Some Vietnam War Stats

“Southeast Asia

1,921,000 Vietnamese died

200,000 Cambodians dead (1969-75)
100,000 Laotians dead (1964-73)
3,200,000 wounded (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia)
14,305,000 refugees (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia) by the end of the war

In South Vietnam:

300,000 orphans
800,000 children who lost one or both parents
131,000 war widows
200,000 prositutes

Between 1965 & 1973 approximately one out of thirty Indochinese was killed; one in twelve wounded; and one in five made a refugee.

The U.S.

2,500,000 soldiers served in the war

58,135 soldiers were killed
303,616 wounded
33,000 paralyzed as a result of injuries
111,000 veterans have died from “war-related” problems since returning to the US (at least 60,000 are suicides)
35,000 US civilians killed in Vietnam (noncombat deaths)
2,500 missing in action

15,500,00 tons of bombs and munitions were used by US forces ([compare to the] 6,000,000 . . . used by US forces in all of WW II)

18,000,000 gallons of poisonous chemical heribices such as Agent Orange were sprayed over forest and croplands in South Vietnam
$168.1 billion—direct financial cost of the US government to fight the war (including military and economic aid to Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia)
$350 to $900 billion—estimated final cost of the war (including veteran benefits, interest, etc.)”

--- Reese Williams, ed. Unwinding the Vietnam War: From War into Peace (Seattle: Real Comet Press, 1987), 7-8.

“Had the US lost the same portion of its population, [as the combined wartime populations of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia] the Vietnam Memorial would list the names of 8 million Americans.”

Christian G. Appy, Working Class War: American Combat Soldiers & Vietnam (Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1993), 17.

“From 1961 to 1972, an average of 14,000 American workers died every year from industrial accidents; the same number of soldiers died in Vietnam during 1968, the year of highest US casualties. Throughout the war . . . at least 100,000 people died each year from work-related diseases” (Appy, 7).