization to 1877 Prep, Middle School US History: Homework Help Resource, Middle School US History: Tutoring Solution, NY Regents Exam - US History and Government: Test Prep & Practice, SAT Subject Test World History: Tutoring Solution, Developmental World History: Middle School, NY Regents Exam - Global History and Geography: Test Prep & Practice, High School US History: Tutoring Solution, Identifying Cause & Effect in Historical Documents, Analyzing Major Changes to American Society: Essay Prompts, Analyzing Defining Moments of American Presidents: Essay Prompts, Analyzing & Examining the Causes of War in Western Civilization: Essay Prompts, Comparing and Contrasting Political Ideologies & Movements: Essay Prompts, Robert McNamara & the Cuban Missile Crisis, Working Scholars Bringing Tuition-Free College to the Community. 1. Many deaths, however, were not completely targeted as they were the result of chance, being in the wrong place at the wrong time. In the late 1960s and early '70s, the CIA-paid mercenaries and U.S. Air Force pilots who dropped them from the sky had their own warm and fuzzy names for their deadly cargo: "bomblets" or "bombies." 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. Other democides by North Vietnam (lines 454 to 459) include the wanton killing of refugees, shelling of Saigon civilian areas, and killing of American and South Vietnamese POWs. The use of defoliation herbicides and potentially dangerous tear gas (which could kill very young or old civilians caught by the gas in confined areas, such as caves or bunkers) did cause some deaths for which the U.S. must be held responsible (lines 604 to 607). Chapter 19: Culture and Democide In the summer of 1973 Congress passed a measure prohibiting any U.S. military operations in or over Indochina after August 15. Then there are the boat people for whose deaths at sea Hanoi is responsible. North Vietnam and the United States reached a peace agreement shortly after withdrawal. The Viet Cong lost around 1.1 million combatants. 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. Subtracting foreign dead from this (line 210) gives a likely Vietnam War, war-dead total of 1,719,000 people (line 211).
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