Viet Nam: Fact vs Fiction

Re-post NamSouth 2009

"I found this article very interesting. The most notable fact is that
2.7 million Americans actually served in the Vietnam Theater of war.
In the last census nearly 14 million Americans claimed they served in Vietnam.
Four out of five are lying. I wonder why."

Hamp

Vietnam Fact vs Fiction

Capt. Marshal Hanson, U.S.N.R (Ret.) Capt. Scott Beaton, Statistical Source Vietnam War Facts

For over 30 years I....like many Vietnam veterans....seldom spoke of
Vietnam , except with other veterans, when training soldiers, and in
public speeches. These past five years I have joined the hundreds of
thousands who believe it is high time the truth be told about the
Vietnam War and the people who served there. It's time the American
people learn that the United States military did not lose the War, and
that a surprisingly high number of people who claim to have served
there, in fact, DID NOT. As Americans, support the men and women
involved in the War on Terrorism, the mainstream media are once again
working tirelessly to undermine their efforts and force a
psychological loss or stalemate for the United States .

We cannot stand by and let the media do to today's warriors what they
did to us 35 years ago. Below are some assembled facts most readers
will find interesting. It isn't a long read, but it will, I guarantee, teach you
some things you did not know about the Vietnam War and those who served,
fought, or died there. Please share it with those with whom you communicate.
Capt. Marshal Hanson, U.S.N.R (Ret.)

Capt. Scott Beaton, Statistical Source Vietnam War Facts: Facts,
Statistics, Fake Warrior Numbers, and Myths Dispelled

9,087,000 (Million) 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 Veterans represented
9.7% of their generation. 240 men were awarded the Medal of Honor
during the Vietnam War

1. 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.

2. 58,148 were killed in Vietnam

3. 75,000 were severely disabled .

4. 23,214 were 100% disabled .

5. 5,283 lost limbs.

6. 1,081 sustained multiple amputations.

7. Of those killed, 61% were younger than 21.

8. 11,465 of those killed were younger than 20 years old.

9. Of those killed, 17,539 were married .

10. Average age of men killed: 23.1 years .

11. Five men killed in Vietnam were only 16 years old.

12. The oldest man killed was 62 years old.

13. As of January 15, 2004, there are 1,875 Americans still
unaccounted for from the Vietnam War .

14. 97% of Vietnam Veterans were honorably discharged .

15. 91% of Vietnam Veterans say they are glad they served.

16. 74% say they would serve again, even knowing the outcome.

17. Vietnam veterans have a lower unemployment rate than the same
non-vet age groups.

18. Vietnam veterans' personal income exceeds that of our non-veteran
age group by more than 18 percent.

19. 87% of Americans hold Vietnam Veterans in high esteem.

20. There is no difference in drug usage between Vietnam Veterans and
non-Vietnam Veterans of the same age group (Source: Veterans
Administration Study)

21. Vietnam Veterans are less likely to be in prison - only one-half
of one percent of Vietnam Veterans have been jailed for crimes.

22. 85% of Vietnam Veterans made successful transitions to civilian life.

23. Interesting Census Stats and "Been There" Wanabees: a. 1,713,823
of those who served in Vietnam were still alive as of August, 1995
(census figures). b. During that same Census count, the number of
Americans falsely claiming to have served in-country was: 9,492,958.

24. As of the current Census taken during August, 2000, the surviving
U.S. Vietnam Veteran population estimate is: 1,002,511. This is hard
to believe, losing nearly 711,000 between '95 and '00. That's 390 per
day.

24. 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.

25. 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).

26. Isolated atrocities committed by American Soldiers produced
torrents of outrage from anti-war critics and the news media while
Communist atrocities were so common that 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.

27. 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 o f
the peasants such as medical personnel, social workers, and school
teachers. - Nixon Presidential Papers .

Common Myths Dispelled:

#1. 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.

#2. 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 betterestimate.
"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.

#3.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% was 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."

#4 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

#5 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.

#6 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.
(I would like to add that Cambodia, and Laos did fall. BT)

#7 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 that
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).

#8 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.

#9 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. General Westmoreland
quoting Douglas Pike, a professor at the University of California ,
Berkley a major military defeat for the VC and NVA. FACT: THE UNITED
STATES DID NOT LOSE THE WAR IN VIETNAM , THE SOUTH
VIETNAMESEDID. 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. FACT: 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 than 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 an
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 succeeded 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.

Viet Nam: Fact vs Fiction