Vietnam War | |||||||||
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Part of the Indochina Wars and the Cold War in Asia | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
Supported by: |
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Strength | |||||||||
≈860,000 (1967) |
≈1,420,000 (1968)
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Casualties and losses | |||||||||
Total military dead/missing: |
333,620 (1960–1974) – 392,364 (total) Total military wounded: ≈1,340,000+[11] (excluding FARK and FANK) Total military captured: ≈1,000,000+ | ||||||||
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The Vietnam War (also known as Second Indochina War, Vietnamese-American War or American War in Vietnam) lasted from 1 November 1955 to 30 April 1975. It was fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union, China, and North Korea, and South Vietnam was set up by the United States and supported by South Korea, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines. People from other countries also went to fight but not in their own national armies. The conflict between communist and capitalist countries was part of the Cold War.
The Viet Cong, also known as the National Liberation Front or NLF, was a South Vietnamese communist force that was helped by North Vietnam. It fought a guerrilla war against non-communist South Vietnamese forces. The People's Army of Vietnam (also known as the North Vietnamese Army) engaged in a more conventional war by at times putting large forces to battle.
The Vietnam War was very controversial, especially in the United States. It was the first war to feature live television coverage and the first major armed conflict that the United States lost. The war became so unpopular in the United States that President Richard Nixon eventually agreed to send American soldiers home in 1973.
The Army of the Republic of Vietnam suffered 254,256 recorded combat deaths between 1960 and 1974, with the highest number of recorded deaths being in 1972, with 39,587 combat deaths
The Vietnamese government officially claimed a rough estimate of 2 million civilian deaths, but it did not divide these deaths between those of North and South Vietnam.
From 1955 to 2002, data from the surveys indicated an estimated 5.4 million violent war deaths ... 3.8 million in Vietnam
As best as can now be estimated, over two million Cambodians died during the 1970s because of the political events of the decade, the vast majority of them during the mere four years of the 'Khmer Rouge' regime. ... Subsequent reevaluations of the demographic data situated the death toll for the [civil war] in the order of 300,000 or less.
An estimated 275,000 excess deaths. We have modeled the highest mortality that we can justify for the early 1970s.
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