At the time Captain Davis returned from war, the country is still battling segregation. Lm, who. Causes How Colin Powell's Service in Vietnam Shaped His Leadership, How the Armys Cover-Up Made the My Lai Massacre Even Worse. Everywhere wed look, wed see bodies. Capt. Davis received the award for his actions during a battle in Bong Son, Republic of Vietnam, June 17-18, 1965, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. One, went to Vietnam Two, killed the Vietcong Three, didn't smoke no grass Four, kicked a-lot ass One, Louder Two, Louder Three, Louder Four, Louder 1, 2, 3, 4 United States Marine Coprs, Ooh-Rah (ooh-rah) Ooh-Rah (ooh-rah) Here we go (here we go) On a run (on a run) Just for fun (just for fun) Oh Yeah (oh yeah) Submit lyrics correction 55k Like At a White House ceremony, Biden called Davis "an incredible man. The two Vietnams (1954-65) Vietnam (1954-76) The agreements concluded in Geneva between April and July 1954 (collectively called the Geneva Accords) were signed by French and Viet Minh representatives and provided for a cease-fire and temporary division of the country into two military zones at latitude 17 N (popularly called the 17th parallel). Paris Davis is awarded a Silver Star on Dec. 15, 1965. An 83-year-old Vietnam veteran is at long last getting his due, One of the first Black officers to lead a Special Forces team in combat will receive the Medal of Honor, the nation's top award for bravery on the battlefield, A South Korean court has ordered the government to pay $24,000 to a Vietnamese woman who survived a gunshot wound but lost several relatives when South Korean marines rampaged through her village during the Vietnam War in 1968, De-escalation, negotiation, and Vietnamization, The United States negotiates a withdrawal, 9 Questions About the Vietnam War Answered, https://www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War, Vietnam War - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), Vietnam War - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up), Black Vietnam vet finally awarded Medal of Honor for bravery, Black Vietnam vet at last getting his due: Medal of Honor, Biden to award Medal of Honor to Vietnam-era Army officer, Court says South Korea responsible for Vietnam War massacre. April 1, 1966. RF JTNXCX - Four Vietnamese and three Americans were killed, and dozens of Vietnamese buildings were heavily damaged during a Viet Cong bomb attack against a multi-story U.S. officers billet in Saigon. The brutality of the My Lai massacre and the official cover-up fueled anti-war sentiment and further divided the United States over the Vietnam War. By the end of their time in Vietnam, the unit performed 1,200 combat patrols with one killed in action . In nineteen sixty-five they went to Vietnam, Well, they went there to fight the Viet Cong. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. The small village of My Lai is located in Quang Ngai province, which was believed to be a stronghold of the communist National Liberation Front (NLF) or Viet Cong (VC) during the Vietnam War. The United States pays $22 billion per year in war compensations to Vietnam veterans and their families. Another potential limitation is the relatively small sample size of the study. These estimates probably include deaths of Vietnamese soldiers in Laos and Cambodia, but do not include deaths of South Vietnamese and allied soldiers which would add nearly 300,000 for a grand total of 3.4 million military and civilian dead. Album: Run to Cadence with the U.S. Marines, Vol. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. Deaths caused by the South Korean military, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong military casualties, Disproportion of African American casualties. After Nguyen Ngoc Loan raised his sidearm and shot Vietcong operative Nguyen Van Lem in the head he walked over to the . We are looking fo. To fire a round into the cave, I had to elevate the recoilless rifle upward and fire the round in an arcing trajectory, more like an artillery piece. "We knew that we were going to run into a hornet's nest," he recalled. On the morning of March 16, 1968, U.S. Army soldiers entered a Vietnamese hamlet named My Lai 4 on a search-and-destroy mission in a region controlled by Viet Cong forces that the Army referred to as Pinkville. The soldiers didnt encounter any enemy troops. In the middle of the mountain, about two-thirds of the way up, I observed three Viet Cong coming out of a cave. Another 222,000 civilians were counted as military deaths by the U.S. in compiling its "body count.". In 1998, Thompson and two other members of his crew received the Soldiers Medal, the U.S. Armys highest award for bravery not involving direct contact with the enemy. It seems that the author was likely part of the cavalry platoon as . The paratroopers had been searching the area for 12 days with no enemy contact. "If we had obeyed that order, there would have been soldiers that would have been just mutilated, because there [were] no other friendly forces available," he said. (The estimates for 195564 are much higher than other estimates). Los Angeles Times. President Joe Biden on Friday awarded the Medal of Honor to a Black Army Special Forces hero from the Vietnam War who has waited close to 60 years to receive the nation's top award for valor after the Army said the paperwork couldn't be found. But I'm not leaving,'" Davis told ABC News. This resulted in a dramatic decrease in the proportion of black casualties, and by late 1967, black casualties had fallen to 13%, and were below 10% in 1970 to 1972. In addition, at least 36,000 Southern civilians were executed for various reasons in the period 1967-1972, about 130 American and 16,000 South Vietnamese POWs died in captivity. A U.S. Marine officer teaches a Vietnamese recruit to use a grenade launcher. The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died. Davis personally captured two enemy combatants. [55] These policies were also reported on by US commanders, with one US Marine General stating "whenever the Korean marines received fire "or think [they got] fired on from a village they'd divert from their march and go over and completely level the village it would be a lesson to (the Vietnamese). The My Lai trial began on November 17, 1970. In 1965, already having served in Korea and Vietnam, Davis was told by his company commander he was destined for the treacherous Binh Dinh province. Not until 1995 did Vietnam release its official estimate of war dead: as many as 2 million civilians on both sides and some 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters. The Vietnamese newspaper Nhn Dn reported in 2012 that the U.S. government was providing $41 million to the project, which aimed to reduce the contamination level in 73,000 m of soil by late 2016. [24] Benjamin Valentino estimates 110,000310,000 deaths as a "possible case" of "counter-guerrilla mass killings" by U.S. and South Vietnamese forces during the war. I went through basic training at Fort Knox, Ky., and took AIT at Fort Dix, N.J., where I trained as heavy weapons infantry. According to the Vietnamese government, unexploded ordnance has killed some 42,000 people since the end of the war. In March 1971, Calley was given a life sentence for his role in directing the killings at My Lai. The First American Soldier Killed in Ground Combat in Vietnam. Three, Louder Some accidently started the attack on Jan 30th instead of 31st, ended up being a good thing. Over the following years, additions to the list have brought the total past 58,200. United States Navy SEALs are members of a special operations unit in the armed forces. The two countries finally resumed formal diplomatic relations in 1995. Shelby Stanton, writing in The Rise and Fall of an American Army, declined to include casualty statistics because of their 'general unreliability.' In Vietnam, Mathews was a machine gunner. Ronald H. Spector is Professor of History and International Affairs in the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. H. and Kennedy did not oppose a coup that overthrew it a few months later. Time magazine, in an April 12, 1968, article titled "Victory at Khe Sanh," reported General William Westmoreland, commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, after flying into Khe Sanh by helicopter, declaring: "We took 220 killed at Khe Sanh and about 800 wounded and evacuated. "Triumph Regained: The Vietnam War, 1965-1968." I saw it fly through the air, and this time I saw it go directly in the cave. All of them were listed on the Vietnam War Memorial located in Washington D.C. [33][34] The United States government has challenged these figures as being unreliable. Four, Louder 48th Viet Cong Battalion One of the most effective Viet Cong military units. [60] Prior to the 1975 spring offensive, at least 5,336 ARVN were captured, being released in the aftermath of the Paris Peace Accords. (1999) mentioned that before 1965, the fighting by the United States (U.S.) Soldiers in Vietnam had been in minor skirmishes with Viet Cong (VC) troops conducting hit-and-run counterinsurgency operations. (Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images). The Colonel's speech went something like this. In 1976, the Vietnamese government organized Gathering Teams to find the remains of dead soldiers. what is a blind trust for lottery winnings; [27] Estimates for the number of North Vietnamese civilian deaths resulting from US bombing range from 30,00065,000. Data for deaths in Laos is incomplete. One study estimated that American commanders exaggerated body counts by 100 percent. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). We reloaded another white phosphorous round. The U.S. estimated more than 100,000 PAVN killed in the offensive. "We caught the guards that were sleeping," Davis said. JUSPAO. Cannot annotate a non-flat selection. But according to Davis, requests for his award to be upgraded to a Medal of Honor were inexplicably lost by the Army twice over the years. Thompson and his crew flew dozens of survivors to receive medical care. [21] During the peak war years, another scholar Guenter Lewy attributed almost a third of civilian deaths to the VC. According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, between 200,000 and 400,000 boat people died at sea. Rain, humidity, dirt, and heavy use made the flashlight unreliable and would turn on and off while moving. On 24 October 1966, 1st Lt. John F. Cochrane of the 409th Radio Research Detachment (RRD), 303d Radio Research Battalion, was killed by a Viet Cong sniper while looking for a suitable site to set . My Lai village in Vietnam, site of the 1968 My Lai Massacre. The attack on the prisoner of war camp resulted in about 26 North Vietnamese dead and no U.S. or South Vietnamese casualties. READ MORE: How the Armys Cover-Up Made the My Lai Massacre Even Worse. Those totals include only Vietnamese deaths, and do not include American and other allied military deaths which amounted to about 64,000. The following day, I asked a guy from second platoon if they went into the cave and if I had taken out the VC machine gun crew. Over the next four years, the general directed much of U.S. military strategy during read more, The Battle of Khe Sanh began on January 21, 1968, when forces from the Peoples Army of North Vietnam (PAVN) carried out a massive artillery bombardment on the U.S. Marine garrison at Khe Sanh, located in South Vietnam near the border with Laos. The My Lai massacre was one of the most horrific incidents of violence committed during the Vietnam War. [5], Uppsala University in Sweden maintains the Armed Conflict Database. [5], In 1995, the Vietnamese government released its estimate of war deaths for the more lengthy period of 195575. At the time, morale among U.S. soldiers on the ground was dwindling, especially in the wake of the North Vietnamese-led Tet Offensive, which was launched in January 1968. There was strong pressure to produce body counts as a measure of operational success and enemy body counts were directly tied to promotions and commendation. There were at least two platoons involved in the fighting there, an infantry platoon and a cavalry platoon. Heavy street fighting had pitched Saigon into chaos when South Vietnamese military caught a suspected Viet Cong squad leader, Nguyen. Amid the international uproar and Vietnam War protests that followed Ridenhours revelations, the U.S. Army ordered a special investigation into the My Lai massacre and subsequent efforts to cover it up. Among the American troops still in Vietnam, morale was low, and anger and frustration were high. For this figure, Guenter Lewy assumes that one-third of the reported enemy killed may have been civilians, concluding that the actual number of deaths of the VC and PAVN military forces was probably closer to 444,000. [95] Of the 27 million draft-age men between 1964 and 1973, 40% were drafted into military service, and only 10% were actually sent to Vietnam. [70], RJ Rummel estimates 1,011,000 PAVN/VC combatant deaths. Fought the Viet Cong Three! [95][98] As a result, by the war's completion, total black casualties averaged 12.5% of US combat deaths, approximately equal to percentage of draft-eligible black men, though still slightly higher than the 10% who served in the military. The terrorists, associated with Black read more. Corrections? Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. Two major war memorials commemorating the dead soldiers in the Second Indochina War (a.k.a. To fire a round into the cave, I had to elevate the recoilless rifle upward and fire the round in an arcing trajectory, more like an artillery piece. starts and ends within the same node. "The general said 'If I was down there, I'd probably kick your ass.' Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Shot him in his head Four! Army commanders had advised the soldiers of Charlie Company that all who were found in the Son My area could be considered VC or active VC sympathizers, and ordered them to destroy the village. Since there were no roads, I was assigned as a squad leader on the 81mm mortars. [11][12][13][14] It was difficult to distinguish between civilians and military personnel in many instances as many individuals were part-time guerrillas or impressed laborers who did not wear uniforms. from Johns Hopkins and his MA and Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Including 28 civilians, originally there were 52 missing civilians. Dozens of South Vietnamese cities were caught by surprise. The 'shameful gamesmanship' practiced by 'certain reporting elements' under pressure to 'produce results' also shrouded the process. A notorious military operation called Speedy Express killed thousands of Vietnamese civilians in the Mekong Delta, earning the commander of the operation, Major General Julian Ewell, the nickname. Now injured several times over, Davis saw two American comrades seriously hurt, but across enemy lanes of fire. [69], There has been considerable controversy about the exact numbers of deaths inflicted on the Communist side by U.S. and allied South Vietnamese forces. [14], German historian Bernd Greiner mentions the following war crimes reported and/or investigated by the Peers Commission and the Vietnam War Crimes Working Group, among other sources:[43]. [1] A 1975 US Senate subcommittee estimated around 1.4 million civilian casualties in South Vietnam because of the war, including 415,000 deaths. Meanwhile, the United States, its military demoralized and its civilian electorate deeply divided, began a process of coming to terms with defeat in what had been its longest and most controversial war. The Massacre at My Lai, by Seymour Hersh. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, but his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, continued the work that Kennedy had started. Hugh Thompson, the helicopter pilot who stopped the My Lai massacre, later told the news program "60 Minutes" that he was ostracized and received death threats upon his return from Vietnam. He never landed, and I never kicked his ass," Davis said. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. It was just like any other Vietnamese villageold papa-sans [men], women and kids. The enemy by my count suffered at least 15,000 dead in the area.". Michael Bernhardt, a soldier at the scene, later told a reporter. In 1982 the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C., inscribed with the names of 57,939 members of U.S. armed forces who had died or were missing as a result of the war. From refugee camps in Southeast Asia, the great majority of boat people were resettled in more developed countries. 1, 2, 3, 4 United States Marine Coprs, On a run (on a run) Where: In Cholon, the Chinese section of Saigon, Vietnam. Cleveland Plain Dealer. Trong thng 2 va qua, ch s gi lng thc ca T chc Lng Nng Lin hp quc (FAO) l 129,8 im, gim nh so vi mc 130,6 im ghi nhn hi thng 1 v l ch s thp nht k t thng 9/2021. I could line the shot up perfectly vertically but had to guess horizontally. Viet Cong (VC) operatives detonated explosive charges causing the entire building to collapse. The relaxed atmosphere was suddenly shattered around 1 a.m. when the sounds of an explosion ripped through the base. We had no casualties. 20% of black males were combat soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines. By nearly every metric, the Vietnam War was, in the common sense of the word, a war. "Davis made it to the first soldier under a hail of enemy fire and was shot once again. Skip to main content Shop by category Shop by category Enter your search keyword Harper Perennial; September 1991. The human costs of the long conflict were harsh for all involved. 1) One of the more amazing stories to emerge from the eight-year secret war during the Vietnam War took place on October 5 . At the heart of the conflict was the desire of North Vietnam, which had defeated the French colonial administration of Vietnam in 1954, to unify the entire country under a single communist regime modeled after those of the Soviet Union and China. [73][74], Historian Christian Appy states "search and destroy was the principal tactic; and the enemy body count was the primary measure of progress" in the US strategy of attrition. Davis leads assault in the early morning at Bong Song, clearing an enemy headquarters hut. It was the first entire Army unit to deploy to Vietnam, although the men who got off the plane wore civilian clothes, a reflection of their secretive assignment. -More and more troops were sent to Veitnam, caused large amounts of anti war movments in the United States. One, Louder Kennedys expansion stemmed in part from Cold War-era fears about the domino theory: if communism took hold in Vietnam, it would topple democracies throughout the whole of Southeast Asia, it was thought. Among the victims were 182 women17 of them pregnantand 173 children, including 56 infants. (AP) Flag-draped coffins of eight American Servicemen killed in attacks on U.S. military installations in South Vietnam, on February 7, are placed in . "Davis was wounded leading the initial assault, but continued moving forward, personally engaging the enemy in hand-to-hand combat and killing several enemy soldiers," the Army said in a release. Number Two Son got it that same year, Charlie Company had lost some 28 of its members to death or injuries, and was down to just over 100 men. [52] According to a study conducted in 1968 by a Quaker-funded Vietnamese-speaking American couple, Diane and Michael Jones, there were at least 12 mass killings committed by South Korean forces that approached the scale of the My Lai Massacre, with reports of thousands of routine murders of civilians, primarily the elderly, women and children. He was quoted as saying, The General killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera. American troops tending to a casualty on Hill Timothy during an action against the Viet Cong, Vietnam War, April 1968. . [101], Agent Orange and similar chemical defoliants have also caused a considerable number of deaths and injuries over the years, including among the US Air Force crew that handled them. Davis, with his first name inspired by the ancients, alluded to Greek tragedy when explaining the resolution to his decades-long case. Chapter 17 index: "Communists provided further corroboration of the proximity of their casualty figures to American figures in a postwar disclosure of total losses from 1960 to 1975. Nine-year-old Kim Phuc had ripped off her burning . History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. At one point during the battle, Davis said he recalled a general observing the fight from a helicopter ordering him to leave before one of the wounded soldiers was flown out. 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. And I said, 'You know what, general, there's a lot of room down here.' "UCDP/Prio Armed Conflict Database", Uppsala University, sfn error: no target: CITEREFRummel1997 (. The Viet Cong (Vietnamese: Vit Cng; pronounced [vt kwm] ()) was an armed communist revolutionary organization in South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.Its military force, the Liberation Army of South Vietnam (LASV), fought under the direction of North Vietnam, against the South Vietnamese and United States governments during the Vietnam War, [25][30], 18.2 million gallons of Agent Orange, some of which was contaminated with Dioxin, was sprayed by the U.S. military over more than 10% of Southern Vietnam[31] as part of the U.S. herbicidal warfare program Operation Ranch Hand during the Vietnam War, from 1961 to 1971. The boat people's first destinations were the Southeast Asian locations of Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. In 1965 alone they comprised 14.1% of total combat deaths, when they only comprised approximately 11% of the total U.S. population in the same year. Our 9 best-selling history titles feature in-depth storytelling and iconic imagery to engage and inform on the people, the wars, and the events that shaped America and the world. Between that, a steadily intensifying Viet Cong insurgency, and economic hardships, South Vietnam seethed. Search and destroy was a term to describe operations aimed at flushing the Viet Cong out of hiding, while body count was the measuring stick for operation success and this resulted in exaggeration and listing civilian deaths as enemy KIA. [2], Guenter Lewy in 1978 estimated 1,353,000 total deaths in North and South Vietnam during the period 19651974 in which the U.S. was most engaged in the war. This totals, from a range of between 16,000 and 167,000 deaths caused by South Vietnam during the (Dim-era), and 42,000 and 118,000 deaths caused by South Vietnam in the post Dim-era), excluding PAVN forces killed by the ARVN in combat. [79], The total number of American personnel who were KIA or died non-hostile deaths, were enlisted personnel with a casualty number of 50,441. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. BBC News. Posted on May 7, 2013. troops. Civilian deaths were also caused by mortar and artillery, extensive aerial bombing and the use of firepower in military operations conducted in heavily populated areas. Pentagon statistics listed 39,000 and 61,000 PRG/DRV dead for the same time period.". Note: When you embed the widget in your site, it will match your site's styles (CSS). ", Picking up the story, he continued, "And although the men who were with him on that June day immediately nominated Captain Davis to receive the Medal of Honor, somehow the paper -- the paperwork was never processed, not just once, but twice. In 1965, already having served in Korea and Vietnam, Davis was told by his company commander he was destined for the treacherous Binh Dinh province. The soldier was one of more than 100 who were wounded during Viet Cong attacks on two U.S. military compounds at Pleiku, 240 miles north of Saigon. The coverup of the My Lai Massacre continued until Ron Ridenhour, a soldier in the 11th Brigade who had heard reports of the massacre but had not participated, began a campaign to bring the events to light. easy knit baby hat on two needles; cia medical disqualifications; 1 went to vietnam 2 killed the viet cong. The study came up with a most likely Vietnamese death toll of 882,000, which included 655,000 adult males (above 15 years of age), 143,000 adult females, and 84,000 children. PAVN and VC losses were reported as 1.1 million dead and civilian deaths of Vietnamese on both sides totaled 2.0 million. E6 while there. E5, a PFC driver, a Spec 4 assistant gunner, and myself, the gunner, then a Spec 4. Four, kicked a-lot ass An additional 232,000 military personnel were still missing as of 2017, a total of 1,081,000 dead and missing for the American War. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. [28][4] Higher estimates place the number of civilian deaths caused by American bombing of North Vietnam in Operation Rolling Thunder at 182,000. War and Conflict, The Vietnam War, pic: December 1967, Bu Dop, South Vietnam, American soldiers if the 1st US, Infantry Division carry away a wounded. The U.S. Constitution grants Congress sole authority to issue declarations of war. In addition to killing unarmed men, women and children, the soldiers slaughtered countless livestock, raped an unknown number of women, and burned the village to the ground. President Joe Biden is scheduled to award Davis with the Medal honor March 3, 2023. After writing letters to President Richard M. Nixon, the Pentagon, State Department, Joint Chiefs of Staff and several congressmenwith no responseRidenhour finally gave an interview to the investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, who broke the story in November 1969. US jobless claims climb for first time in 5 weeks, to 353,000. Rummel estimates 212,000 killed by Khmer Rouge (19671975), 60,000 killed by U.S. and 1,000 killed by South Vietnam (196773). They were: Lieutenant Bob Kerrey, Lieutenant Tom Norris, and EM2 Mike Thornton. The image of Lem's execution, and public reaction to it, played a small role in bringing the Vietnam War to an end. Per war: 191,605 deaths in the First Indochina War, 849,018 deaths in the Second Indochina War (Vietnam War), and 105,627 deaths in the Third Indochina War. Furthermore, domestic unrest and the financial cost of war made peaceand troop withdrawalsa necessity, not a choice. When he later read the official tally of dead, he found that it listed them as 130 VC killed. [50][51] South Korean Marines reportedly perpetrated the H My massacre on 25 February 1968. [64] According to the Vietnamese government, from 1994 to 2012, 172,460 PAVN/VC bodies were found, including 15,989 in Cambodia, and 14,549 in Laos, and around 10,000 bodies were found from 2012 to 2015, reducing the number of MIA from 390,000 (1993) to 207,000 (2016). ago. 250,000 were killed as a result of combat in South Vietnam and 65,000 were killed in North Vietnam. History remembers them as the last two American pilots to die in Vietnam, killed when their Marine Corps helicopter went into the South China Sea during the frantic . "I wish I could say that this story of Paris sacrifice on that day in 1965, was fully recognized and rewarded immediately," Biden said. Between October 1966 and June 1969, 246,000 soldiers were recruited through Project 100,000, of whom 41% were black; black people only made up about 11% of the population of the US. "The soldiers that you served with, the soldiers you were in the war with, become that Greek chorus. Two dash (two dash) The South Vietnamese government, on the other hand, fought to preserve a Vietnam more closely aligned with the West. The United States had provided funding, armaments, and training to South Vietnams government and military since Vietnams partition into the communist North and the democratic South in 1954. President Joe Biden presents the Medal of Honor to retired U.S. Army Colonel Paris Davis during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, March 3, 2023. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. The Heroes of My Lai. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. [65], According to the Vietnamese government's official history, the PAVN suffered over 100,000 casualties during the 1972 Easter Offensive, including 40,000 killed. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. 23 mins ago. They are rigorously trained for tactical missions that are often quite difficult and dangerous. The U.S. military reported 58,220 American casualties. Many black men who had previously been ineligible could now be drafted, along with many poor and racially intolerant white men from the southern states. Deaths in Cambodia and Laos were estimated at 273,000 and 62,000 respectively. I went through jump school at Fort Benning, Ga., and was sent to the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky. -Attack by VC and NVA. The above figures on missing and wounded were calculated using Hanoi's declared casualty ratios for the period of 1945 to 1979, during which time the Communists incurred 1.1 million killed, 300,000 missing, and 600,000 wounded. [46], The ROK Capital Division reportedly perpetrated the Bnh An/Ty Vinh massacre in February/March 1966. Jim Liles used his 106mm recoilless rifle to take out an enemy machine gun crew. Nick Turse, in his 2013 book, Kill Anything that Moves, argues that a relentless drive toward higher body counts, a widespread use of free-fire zones, rules of engagement where civilians who ran from soldiers or helicopters could be viewed as VC, and a widespread disdain for Vietnamese civilians led to massive civilian casualties and endemic war crimes inflicted by U.S.