Facts, Statistics, Fake Warrior Numbers, and Myths Dispelled
9,087,000 military personnel served on active duty during the official Vietnam era from
August 5, 1964 to May 7, 1975.
2,709,918 Americans served in uniform in Vietnam
Vietnam Veterans represented 9.7% of their generation.
240 men were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War
The first man to die in Vietnam was James Davis, in 1958. He was with the 509th Radio
Research Station. Davis Station in Saigon was named for him.
58,148 were killed in Vietnam
75,000 were severely disabled
23,214 were 100% disabled
5,283 lost limbs
1,081 sustained multiple amputations
Of those killed, 61% were younger than 21
11,465 of those killed were younger than 20 years old
Of those killed, 17,539 were married
Average age of men killed: 23.1 years
Five men killed in Vietnam were only 16 years old.
The oldest man killed was 62 years old.
As of January 15, 2004, there are 1,875 Americans still unaccounted for from the Vietnam
War
97% of Vietnam Veterans were honorably discharged
91% of Vietnam Veterans say they are glad they served
74% say they would serve again, even knowing the outcome
Vietnam veterans have a lower unemployment rate than the same non-vet age groups.
Vietnam veterans' personal income exceeds that of our non-veteran age group by more
than 18 percent.
87% of Americans hold Vietnam Veterans in high esteem.
There is no difference in drug usage between Vietnam Veterans and non-Vietnam
Veterans of the same age group (Source: Veterans Administration Study)
Vietnam Veterans are less likely to be in prison - only one-half of one percent of Vietnam
Veterans have been jailed for crimes.
85% of Vietnam Veterans made successful transitions to civilian life.
Interesting Census Stats and "Been There" Wanabees:
1,713,823 of those who served in Vietnam were still alive as of August, 1995 (census
figures).
~ During that same Census count, the number of Americans falsely claiming to
have served in-country was: 9,492,958.
~ As of the current Census taken during August, 2000, the surviving U.S. Vietnam
Veteran popluation estimate is: 1,002,511. This is hard to believe, losing nearly 711,000
between '95 and '00. That's 390 per day. During this Census count, the number of
Americans falsely claiming to have served in-country is: 13,853,027. By this census, FOUR
OUT OF FIVE WHO CLAIM TO BE Vietnam vets are not.
The Department of Defense Vietnam War Service Index officially provided by The War
Library originally reported with errors that 2,709,918 U.S. military personnel as having
served in-country. Corrections and confirmations to this errored index resulted in the
addition of 358 U.S. military personnel confirmed to have served in Vietnam but not
originally listed by the Department of Defense. (All names are currently on file and
accessible 24/7/365).
Isolated atrocities committed by American Soldiers produced torrents of outrage from
anti-war critics and the news media while Communist atrocities were so common tha
they received hardly any media mention at all. The United States sought to minimize
and prevent attacks on civilians while North Vietnam made attacks on civilians a
centerpiece of its strategy. Americans who deliberately killed civilians received prison
sentences while Communists who did so received commendations. From 1957 to 1973,
the National Liberation Front assassinated 36,725 Vietnamese and abducted another
58,499. The death squads focused on leaders at the village level and on anyone who
improved the lives of the peasants such as medical personnel, social workers, and
school teachers. - Nixon Presidential Papers
Common Myths Dispelled:
Myth: Common Belief is that most Vietnam veterans were drafted.
Fact: 2/3 of the men who served in Vietnam were volunteers. 2/3 of the men who
served in World War II were drafted. Approximately 70% of those killed in Vietnam were
volunteers.
Myth: The media have reported that suicides among Vietnam veterans range from
50,000 to 100,000 - 6 to 11 times the non-Vietnam veteran population.
Fact: Mortality studies show that 9,000 is a better estimate. "The CDC Vietnam
Experience Study Mortality Assessment showed that during the first 5 years after
discharge, deaths from suicide were 1.7 times more likely among Vietnam veterans than
non-Vietnam veterans. After that initial post-service period, Vietnam veterans were no
more likely to die from suicide than non-Vietnam veterans. In fact, after the 5-year
post-service period, the rate of suicides is less in the Vietnam veterans' group.
Myth: Common belief is that a disproportionate number of blacks were killed in the
Vietnam War.
Fact: 86% of the men who died in Vietnam were Caucasians, 12.5% were black, 1.2% were
other races. Sociologists Charles C. Moskos and John Sibley Butler, in their recently
published book "All That We Can Be," said they analyzed the claim that blacks were used
like cannon fodder during Vietnam "and can report definitely that this charge is untrue.
Black fatalities amounted to 12 percent of all Americans killed in Southeast Asia - a
figure proportional to the number of blacks in the U.S. population at the time and slightly
lower than the proportion of blacks in the Army at the close of the war."
Myth: Common belief is that the war was fought largely by the poor and uneducated.
Fact: Servicemen who went to Vietnam from well-to-do areas had a slightly elevated
risk of dying because they were more likely to be pilots or infantry officers. Vietnam
Veterans were the best educated forces our nation had ever sent into combat. 79% had
a high school education or better.
Here are statistics from the Combat Area Casualty File (CACF) as of November 1993. The
CACF is the basis for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (The Wall): Average age of 58,148
killed in Vietnam was 23.11 years. (Although 58,169 names are in the Nov. 93 database,
only 58,148 have both event date and birth date. Event date is used instead of declared
dead date for some of those who were listed as missing in action)
Deaths - Average Age
Total: 58,148 23.11 years
Enlisted: 50,274 22.37 years
Officers: 6,598 28.43 years
Warrants: 1,276 24.73 years
E1: 525 20.34 years
11B MOS: 18,465 22.55 years
Myth: The common belief is the average age of an infantryman fighting in Vietnam was
19.
Fact: Assuming KIAs accurately represented age groups serving in Vietnam, the
average age of an infantryman (MOS 11B) serving in Vietnam to be 19 years old is a myth,
it is actually 22. None of the enlisted grades have an average age of less than 20. The
average man who fought in World War II was 26 years of age.
Myth: The Common belief is that the domino theory was proved false.
Fact: The domino theory was accurate. The ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian
Nations) countries, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand stayed free
of Communism because of the U.S. commitment to Vietnam. The Indonesians threw the
Soviets out in 1966 because of America's commitment in Vietnam. Without that
commitment, Communism would have swept all the way to the Malacca Straits that is
south of Singapore and of great strategic importance to the free world. If you ask
people who live in these countries that won the war in Vietnam, they have a different
opinion from the American news media. The Vietnam War was the turning point for
Communism.
Myth: The common belief is that the fighting in Vietnam was not as intense as in World
War II.
Fact: The average infantryman in the South Pacific during World War II saw about 40
days of combat in four years. The average infantryman in Vietnam saw about 240 days of
combat in one year thanks to the mobility of the helicopter. One out of every 10
Americans who served in Vietnam was a casualty. 58,148 were killed and 304,000
wounded out of 2.7 million who served. Although the percent who died is similar to
other wars, amputations or crippling wounds were 300 percent higher than in World War
II ....75,000 Vietnam veterans are severely disabled. MEDEVAC helicopters flew nearly
500,000 missions. Over 900,000 patients were airlifted (nearly half were American). The
average time lapse between wounding to hospitalization was less than one hour. As a
result, less than one percent of all Americans wounded, who survived the first 24 hours,
died. The helicopter provided unprecedented mobility. Without the helicopter it
would have taken three times as many troops to secure the 800 mile border with
Cambodia and Laos (the politicians thought the Geneva Conventions of 1954 and the
Geneva Accords or 1962 would secure the border).
Myth: Kim Phuc, the little nine year old Vietnamese girl running naked from the napalm
strike near Trang Bang on 8 June 1972.....shown a million times on American
television....was burned by Americans bombing Trang Bang.
Fact: No American had involvement in this incident near Trang Bang that burned Phan
Thi Kim Phuc. The planes doing the bombing near the village were VNAF (Vietnam Air
Force) and were being flown by Vietnamese pilots in support of South Vietnamese troops
on the ground. The Vietnamese pilot who dropped the napalm in error is currently living
in the United States. Even the AP photographer, Nick Ut, who took the picture was
Vietnamese. The incident in the photo took place on the second day of a three day
battle between the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) who occupied the village of Trang Bang
and the ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) who were trying to force the NVA out of
the village. Recent reports in the news media that an American commander ordered
the air strike that burned Kim Phuc are incorrect. There were no Americans involved in
any capacity. "We (Americans) had nothing to do with controlling VNAF," according to
Lieutenant General (Ret) James F. Hollingsworth, the Commanding General of TRAC at that
time. Also, it has been incorrectly reported that two of Kim Phuc's brothers were killed
in this incident. They were Kim's cousins not her brothers.
Myth: The United States lost the war in Vietnam.
Fact: The American military was not defeated in Vietnam. The American military did not
lose a battle of any consequence. From a military standpoint, it was almost an
unprecedented performance. Westmoreland quoting Douglas Pike, a professor at the
University of California, Berkley a renowned expert on the Vietnam War). This included
Tet 68, which was a major military defeat for the VC and NVA.
THE UNITED STATES DID NOT LOSE THE WAR IN VIETNAM, THE SOUTH VIETNAMESE DID. Read
on........
The fall of Saigon happened 30 April 1975, two years AFTER the American military left
Vietnam. The last American troops departed in their entirety 29 March 1973.
How could we lose a war we had already stopped fighting? We fought to an agreed
stalemate. The peace settlement was signed in Paris on 27 January 1973. It called for
release of all U.S. prisoners, withdrawal of U.S. forces, limitation of both sides' forces
inside South Vietnam and a commitment to peaceful reunification. The 140,000 evacuees
in April 1975 during the fall of Saigon consisted almost entirely of civilians and
Vietnamese military, NOT American military running for their lives. There were almost
twice as many casualties in Southeast Asia (primarily Cambodia) the first two years after
the fall of Saigon in 1975 then there were during the ten years the U.S. was involved in
Vietnam. Thanks for the perceived loss and the countless assassinations and torture
visited upon Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians goes mainly to the American media
and their undying support-by-misrepresentation of the anti-War movement in the
United States.
As with much of the Vietnam War, the news media misreported and misinterpreted the
1968 Tet Offensive. It was reported as a overwhelming success for the Communist
forces and a decided defeat for the U.S. forces. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Despite initial victories by the Communists forces, the Tet Offensive resulted in a major
defeat of those forces. General Vo Nguyen Giap, the designer of the Tet Offensive, is
considered by some as ranking with Wellington, Grant, Lee and MacArthur as a great
commander. Still, militarily, the Tet Offensive was a total defeat of the Communist forces
on all fronts. It resulted in the death of some 45,000 NVA troops and the complete, if not
total destruction of the Viet Cong elements in South Vietnam. The Organization of the
Viet Cong Units in the South never recovered. The Tet Offensive exceeded on only one
front and that was the News front and the political arena. This was another example in
the Vietnam War of an inaccuracy becoming the perceived truth. However inaccurately
reported, the News Media made the Tet Offensive famous.
"Vietnam History"
http://4dw.net/jqueen/history.html
VIETNAM REMEMBERED
http://remembervietnam.homestead.com/
