Vietnam War casualties

The Vietnam War began in 1959 and did not end until 1975. By then, it had escalated from an insurgency in South Vietnam sponsored by the North Vietnamese government to a direct military intervention in the south by North Vietnam and the United States and its allies as well as to warfare in the surrounding countries of Cambodia and Laos. Accordingly, an exhaustive reckoning of the casualties incurred as a result of the war must take into account statistical information available for each theater of the conflict.

North Vietnam

According to the Vietnamese government, 1,100,000 North Vietnamese Army and National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam military personnel died in the conflict.20 Years After Victory, April 1995, Folder 14, Box 24, Douglas Pike Collection: Unit 06 - Democratic Republic of Vietnam, The Vietnam Archive, Texas Tech University.] (Technically, some of these dead were South Vietnamese members of the NLF, but it would be impossible to separate their constituency from the total.) Estimates of civilian deaths caused by American bombing in Operation Rolling Thunder range from 52,000http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.TAB6.1A.gif] to 182,000. [ [http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/timeline/index2.html Battlefield:Vietnam | Timeline ] ] Complete statistics for the 1972 bombings are unavailable. Overall figures for North Vietnamese civilian dead range from 50,000 to "several million." [Viet Nam Destruction - War Damage, 1977, Folder 03, Box 04, Douglas Pike Collection: Unit 11 - Monographs, The Vietnam Archive, Texas Tech University.]

South Vietnam

The Army of the Republic of Vietnam ARVN lost approximately 184,000 servicemen during the war, with some estimates as high as a quarter of a million. [ [http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/timeline/index4.html Battlefield:Vietnam | Timeline ] ] Because it was the country most devastated by the war, South Vietnam suffered the bulk of the estimated 500,000http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.TAB6.1B.gif] to 2,000,000 civilian deaths sustained by the entire Vietnamese population during the conflict; out of a possible median of 1,200,000 dead for the whole country, considering the above figures for North Vietnamese losses, in South Vietnam itself about one million civilians likely died.

First and last US Casualties

*{First casualties-1945; 1954; 1956, 1957; 1959}:
**26 September 1945-OSS Lt. Col. A. Peter Dewey killed in Vietnam.
**6 May 1954—CIA pilot James 'Earthquake McGoon' McGovern and co-pilot Wallace Buford killed in Laos.
**June 8, 1956 - The first official death in Viet-Nam is U.S. Air Force Technical Sergeant Richard B. Fitzgibbon, Jr. of Stoneham, MA who was killed by another U.S. airman
**21 October 1957-Captain Harry Cramer killed in Vietnam
**8 July 1959-Major Dale R. Buis and M/Sgt Charles Ovnand {Chester Melvin Ovnand} killed by sniper; first and second names listed on Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
**22 December 1961-SP4 James Thomas Davis, 3d Radio Research Unit, killed in an ambush in Vietnam, The Wall: Panel 01E - Row 004
*{Last casualties-1975}:
**29 April 1975-US Marine Embassy Guards McMahon and Judge killed. {Corporal Charles McMahon & Lance Corporal Darwin L. Judge}
**12–30 May 1975—41 US servicemen killed and 41 servicemen wounded during the "Mayaguez Incident" in "Democratic Kampuchea".

Prisoners of War

*First POW seized
**December 26, 1961 - George F. Fryett was the first seized POW, he was released in June 1962.
*Last POW seized
**January 27, 1973 - Phillip A. Kientzler was the last POW to be seized, he was released March 27, 1973.
*Longest held POW
**8 years, 355 days - Floyd James Thompson was captured on March 26, 1964 and released March 16, 1973. Spent 10 days short of 9 years as a POW, he is the longest held POW of the Vietnam war and longest held POW in the United States history.
*Second Longest held POW
**8 years, 7 months-Everett Alvarez Jr. was captured on August 5, 1964 and released February 12, 1973.

outh Korea

* ~4,900 KIA

North Korea

According to Chinese soldiers stationed in Vietnam manning the anti-aircraft artillery next to that of the North Korean, several dozen North Korean anti-aircraft artillery crews were killed by American bombing.

China

1,446 KIA

oviet Union

Philippines

*9 KIA

Thailand

*351 KIA

Australia

* 436 KIA, 64 died of other causes [cite web |url=http://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/vietnam/statistics.htm |title=Vietnam War, 1962-72 - Statistics |accessdate=2008-02-04 |last= |first= |coauthors= |year=2003 |work= |publisher=Australian War Memorial]
* 6 MIA (4 Accounted for and repatriated)

New Zealand

* 37 KIA + 2 Civilians

External links

* [http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat2.htm#Vietnam Source] of the figures
* [http://aad.archives.gov/aad/series-list.jsp?cat=WR28 National Archives AAD] Searchable database
* [http://www.rjsmith.com/kia_tbl.html Casualties—US vs NVA/VC] Casualty breakdown by year, province, unit.

References