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→Deaths caused by NVA/VC forces: added info from source. It was an attack on the US embassy not a residential street.
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====Deaths caused by NVA/VC forces====
====Deaths caused by NVA/VC forces====
[[File:Infant victim of Dak Son massacre.jpg|thumb|right|Victims of the Đắk Sơn Massacre<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dak_Son_Massacre]</ref> in [[Đắk Lắk Province]], killed by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces on December 5th, 1967 as a vengeance attack on the [[Degar]]s. Communist troops also killed many women and children.<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,837586,00.html]</ref><ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901626,00.html?promoid=googlep]</ref>]]
[[File:Infant victim of Dak Son massacre.jpg|thumb|right|Victims of the Đắk Sơn Massacre<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dak_Son_Massacre]</ref> in [[Đắk Lắk Province]], killed by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces on December 5th, 1967 as a vengeance attack on the [[Degar]]s. Communist troops also killed many women and children.<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,837586,00.html]</ref><ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901626,00.html?promoid=googlep]</ref>]]
[[File:Scene of Viet Cong terrorist bombing in Saigon, Republic of Vietnam., 1965.jpg|thumb|right|Viet Cong terrorist bomb attack on a residential Saigon street in 1965<ref>[http://books.google.ca/books?id=RVMEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA28&source=gbs_toc_r&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false]</ref>]]
[[File:Scene of Viet Cong terrorist bombing in Saigon, Republic of Vietnam., 1965.jpg|thumb|right|Viet Cong terrorist bomb attack on US Embassy in 1965<ref>[http://books.google.ca/books?id=RVMEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA28&source=gbs_toc_r&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false]</ref>]]
NVA/VC forces intentionally killed around 164,000 civilians between 1954 and 1975 in South Vietnam; Rummel's estimates range from 106,000 to 227,000.<ref>[http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.TAB6.1A.GIF Rummel 1997]</ref> Rummel's summary has a mid-level estimate of 17,000 South Vietnamese civil servants (ARVN's local millitia) killed by North Vietnamese forces (including the [[Viet Cong]]). In addition, at least 36,000 Southern civilians were executed for various reasons between 1967-1972.<ref>Michael Lee Lanning and Dan Cragg, Inside the VC and the NVA, (Ballantine Books, 1993), pp. 186-188</ref> Another 50,000 refugees were killed by the NVA during the [[1975 Spring Offensive]], along with 1,260 civilians during the NVA's shelling of Saigon, and some 2,800 to 6,000 civilians killed in the [[Massacre at Huế]] during the [[Tet Offensive]].{{sfn|Rummel|1997|loc=Lines 448, 454, 456 and 464}} About 130 US [[POWs]] and 16,000 South Vietnamese [[POWs]] were executed by their communist captors.{{sfn|Rummel|1997|loc=Lines 457 & 459}} During the peak war years, almost a third of civilian deaths were the result of Viet Cong atrocities.<ref>Guenter Lewy, ''America in Vietnam'' (Oxford University Press, 1978), pp272-3, 448-9.</ref>
NVA/VC forces intentionally killed around 164,000 civilians between 1954 and 1975 in South Vietnam; Rummel's estimates range from 106,000 to 227,000.<ref>[http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.TAB6.1A.GIF Rummel 1997]</ref> Rummel's summary has a mid-level estimate of 17,000 South Vietnamese civil servants (ARVN's local millitia) killed by North Vietnamese forces (including the [[Viet Cong]]). In addition, at least 36,000 Southern civilians were executed for various reasons between 1967-1972.<ref>Michael Lee Lanning and Dan Cragg, Inside the VC and the NVA, (Ballantine Books, 1993), pp. 186-188</ref> Another 50,000 refugees were killed by the NVA during the [[1975 Spring Offensive]], along with 1,260 civilians during the NVA's shelling of Saigon, and some 2,800 to 6,000 civilians killed in the [[Massacre at Huế]] during the [[Tet Offensive]].{{sfn|Rummel|1997|loc=Lines 448, 454, 456 and 464}} About 130 US [[POWs]] and 16,000 South Vietnamese [[POWs]] were executed by their communist captors.{{sfn|Rummel|1997|loc=Lines 457 & 459}} During the peak war years, almost a third of civilian deaths were the result of Viet Cong atrocities.<ref>Guenter Lewy, ''America in Vietnam'' (Oxford University Press, 1978), pp272-3, 448-9.</ref>


Revision as of 01:28, 28 September 2012

Waiting to Lift Off by James Pollock, Vietnam Combat Artists Program, CAT IV, 1967. Courtesy of National Museum of the U. S. Army.

The Vietnam War began in 1955 and ended in 1975 when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon. During this period the war escalated from an insurgency in South Vietnam sponsored by the North Vietnamese government to direct military intervention in the south by North Vietnam, as well as the active participation of military forces of the United States and other countries. The war also spilled over into the neighbouring countries of Cambodia and Laos. An exhaustive reckoning of the total casualties must include statistical information available for each theater of the war. The casualty figures below focus on Vietnam and exclude those in Cambodia and Laos. The Republic of Vietnam (commonly called South Vietnam) was where most of the fighting took place, and it accordingly suffered most from the war.

Deaths in the Vietnam War

AVP

According to Rummel the Army of the Republic of Vietnam lost between 219,000 at the low end and 313,000 at the high end between 1959 and 1975. Guenter Lewy, from a US Department of Defense document, reported that ARVN suffered 220,357 killed from 1965 through 1974.[1] A PBS estimate was a quarter of a million men killed in action.[2]

Major incidents

My Lai massacre at Son My village.American military murdered 504 civilians including women and babies
  • 1968 Tet Offensive - Hanoi failed in its most ambitious goal of producing a general uprising in the South,it suffered more than 45,267 (mainly Viet Cong) deaths but gained a propaganda, political and strategic victory[3][4]
  • 1972 Easter Offensive - This saw 50,000 to 75,000 North Vietnamese combatants killed plus their loss of over 700 tanks. The communist attack was broken up mainly by US air power.[5] It was still a North Vietnamese tactical victory. [6]

Non-uniformed/civilian deaths in South Vietnam

The Viet Cong and on occasion North Vietnamese regulars often wore civilian clothes.[7][8][9] Civilians could thus be mistaken for being a member of one side and be shot. They were sometimes killed simply from being caught up in the midst of a battle. South Vietnam suffered the majority of civilians killed in this manner.[10] Rummel's review of the various data led to a mid-level estimate of 843,000 civilian deaths in both North and South Vietnam.

The Vietnamese government stated in 1995 that a total of 2,000,000 Vietnamese civilians died in the war, but did not divide the deaths between North and South Vietnam.[10][11] Rummel estimated (apart from the post 1975 communist power consolidation) that a low-level of 486,000 civilians died; the mid-level was 843,000, with a high level at 1,200,000.[12]

Deaths caused by NVA/VC forces

Victims of the Đắk Sơn Massacre[13] in Đắk Lắk Province, killed by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces on December 5th, 1967 as a vengeance attack on the Degars. Communist troops also killed many women and children.[14][15]
Viet Cong terrorist bomb attack on US Embassy in 1965[16]

NVA/VC forces intentionally killed around 164,000 civilians between 1954 and 1975 in South Vietnam; Rummel's estimates range from 106,000 to 227,000.[17] Rummel's summary has a mid-level estimate of 17,000 South Vietnamese civil servants (ARVN's local millitia) killed by North Vietnamese forces (including the Viet Cong). In addition, at least 36,000 Southern civilians were executed for various reasons between 1967-1972.[18] Another 50,000 refugees were killed by the NVA during the 1975 Spring Offensive, along with 1,260 civilians during the NVA's shelling of Saigon, and some 2,800 to 6,000 civilians killed in the Massacre at Huế during the Tet Offensive.[19] About 130 US POWs and 16,000 South Vietnamese POWs were executed by their communist captors.[20] During the peak war years, almost a third of civilian deaths were the result of Viet Cong atrocities.[21]

Deaths caused by South Vietnamese forces

File:TrangBang.jpg
Phan Thị Kim Phúc, center, running down a road near Trảng Bàng, Vietnam, on 8 June 1972, after a napalm bomb was dropped on the village of Trảng Bàng by a plane of the Vietnam Air Force Photo: Nick Ut / The Associated Press

During the Diem government (1955–1963), an estimated 80,000 persons died during the forced relocation of 900,000 southern civilians. 4,000 communist prisoners died through ill-treatment, about 10,000 suspected communists and fighters were executed, and 1,500 civilians died during shellings. [22][23]

From 1964 to 1975, an estimated 1,500 persons 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. 6,000 civilians died in the more extensive shellings. In Quang Nam province 4,700 civilians were killed in 1969. This totals 50,000 deaths caused by South Vietnam, excluding North Vietnamese forces killed by the ARVN in combat.[24]

Rummel estimated the government of South Vietnam to be responsible for 90,000 democidal killings from 1954–1975, with a range of 58,000 to 285,000.[25]

Deaths caused by the American military

The Phoenix Program was a counterinsurgency program executed by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), United States special operations forces, and the Republic of Vietnam's security apparatus during the Vietnam War. They would kill suspected VC, and terrorize and capture civilians who they would often torture to gain information on VC activities.[26][27][26] By 1972, 26,369 were killed,including many civilians.[28][29] Figures for North Vietnamese civilian dead range from 50,000[1] to 182,000 as a result of US bombing.[30]*A Newsweek journalist claimed an unnamed official told him that an estimated 5,000 civilians died as "collateral damage" from the American military during Operation Speedy Express.[31] Agent Orange was used by the U.S. military as part of its herbicidal warfare program, Operation Ranch Hand, during the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1971. Vietnam's government claimed that 400,000 people were killed or maimed as a result, and that 500,000 children were born with birth defects.[32]

Deaths caused by North Vietnamese power consolidation

Vietnamese "Boat People" refugees waiting for rescue in the South China Sea from the USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19) in 1984. 2 - 3 million Vietnamese refugees fled from communist rule in Vietnam during the late 1970s and 1980s.[33][34][35]

Up to 155,000 refugees fleeing the final NVA offensive were killed or abducted on the road to Tuy Hoa in 1975.[36] According to Pentagon estimates 156,000 troops and 15,000 civilians were killed during the invasion of South Vietnam in 1973 and 1974.[37] Sources have estimated that 165,000 South Vietnamese died in the re-education camps out of 1-2.5 million sent,[38] while the number executed could have been as high as 200,000[39] (Jacqueline Desbarats estimates an absolute minimum of 100,000 executions[40][41]) Rummel estimates that slave labor in the "New Economic Zones" caused 50,000 deaths (out of a total 1 million deported).[40][42] The number of boat people who died is estimated between 100,000 and 500,000, out of the 2.5 million that fled.[42][43] There were also tens of thousands of suicides after the communist take-over and deaths from famine in the eighties. Including Vietnam's foreign democide, Rummel estimates that a minimum of 400,000 and a maximum of slightly less than 2.5 million people died of political violence from 1975-87 at the hands of Hanoi.[42] In 1988, Vietnam suffered a famine that afflicted millions.[44]

Specific incidents

Burial of 300 unidentified victims from the Huế Massacre, killed by communist forces and found after the ARVN and U.S. Marines retook the area in March, 1968[45]Photo from the U.S. Military[46][47][48]

.

Vietnamese women and children in Mỹ Lai before being killed in the massacre, March 16, 1968.[49] They were killed seconds after the photo was taken.[50] Photo by Ronald L. Haeberle
  • 2,800-6,000 civilians were massacred by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces in the Hue Massacre throughout February, 1968.[51]
  • 1,200 civilians were killed by South Korean forces in Tay Vinh massacre between February 12 – March 17, 1966.[52]
  • 380 civilians were killed by South Korean forces in Go Dai massacre on February 26, 1966.[52]
  • 66 civilians were killed by South Korean forces in Binh Tai massacre on October 9, 1966. [53]
  • 280 civilians were killed by South Korean forces in Dien Nien-Phuoc Binh Massacre on October 9, 1966.[54]
  • 430 civilians were killed by South Korean forces in Binh Hoa massacre between December 3 and December 6, 1966.[55]
  • 79 civilians were killed by South Korean forces in Phong Nhi and Phong Nhat massacre on February 12, 1968.
  • 135 civilians were killed by South Korean forces in Ha My massacre on February 25, 1968.
  • More than 500 civilians were killed by an American Army company in the My Lai Massacre on March 16, 1968.[56]
  • 19 civilians killed by American Forces Feb. 8, 1968 in Quang Nam province.[57]
  • 80-90 civilians killed by American Forces March 16, 1968 at My Khe.[58]
  • Almost 252 Degar civilians were massacred by the Viet Cong in the Dak Son Massacre on December 5, 1967.
  • More than 25,000 South Vietnamese civilians were killed and almost a million become temporary refugees, with over 600,000 interned in South Vietnamese Government camps as a result of North Vietnam's 1972 Easter Offensive.[59]
  • At least 81 civilians killed (probably many more) by American Forces, Tiger Force 101st Airborne Division, during the Song Ve Valley and Operation Wheeler military campaigns.[60]

North Vietnamese and Viet Cong Military deaths

According to the Vietnamese government, there were 1,100,000 North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong military personnel deaths during the Vietnam War.[10] Rummel reviewed the many casualty data sets, and this number is in keeping with his mid-level estimate of 1,011,000 North Vietnamese combatant deaths.[10][11][61] He further calculated a mid-level estimate of 251,000 Viet Cong military deaths.[62]

United States armed forces

Casualties as of 6 June 2012:

  • 58,282 KIA or non-combat deaths (including the missing & deaths in captivity)[63]
  • 303,644 WIA (including 153,303 who required hospitalization and 150,341 who didn't)[64]
  • 1,664 MIA (originally 2,646)[65]
  • 725-779 POW (660 freed (28 escaped),[66] 65-119 died in captivity)[67][68]

By service branch

Branch of service Number serving Worldwide Number serving Southeast Asia Number serving South Vietnam Killed Wounded Missing
Army 4,368,000 2,276,000 1,736,000 38,209 96,802 531 {A}
Marines 794,000 513,000 391,000 14,844 51,392 212 {B}
Navy 1,842,000 229,000 174,000 2,566 4,178 364 {C}
Air Force 1,740,000 385,000 293,000 2,586 931 526 {D}
Coast Guard
7 59 0 {E}
Civilians
49[67]
31 {F}
Total 8,744,000 3,403,000 2,594,000 58,269 153,303 1,664

Source: Congressional Research Service.[69]
[65]

By year

Year of Death Number Killed
1956–1964 401
1965 1,863
1966 6,143
1967 11,153
1968 16,592
1969 11,616
1970 6,081
1971 2,357
1972 641
1973 168
1974–1998 1,178

Source: The National Archives.[70]

Other nations casualties

South Korea

  • 5,099 KIA
  • 11,232 WIA
  • 4 MIA[71]

Australia

  • 426 KIA, 74 died of other causes[72]
  • 3,129 WIA
  • 6 MIA (All have been accounted for and have been repatriated)[citation needed]

Thailand

New Zealand

Philippines

China 1,446 KIA[citation needed] Soviet Union ~16.[76]

References

  1. ^ a b Rummel, R.J (1997), "Table 6.1A. Vietnam Democide : Estimates, Sources, and Calculations" (GIF), Freedom, Democracy, Peace; Power, Democide, and War, University of Hawaii System {{citation}}: External link in |work= (help) Cite error: The named reference "FOOTNOTERummel1997" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  2. ^ Battlefield:Vietnam | Timeline
  3. ^ Tran Van Tra, Tet, pp. 49, 50
  4. ^ "Tet Offensive — History.com Articles, Video, Pictures and Facts". History.com. Retrieved 2012-09-25.
  5. ^ web site (1997). "North Vietnamese Army's 1972 Eastertide Offensive". web site. Retrieved 2010-02-01.
  6. ^ David Fulghum & Terrance Maitland, et al, South Vietnam on Trial. Boston: Boston Publishing Company, 1984, tr.183
  7. ^ Willbanks, James H. (2008). The Tet Offensive: A Concise History. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-12841-X. {{cite book}}: Text "p 32" ignored (help)
  8. ^ [1]
  9. ^ [2]
  10. ^ a b c d Shenon, Philip (23 April 1995). "20 Years After Victory, Vietnamese Communists Ponder How to Celebrate". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 February 2011. {{cite news}}: More than one of |author= and |last= specified (help)
  11. ^ a b Associated Press, 3 April 1995, "Vietnam Says 1.1 Million Died Fighting For North."
  12. ^ Rummel 1997 Line 800
  13. ^ [3]
  14. ^ [4]
  15. ^ [5]
  16. ^ [6]
  17. ^ Rummel 1997
  18. ^ Michael Lee Lanning and Dan Cragg, Inside the VC and the NVA, (Ballantine Books, 1993), pp. 186-188
  19. ^ Rummel 1997, Lines 448, 454, 456 and 464.
  20. ^ Rummel 1997, Lines 457 & 459.
  21. ^ Guenter Lewy, America in Vietnam (Oxford University Press, 1978), pp272-3, 448-9.
  22. ^ Rummel 1997 Lines 481, 494, 515, 518, 521]
  23. ^ Vietnam: Why Did We Go?" by Avro Manhattan, Chick Publication, California 1984, pp. 56 & 89
  24. ^ Rummel 1997 Lines 540, 556, 563, 566, 569, 575
  25. ^ Rummel 1997 Lines 626]
  26. ^ a b Otterman, Michael (2007). American Torture: From the Cold War to Abu Ghraib and Beyond. Melbourne University Publishing. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-522-85333-9.
  27. ^ Harbury, Jennifer (2005). Truth, torture, and the American way: the history and consequences of U.S. involvement in torture. Beacon Press. p. 97. ISBN 978-0-8070-0307-7.
  28. ^ McCoy, Alfred W. (2006). A question of torture: CIA interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror. Macmillan. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-8050-8041-4.
  29. ^ Harbury, Jennifer (2005). Truth, torture, and the American way: the history and consequences of U.S. involvement in torture. Beacon Press. p. 97. ISBN 978-0-8070-0307-7.
  30. ^ "Battlefield:Vietnam Timeline". Pbs.org. Retrieved 31 October 2011.
  31. ^ Kevin Buckley, "Pacification's Deadly Price," Newsweek 1972.
  32. ^ History.com Operation Ranch Hand and Agent Orange Retrieved 25/09/12
  33. ^ [7]
  34. ^ [8]
  35. ^ [http://pi.library.yorku.ca/ojs/index.php/refuge/article/viewFile/21589/20262
  36. ^ Wiesner, Louis, Victims and Survivors: Displaced Persons and Other War Victims in Viet-Nam, 1954-1975 (Greenwood Press, 1988), pp. 318-9.
  37. ^ Marilyn Young, citing Pentagon estimates, gives the following figures: ARVN: 26,500 (1973) + 30,000 (1974). PRG/DRV: 39,000 (1973) + 61,000 (1974). Civilians: 15,000.
  38. ^ Anh Do and Hieu Tran Phan, Camp Z30-D: The Survivors, Orange County Register, April 29, 2001.
  39. ^ Human Events, August 27, 1977; Al Santoli, ed., To Bear Any Burden (Indiana University Press, 1999), pp272, 292-3.
  40. ^ a b Desbarats, Jacqueline. Repression in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Executions and Population Relocation, from The Vietnam Debate (1990) by John Morton Moore.
  41. ^ Morris, Stephen J. Glastnost and the Gulag: The Numbers Game, Vietnam Commentary, May–June 1988.
  42. ^ a b c Rummel, Rudolph, Statistics of Vietnamese Democide, in his Statistics of Democide.
  43. ^ Nghia M. Vo, The Vietnamese Boat People, 1954 and 1975-1992 (McFarland, 2006).
  44. ^ Lewis, Anders G. Unrepentant Stalinist, FrontPage Magazine, April 12, 2004.
  45. ^ [9]
  46. ^ [10]
  47. ^ [11]
  48. ^ [12]
  49. ^ "Report of the Department of Army review of the preliminary investigations into the Mỹ Lai incident. Volume III, Exhibits, Book 6—Photographs, 14 March 1970". From the Library of Congress, Military Legal Resources.[13]
  50. ^ "My Lai", Original broadcast PBS American Experience, 9 pm, April 26, 2010 Time Index 00:35' into the first hour (no commercials)
  51. ^ Anderson, David L. The Columbia Guide to the Vietnam War. 2004, page 98-9
  52. ^ a b Words of Condemnation and Drinks of Reconciliation 2/09/99 Retrieved 25/09/12
  53. ^ Armstrong, Charles (2001). Critical asian studies, Volume 33, Issue 4 Page 530 :America's Korea, Korea's Vietnam.
  54. ^ Gerassi, John (1968). North Vietnam: a documentary.p.148 Bobbs-Merrill.
  55. ^ "On War extra - Vietnam's massacre survivors". AlJazeera. 2009-01-04. Retrieved 2011-07-09.
  56. ^ BBC News Murder in the name of war - My Lai 20 July, 1998 Retrieved 25/09/12
  57. ^ LA Times Civilian Killings Went Unpunished August 6, 2006 Retrieved 26/09/12
  58. ^ LA Times Verified Civilian Slayings August 6, 2006 Retrieved 26/09/12
  59. ^ Andrade, p. 529.
  60. ^ Toledo Blade Rogue GIs unleashed wave of terror in Central Highlands 10/19/2003, Retrieved 23/09/12
  61. ^ Rummel 1997, Line 102.
  62. ^ Rummel 1997, Line 83.
  63. ^ Ten New Names Added To Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall
  64. ^ US Military Operations: Casualty Breakdown
  65. ^ a b "Vietnam-era unaccounted for statistical report" (PDF). 6 June 2012.
  66. ^ Three's In *** - the Vietnam POW Home Page
  67. ^ a b U. S. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
  68. ^ American Vietnam War Casualty Statistics
  69. ^ American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics
  70. ^ Statistical information about casualties of the Vietnam War The National Archives.
  71. ^ a b KOREA military army official statistics, AUG 28, 2005
  72. ^ "Vietnam War, 1962-72 - Statistics". Australian War Memorial. 2003. Retrieved 2008-02-04. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  73. ^ The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History By Spencer C. Tucker "http://books.google.com.au/books?id=qh5lffww-KsC&lpg=PA53&dq=the%20encyclopedia%20of%20the%20vietnam%20war%20page%2064&pg=PA176&output=embed"
  74. ^ "New Zealand Rolls Of Honour - By Conflict". Freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com. Retrieved 2012-09-25.
  75. ^ "Overview of the war in Vietnam | VietnamWar.govt.nz, New Zealand and the Vietnam War". Vietnamwar.govt.nz. 1965-07-16. Retrieved 2012-09-25.
  76. ^ James F. Dunnigan; Albert A. Nofi (2000). Dirty Little Secrets of the Vietnam War: Military Information You're Not Supposed to Know. Macmillan. ISBN 0-312-25282-X.
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