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"No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War.
It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now. Rarely have so many
people been so wrong about so much. Never have the consequences of their
misunderstanding been so tragic." [Nixon]
The Vietnam War has been the subject of thousands of newspaper and
magazine articles, hundreds of books, and scores of movies and television
documentaries. The great majority of these efforts have erroneously
portrayed many myths about the Vietnam War as being facts. [Nixon]
Myth: Most American soldiers were addicted to drugs, guilt-ridden about
their role in the war, and deliberately used cruel and inhumane tactics.
The facts are:
91 percent of Vietnam
Veterans say they are glad they served [Westmoreland]
74 percent said they would serve again even knowing the outcome
[Westmoreland]
There is no difference in drug usage between Vietnam Veterans and non
veterans of the same age group (from a Veterans Administration study)
[Westmoreland]
Isolated atrocities committed by American soldiers produced torrents of
outrage from antiwar critics and the news media while Communist atrocities
were so common that they received hardly any attention 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. 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 South Vietnamese and
abducted another 58,499. The death squads focused on leaders at the
village level and on anyone who improved the lives of the peasants such as
medical personnel, social workers, and school teachers. [Nixon]
Vietnam Veterans are less likely to be in prison - only one-half of one
percent of Vietnam Veterans have been jailed for crimes. [Westmoreland]
97 percent were discharged under honorable conditions; the same percentage
of honorable discharges as ten years prior to Vietnam [Westmoreland]
85 percent of Vietnam Veterans made a successful transition to civilian
life. [McCaffrey]
Vietnam veterans' personal income exceeds that of our non-veteran age
group by more than 18 percent. [McCaffrey]
Vietnam veterans have a lower unemployment rate than our non-vet age
group. [McCaffrey]
87 percent of the American people hold Vietnam Vets in high esteem.
[McCaffrey]
Myth: Most Vietnam veterans were drafted.
Two-thirds of the men who served in Vietnam were volunteers. Two-thirds of
the men who served in World War II were drafted. [Westmoreland]
Approximately 70 percent
of those killed were volunteers. [McCaffrey]
Myth: Media reports say suicides among Vietnam vets range from 50,000 -
100,000: 6-11 times the non-Vietnam veteran population.
Mortality studies show that 9,000 is a better estimate. "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." [Houk]
Myth: A disproportionate number of blacks were killed in the Vietnam
War.
86 percent of the men who died in Vietnam were Caucasians, 12.5 percent
were black, 1.2 percent were other races. (CACF and Westmoreland)
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." [All That We Can Be]
Myth: The war was fought largely by the poor and uneducated.
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. 79percent had a high school education or
better. [McCaffrey]
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) [CACF]
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
Five men killed in Vietnam were only 16 years old. [CACF]
The oldest man killed was 62 years old. [CACF]
11,465 KIAs were less than 20 years old. [CACF]
Myth: The average age of an infantryman fighting in Vietnam was 19.
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. [CACF] The average man who fought in World
War II was 26 years of age. [Westmoreland]
Myth: The domino theory was proved false.
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 which is south of Singapore
and of great strategic importance to the free world. If you ask people who
live in these countries who won the war in Vietnam, they have a different
opinion from the American news media. The Vietnam War was the turning
point for Communism. [Westmoreland]
Democracy Catching On - In the wake of the Cold War, democracies are
flourishing, with 179 of the world's 192 sovereign states (93 percent) now
electing their legislators, according to the Geneva-based
Inter-Parliamentary Union. In the last decade, 69 nations have held
multi-party elections for the first time in their histories. Three of the
five newest democracies are former Soviet republics: Belarus (where
elections were first held in November 1995), Armenia (July 1995) and
Kyrgyzstan (February 1995). And two are in Africa: Tanzania (October 1995)
and Guinea (June 1995). [Parade Magazine]
Myth: The fighting in Vietnam was not as intense as in World War II.
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. 58,169
were killed and 304,000 wounded out of 2.59 million who served. Although
the percent who 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. [McCaffrey]
MEDEVAC helicopters flew nearly 500,000 missions. Over 900,000 patients
were airlifted (nearly half 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.
[VHPA 1993]
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)
[Westmoreland]
Myth: The United States lost the war in Vietnam.
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. (Westmoreland quoting Douglas
Pike, a professor at the University of California, Berkley a renowned
expert on the Vietnam War) [Westmoreland] This included Tet 68, which was
a major military defeat for the VC and NVA.
Myth: Air America, the airline operated by the CIA in Southeast Asia,
and its pilots were involved in drug trafficking.
The 1990 unsuccessful movie "Air America" helped to establish the myth of
a connection between Air America, the CIA, and the Laotian drug trade. The
movie and a book the movie was based on contend that the CIA condoned a
drug trade conducted by a Laotian client; both agree that Air America
provided the essential transportation for the trade; and both view the
pilots with sympathetic understanding. American-owned airlines never
knowingly transported opium in or out of Laos, nor did their American
pilots ever profit from its transport. Yet undoubtedly every plane in Laos
carried opium at some time, unknown to the pilot and his superiors. For
more information see the Air America Home Page.
Myth: The U.S. military was running for their lives during the fall of
Saigon in April 1975.
The picture of a Huey helicopter evacuating people from the top of what
was billed as being the U.S. Embassy in Saigon during the last week of
April 1975 during the fall of Saigon helped to establish this myth.
This famous picture is the property of Corbus-Bettman Archives. It was
originally a UPI photograph that was taken by an Englishman, Mr. Hugh Van
Ess.
Here are some facts to clear up that poor job of reporting by the news
media.
Facts about the fall of Saigon
It was a "civilian" (Air America) Huey not Army or Marines.
It was NOT the U.S. Embassy. The building is the Pittman Apartments. The
U.S. Embassy and its helipad were much larger.
The evacuees were Vietnamese not American military.
The person that can be seen aiding the refugees is Mr. O.B. Harnage. He
was a CIA case officer and now retired in Arizona.
Another famous picture:
Myth: Kim Phuc, the little nine year old Vietnamese girl running naked
from the napalm strike near Trang Bang on 8 June 1972, was burned by
Americans bombing Trang Bang. No American had a direct 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. 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. The few Americans involved were in an advisory
capacity only. "We (Americans) had nothing to do with controlling VNAF,"
according to Lieutenant General (Ret) James F. Hollingsworth, the
Commanding General of TRAC. 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.
Facts about the end of the war:
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. 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. [1996 Information Please Almanac]
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. [1996 Information Please Almanac]
There were almost twice as many casualties in Southeast Asia (primarily
Cambodia) the first two years after the fall of Saigon in 1975 then there
were during the ten years the U.S. was involved in Vietnam. [1996
Information Please Almanac]
THE UNITED STATES DID NOT LOSE THE WAR IN VIETNAM!
POW-MIA Issue (unaccounted-for versus missing in action)
Politics & People, On Vietnam, Clinton Should Follow a Hero's Advice, Sen.
John Kerrey is quoted as saying about Vietnam, there has been "the most
extensive accounting in the history of human warfare" of those missing in
action. While there are still officially more than 2,200 cases, there now
are only 55 incidents of American servicemen who were last seen alive but
aren't accounted for. By contrast, there still are 78,000 unaccounted-for
Americans from World War II and 8,100 from the Korean conflict. "The
problem is that those who think the Vietnamese haven't cooperated
sufficiently think there is some central repository with answers to all
the lingering questions," notes Gen. John Vessey, the former chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Reagan and Bush administration's
designated representative in MIA negotiations. "In all the years we've
been working on this we have found that's not the case." [The Wall Street
Journal]
More realities about war:
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) - it was not invented or unique to
Vietnam Veterans. It was called "shell shock" and other names in previous
wars. It also can be caused by an automobile accident or other traumatic
event. It does not have to be war related. The Vietnam War helped medical
progress in this area.
Agent Orange - other wars had similar problems. Atomic radiation in World
War II and mustard gas in World War I. Even Desert Storm has a similar
problem.
Atrocities - every war has atrocities. War is brutal and not fair.
Innocent people get killed.
Restraining the military in Vietnam in hind sight probably prevented a
nuclear war with China or Russia. The Vietnam War was shortly after China
got involved in the Korean war, the time of the Cuban missile crisis,
Soviet aggression in Eastern Europe and the proliferation of nuclear
bombs. In all, a very scary time for our country.
SOURCES:
[Nixon] No More Vietnams by Richard Nixon
[Parade Magazine] August 18, 1996 page 10.
[CACF] (Combat Area Casualty File) November 1993. (The CACF is the basis
for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, i.e. The Wall), Center for Electronic
Records, Na That We Can Be] All That We Can Be by Charles C. Moskos and
John Sibley Butler
[Westmoreland] Speech by General William C. Westmoreland before the Third
Annual Reunion of the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association (VHPA) at the
Washington, DC Hilton Hotel on July 5th, 1986 (reproduced in a Vietnam
Helicopter Pilots Association Historical Reference Directory Volume 2A)
[McCaffrey] Speech by Lt. Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, (reproduced in the
Pentagram, June 4, 1993) assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, to Vietnam veterans and visitors gathered at "The Wall," Memorial
Day 1993.
[Houk] Testimony by Dr. Houk, Oversight on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,
14 July 1988 page 17, Hearing before the Committee on Veterans' Affairs
United States Senate one hundredth Congress second session. Also
"Estimating the Number of Suicides Among Vietnam Veterans" (Am J
Psychiatry 147, 6 June 1990 pages 772-776)
[The Wall Street Journal] The Wall Street Journal, 1 June 1996 page A15.
[VHPA 1993] Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association 1993 Membership
Directory page 130.
[VHPA Databases] Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association Databases.
[1996 Information Please Almanac] 1995 Information Please Almanac Atlas &
Yearbook 49th edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston & New York 1996,
pages 117, 161 and 292.
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THANKS TO:
Gary Roush
242 ASHC Muleskinners |
