Confusion reigns when it comes to numbers and the Vietnam War. Following are some numbers that may lend some clarity to the media reports over the years. Many of the statistics cited here are from the VFW archives.
Vietnam Veterans comprise 9.7% of their generation
9,087,000 Military Personnel served on Active Duty during the Vietnam Era. August 5.1964 to April 30 1973. The Draft ended June 30, 1973
2,594,000 served within the borders of Vietnam. Approximately 30% of that number were in direct combat positions. By comparison it now takes about 11 logistical troops to support one in combat.
7484 women served in Vietnam,and 83% were nurses. Less than 15% of those nurses ever married after married after the war.
Peak troop strength was 543.482 on April of 1969
CASUALTIES
Hostile Deaths were 47,252 Non-hostile- 10, 475 Total 58,479
8 nurses died. One was KIA
16 Military Chaplains. 2 were Medal of Honor winners
Married men 17,539. 61% of those killed were under 21. Average KIA was 22.8 including twelve 17 year olds. Highest Death State; West Virginia
Wounded 303.704. 100% Disabled 5283 in 1993. Today, that is close to 50.000. I am one of them.
Amputations or crippling wounds were 300% higher than WWll. Multiple amputations were at a rate of 18.4% compared to 5.7% for WWll. And to think that the WWll vets use to call us whiners.
DRAFTEES VS. VOLUNTEERS
25% or 648,ooo of the total Armed Forces were drafted. 66% were drafted in WWll.
Draftees accounted for 30.4 % of the deaths in the Nam. 17.725. 5977 Reservists were killed.
The United States Marine Corps drafted 42,633 in a rare one time USMC Draft in 1968. It was because Marines were dying at such a high rate.
RACE AND ETHNIC BACKGROUND
Here is where some myths are dispelled about the War being fought by minorities.
88.4% were Caucasian. 10.6% were Black with 1% being Other. There is a curious thing however about the “Other.” In the 60’s there was no category for Hispanic. So we cannot get an accurate read here unless you just logged surnames, but that is not a sure thing either.
86.3% of the men who died were Caucasian. 12.5% were black. 1.2% were Other. It is estimated that 170,000 Hispanics served in combat, and 3070 died or 5.2%
70% of enlisted men killed were of Northwest European descent. 34% of Blacks volunteered for combat duty.
Religious preference of the dead. 64.4% Protestant. 28.9% Catholic. 6.7% other or none.
SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS
76% of the men sent to Vietnam were from Lower Middle/Working Class backgrounds. Three fourths had income above the poverty level. 23% had fathers who were professional. managerial or technical. My father was Managerial and a Corpsman in WWll.
79% had a High School degree. Compared to 63% of Korean vets and 45 % of WWll veterans.
Deaths by region; South- 31% West -29.9% Midwest 28.4% Northeast 23.5%
The average age in Vietnam was 19. The average for WWll was 26.
Of those married 38% were divorced upon returning to the States. I was not married but my girlfriend broke up with me 9 weeks after returning home.
The divorce rate for all Veterans is in the 90th percentile.
The Psychiatric casualty rate in Vietnam was 3%. In WWll it was 26%! That rate for Vietnam veterans skyrocketed within 5 years after the war to 35%. Lots of reason for this that maybe commenters will address.
While approximately 58.000 died about 112.000 committed suicide after the war, many of those coming in the mid to late 70’s
Today, approximately 47% of Vietnam veterans have expressed via the VA system to have persistent emotional problems. Drug and alcohol abuse is right at about 50%
66% of Vietnam Veterans say they would serve again. 69% state knowing that War was never declared. 74% doubt that the Gulf of Tonkin incident ever occurred.
The myth that the fighting in Vietnam was not as intense as the WWll is false. The average infantryman in the South Pacific saw an average of 44 days of combat in 4 years. The average soldier/Marine in Vietnam saw about 241 days of combat in one year, as a result of the mobility of the helicopter.
The average lapse time between being wounded to hospitalization was less than an hour. As a result less than 1% of those wounded who survived the first 24 hours, died.. The helicopter provided unprecedented mobility, as it does now. Without the helicopter it would have taken 3 times the number of troops to secure an 800 mile border with Cambodia and Laos. Mistakenly the politicos thought the Geneva Conventions of 1954 and the Geneva Accords of 1962 would secure the border. 84% of Vietnam veterans report never having heard of the Geneva Convention guidelines; (outlining torture), while on active duty. 71% of combatants report witnessing torture accomplished by proxies, like Korean Marines.
Another myth that the Domino Theory was proved false is incorrect. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations; Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand remained free of Communism as a result of our commitment to the area. The Vietnam War was the turning point for the end of Communism. Today we are partnered with Vietnam for the exploration of oil. One of the little known facts is that some of richest oil reserves in the world are off the shores of the South China Sea. Ergo the lifting of the the Trade Embargo that was co-sponsored by Senators McCain and Kerry.
The tourism industry in Vietnam is 200% that of WWll veterans returning to war sites.
Possibly this is why we call these “Wars of Assimilation” not Declared Wars.
Not much time, but I have to take exception to the assertion about the “end of communism”. Perhaps the end of the colonial era and the beginning of the neocolonial era.
“Another myth that the Domino Theory was proved false is incorrect.”
Total nonsense – even the proponents of “the Domino Theory” like MacNamara adimit that the Domino theory was wrong, as was our rationale for entering the war in the first place.
You really have to have a distorted world view to think that LOSING a war stopped “the enemy”
And it had nothing to do with “ending communism”, if anything it was just a temporary setback for US militarism.
The Soviet’s version of Vietnam, Afghanistan, deserves much more credit for “ending communism”.
But in the long run neither had anything to do with “communism” or “freedom” and were examples of the limits of the two empires power.
You cannot loose a war that was not intended to be won. We don’t kill people we need.
That’s what the loser of a war always says afterward.
Ho Chi Minh has less trouble stating who won.
Wow, pretty hard core. Did you fight in that war?
Overall, I find the statistical information about the American forces very interesting. I surely would have guessed that the percentage of lower income and “other-than-white” soldiers would have been higher than their percentages in the population as a whole.
I wonder how these demographics of a draftee military compare to those in today’s all volunteer military?
Finally, though the Soviet Union is no more and China is now a capitalist economy, to assert the “end of communism” is a little premature. I think we’re making a nice comeback in Latin America.
All the world is led by linguistic framing. Surely you know this Left Man.
Capitalism, Socialism and Communism are as outdated as the Edsel. For anyone who reads even a smidgen of world politics knows , this is the age of “collaborative communitarian enterprise” . Ergo the Oil deals in my old War, called Vietnam.
The Global economy trumps all economic concepts. We need a new lexicon. All else is like sending a pregnant woman to Weight Watchers.
Well, I disagree, Mike. I consider a large part of what is going on economically around the world as “globalized capitalism” and not “collaborative communitarian enterprise”. Same enemy; different name. The world is still divided by the two dominant economic systems and it is inherent in the thinking of Marxists that human progress is dependent on the advance of socialism across the globe. When I hear someone say that such concepts are outdated, it just means to me that you are fine with the status quo. I am not.
Thank you so much for your insight on A Clearer View of the Vietnam Veteran Warriors – Veteran Veritas , I totally agree with you. It is fantastic to see a fresh outlook on this and I look forward to more.