1964 - 1975

Muhammad Afzal Hanif

BBA-2073122

12/14/2010

NATIONAL COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION & ECONOMICS

International Relations & Comparative Politics

Afzal Hanif

THE VEITNAM WAR

Vietnam WarIntroduction to The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a war fought between 1964 and 1975 on the ground in South Vietnam and bordering areas of Cambodia and Laos, and in bombing runs over North Vietnam.

Fighting on one side was a coalition of forces including the United States, the Republic of Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea.

Fighting on the other side was a coalition of forces including the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and the National Liberation Front, a communist-led South Vietnamese guerrilla movement.

The USSR provided military aid to the North Vietnamese and to the NLF, but was not one of the military combatants.

Vietnam War Summary

The Vietnam War was a war fought between 1964 and 1975 on the ground in South Vietnam and bordering areas of Cambodia and Laos, and in bombing runs over North Vietnam.

Fighting on one side was a coalition of forces including the United States, the Republic of Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea.

Fighting on the other side was a coalition of forces including the Democratic Republic of Vietnam

(North Vietnam) and the National Liberation Front, a communist-led South Vietnamese guerrilla movement.

The USSR provided military aid to the North Vietnamese and to the NLF, but was not one of the military combatants.

The war was part of a larger regional conflict involving the neighboring countries of Cambodia and Laos, known as the Second Indochina War. In Vietnam, this conflict is known as the American War (Vietnamese Chiên Tranh Chông My Cưu Nươc, which translates into English as "War Against the Americans and to Save the Nation").

In many ways the Vietnam War was a direct successor to the French Indochina War, which is sometimes referred to as the First Indochina War, when the French fought to maintain control of their colony in Indochina against an independence movement led by Communist Party leader Ho Chi Minh.

Citing progress in peace negotiations, On January 15, 1973 President Nixon ordered a suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam which was later followed by the unilateral withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam. The Paris Peace Accords were later signed on January 27, 1973 which officially ended US involvement in the Vietnam conflict.

The peace agreements signed at the Paris Peace Accords did not last for very long. In early 1975 the North invaded the South and quickly consolidated the country under its control. Saigon fell on April 30, 1975. North Vietnam united North and South Vietnam on July 2, 1976 to form the "Socialist Republic of Vietnam". Hundreds of supporters of the South Vietnamese government were executed, thousands more were imprisoned. Saigon was immediately re-named to "Ho Chi Minh City", in honor of the former president of North Vietnam. Communist rule continues in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to the present day.

Vietnam War History

The history of the Vietnam War goes deep into the past, but the modern era began with the defeat of the Japanese after World War II. The French attempted to reassert their pre-war colonial power in the region, backed by the U.S. but failed after a painful nine year struggle that ended with the Geneva Accords of 1956 and partition of the country. The peace of those accords was an illusion and soon

Communist forces backed by Ho Chi Minh's government in North Vietnam were at work attempting to undermine the regime in the South.

Ultimately the U.S. was drawn into a major commitment to the defense of South Vietnam, compelled to do so by the region's history and by the need to oppose further Communist gains in Asia. The escalation of the war on the ground in Vietnam, over adjacent borders, and with a major bombing campaign did not defeat the Communist forces but did suppress their efforts and gave the South Vietnamese time to build their own army and gain the ability to defend themselves. However, as the South Vietnamese successfully dealt with the internal Communist Viet Cong insurgency, North Vietnam increasingly took over conduct of the war as a conventional invasion by outside forces.

Ultimately, the U.S. withdrew under the pretext of a new agreement with North Vietnam signed in January 1973, forced to leave prematurely by political pressure on the home front that undermined U.S. ability to vigorously prosecute the war. North Vietnam had agreed not to increase its strength in the South, but in December 1974 North Vietnam invaded and the U.S. did not intervene. ARVN, the army of South Vietnam, initially fought hard but were overwhelmed. Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, fell in April 1975 allowing the Communists to control the entire country. Neighboring Cambodia and Laos fell to Communist forces in the same year.

Vietnam War Facts

While many aspects about the Vietnam War are debatable, the facts and figures of the war have a voice of their own and are indisputable.

On these pages we list some of the commonly accepted facts about the Vietnam War.

58,148 Americans were killed and 304,000 wounded out of 2.59 million who served.

The average age of those killed in Vietnam was 23.11 years.

50,274 were enlisted, average age 22.37.

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.

After Vietnam the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand managed to stay free of communism. The Indonesians expelled the Soviets in 1966.

During the Vietnam War the national debt increased by $146 billion (1967-1973). Adjusted for inflation, the debt in 1992 dollars was $500 billion.

6,598 were officers, average age 28.43.

91 percent of Vietnam veterans say they are glad they served.

74 percent said they would serve again even knowing the outcome.

1,276 were warrant officers (NCOs), average age 24.73 years.

11,465 were less than 20 years old.

From 1957 to 1973 the National Liberation Front assassinated 36,725 South Vietnamese and abducted 58,499. Death squads focused on leaders that included schoolteachers and minor officials.

The number of North Vietnamese killed was approximately 500,000 to 600,000. Casualties: 15 million.

One out of every 10 Americans who served in Vietnam was a casualty. Although the percentage 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.

The Tet '68 offensive was a major defeat for the VC and the NVA.

Two-thirds of the men who served in Vietnam were volunteers, two-thirds who served in World War II were draftees.

While many aspects about the Vietnam War are debatable, the facts and figures of the war have a voice of their own and are indisputable.

On these pages we list some of the commonly accepted facts about the Vietnam War.

8 nurses died-1 was killed in action.

Vietnam Veterans represented 9.7% of their generation.

The suicide rate of Vietnam veterans has always been well within the 1.7% norm of the general population.

Non-hostile deaths: 10,800

Missing in action: 2,338

Men under the age of 21 killed: 61%

3,403,100 (including 514,300 offshore) personnel served in the Southeast Asia Theater (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, flight crews based in Thailand, and sailors in adjacent South China sea waters).

240 men were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam era.

POWs: 766 (114 died in captivity).

Wounded in action: 303,704

7,484 American women served in Vietnam. 6,250 were nurses.

9,087,000 military personnel served on active duty during the official Vietnam era (Aug.5, 1964-May 7, 1975).

Hostile deaths: 47,378

Severely disabled: 75,000--23,214 100% disabled; 5,283 lost limbs; 1,081 sustained multiple amputations.

Married men killed: 17,539

Average age of men killed: 22.8 years.

Highest political office attained by a Vietnam veteran to date: Vice President Al Gore.

Most successful Vietnam veteran/businessman to date: Frederick Smith of Federal Express.

79% of the men who served in Vietnam had a high school education or better when they entered the military service.

While many aspects about the Vietnam War are debatable, the facts and figures of the war have a voice of their own and are indisputable.

On these pages we list some of the commonly accepted facts about the Vietnam War.

Five men killed in Vietnam were only 16 years old.

The oldest man killed was 62 years old.

11,465 KIAs were less than 20 years old.

Vietnam Veterans represent 9.7% of their generation

8,744,000 GIs were on active duty during the war (Aug. 5, 1964 – March 28, 1973)

2,594,000 personnel served within the borders of South Vietnam (Jan. 1, 1965 – March 28, 1973)

Another 50,000 men served in Vietnam between 1960 and 1964

Of the 2.6 million, between 1 – 1.6 million (40-60%) either fought in combat, provided close support or were at least fairly regularly exposed to enemy attack.

Peak troop strength in Vietnam: 543,482 (April 30, 1969)

Total draftees (1965-1973): 1,728,344

Draftees accounted for 30.4% (17,725) of combat deaths in Vietnam

National Guard: 6,140 served; 101 died

Last man drafted: June 30, 1973

97% of Vietnam veterans were honorably discharged

91% of actual Vietnam War era veterans and 90% of those who saw heavy combat are proud to have served their country

66% of Vietnam veterans say they would serve again if called upon

Vietnam War Myths

Here we attempt to address some of the most widely spread, yet inaccurate, myths about The Vietnam War. Please contact us if you would like to add information to this section.

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 serving in Vietnam to be 19 years old is a myth, it is actually 22.8. 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.

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 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.

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.

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)

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.

Myth:

Most Vietnam veterans were drafted.

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 were volunteers.

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.

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."

Myth:

A disproportionate number of blacks were killed in the Vietnam War.

86% of the men who died in Vietnam were Caucasians, 12.5% were black, 1.2% were 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."

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.

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:

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 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.

Vietnam War Battles

The Vietnam War was one of the fiercest wars in the history of the world. Hundreds of thousands died during the battles of the Vietnam War.

Here we list some of the most famous battles that played a significant part in the outcome of the Vietnam War.

Major Battles of the Vietnam War

Battle at the Hamlet of Ap Bac - January 2, 1963

Siege of Khe Sanh - January 21, 1968

Tet Offensive - January 30

First Battle of Saigon - March 7, 1968

Eastertide Offensive - March 30, 1972

Fall of Saigon - April 29, 1975

Major Operations of the Vietnam War

Operation Chopper - January 12, 1962

Operation Ranch Hand - January 1962

Operation Rolling Thunder - February 24, 1965

Operation Starlight - August 17, 1965

Operation Crimp - January 8, 1966

Operation Birmingham - April 1966

Operation Hastings - Late May 1966

Operation Attleboro - September 2, 1966

Operation Deckhouse Five - January 6, 1967

Operation Cedar Falls - January 8, 1967

Operation Junction City - February 21, 1967

Operation Niagara - January 5, 1968

Operation Pegasus - August 8, 1968

Operation Menu - February 1969

Operation Lam Son 719 - February 8, 1971

Operation Linebacker - April 6, 1972

Vietnam War Figures

Here is a list of the major figures of the Vietnam War from the United States, North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and Cambodia.

United States

Dean Acheson

Spiro Agnew

Ellsworth Bunker

William Calley

Jimmy Carter

Clark Clifford

A. Peter Dewey

John Foster Dulles

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Daniel Ellsberg

Gerald Ford

Barry Goldwater

Alexander Haig

Hubert H. Humphrey

Lyndon Johnson

John F. Kennedy

Henry Kissinger

Melvin Laird

Mike Mansfield

Graham Martin

Robert McNamara

Richard Nixon

Pete Peterson

Ronald Reagan

Dean Rusk

William Westmoreland

Cambodia

Lon Nol

Pol Pot

Norodom Sihanouk

North Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh

Le Duan

Tran Van Tra

Le Duc Tho

Pham Van Dong

General Giap

South Vietnam

Bao Dai

Duong Van Minh

Ngo Dinh Diem

Ngo Dinh Nhu

Nguyen Cao Ky

Nguyen Khanh

Nguyen Van Thieu

Vietnam War Protests

Many 1960s antiwar activists came to believe that the Vietnam war was not a mistake but a deliberate attempt by a loosely-knit but powerful coalition that controlled the U.S. to retain a small but highly-regarded part of its empire, fueled by Cold War ideology.

It followed, then, that the real cause of the Kent State shootings had been the desire of the Nixon administration to suppress domestic objections to its

Viet Nam policy so that it could have more of a chance of successfully retaining Viet Nam for the capitalist world.

Many in the antiwar and May 4th movements drew such conclusions; others did not. The antiwar movement of the 1960s was a broad and diverse coalition and many in it could agree that the war in Viet Nam was illegal and immoral without seeing it as a struggle to save Viet Nam for the capitalist world.

For seven years after the Kent State shootings, many liberals, for instance, struggled for accountability for the deaths and injuries of 1970, not because of the economic and political ramifications of the event perceived by radicals, but from a deep sense that human rights on that occasion had been denied.

Liberals and radicals came together in the May 4th Movement, and more particularly in the May 4th Coalition during the gym struggle of 1977, as they had during the 1960s to end the Viet Nam war. They shared the belief that there must be accountability for 1970 and that the May 4th site ought to remain intact as a historical reminder and as human memorial.

The small group of people which began the struggle against annex construction constituted a "critical mass" which organized and mobilized support to preserve the May 4th site. Different people had different reasons for joining both the critical mass and the Coalition, however. These reasons ranged from the broadly liberal belief that Kent State 1970 had been a tragedy and that the dead and injured should be memorialized to the radical belief that Kent State had been an example of suppression of opposition to imperialism.

A good many radicals hoped that in the course of the struggle to save the site, the public would gradually see the ramifications of Viet Nam and Kent State for American society and would become ready both to accept and participate in radical action.

There were also those apolitical and countercultural people primarily interested in anarchism and environ-mentalism who were opposed to the annex location because the site was beautiful and/or because the unresponsiveness of the Trustees symbolized for them the hierarchical and unaccountable nature of contemporary American

society, though political Coalition members and no anarchists also shared such concerns.

Such varied attitudes toward Coalition goals were bound to affect the strategy and tactics of the "critical mass" as it tried to mobilize mass support for annex relocation.

The struggle that developed within the Coalition between moderates and militants was in part a disagreement over the tactics most appropriate for the mobilization of mass support and in part a struggle based on different goals. Until July 12, such differences presented no major problems for the Coalition, even the marathon arrest debate ending in a display of unity. Once removed from its physical and community base at Tent City, however, the Coalition was bound to encounter more trouble holding itself together.

This problem was only exacerbated by the rise of the Coalition's Maoist bloc, the evident refusal of the public to be influenced by the calls from the White House, some politicians and the media for compromise, and by the sheer stubbornness of the Board of Trustees. (The degree of official response to the Coalition may have made the public wonder why the group increasingly proclaimed the existence of a closed system.)

If the Coalition had only had to grapple with the problem of convincing the liberal community of the justice of its case, the gym struggle of 1977 might well have ended with annex relocation. But the Coalition was confronted with apathy and often hostility in the public which it lacked the means to overcome during the controversy.

Neither the antiwar movement nor the "May 4th Movement," the most important component of which was the May 4th Coalition of 1977, was successful in gaining public acceptance of radical interpretations of the Viet Nam war or May 4, 1970. The antiwar movement did succeed in gaining a public support for a liberal interpretation of the war, however, a feat which the more narrowly-based Coalition was unable to match.

Certainly if the Coalition was not going to persuade the public that the Kent State shootings needed to be memorialized by saving the site--even with the help of the media--it was not going to succeed even to the extent that the antiwar movement had. Yet the success of the antiwar movement on only a liberal level caused part of the Coalition's problems, just as the attempts of many of the leaders of 1977 to operate only on a radical level created serious difficulties for the Coalition.

The very traditions and intelligence that told the antiwar movement and some people in the May 4th Coalition at what levels they should speak to be comprehensible to the public worked against any basic emphases on radical analyses. The more these groups were able to communicate the existence of certain problems in comprehensible, everyday terms, the less likely it became that fundamental, thus-far largely alien and incomprehensible explanations would emerge.

The very willingness of a number of influential liberals within the political, academic, and journalistic communities to respond, for instance, to the issue of the annex site in 1977, whether it was presented by Coalition moderates or militants, discouraged the acceptance of radical arguments made by the Coalition as a whole that the site decision was the result of a plot engineered by a closed, conspiracy-prone system to suppress memories and insult the dead.

Media figures, liberal academics, and some politicians had gained enough perspective on the Viet Nam era by 1977 to have some sympathy with the Coalition's position. It was the public that seemed unwilling to grapple with the issues of the Viet Nam war and Kent State 1970/1977. The three mechanisms by which public sentiment could be gauged--letters to editors, letters to legislators and polls--showed a consistent majority arrayed against the Coalition.

The hostility became more obvious as the summer progressed, options narrowed and the Coalition moved left. Much of the public apparently felt threatened by the activities of the Coalition and also by the prospect of revival of painful and alien history which it wished to ignore or forget.

So as the public exercised its informal vote by pressure to leave the annex where it was, legislature and government seem to have decided that it would be too risky to try to circumvent the expressed will of the Trustees, and the Board got its annex where it wanted it. One could call this outcome an exercise in democracy, if the use of that term did not presuppose independent thought and evaluation as the necessary grounding for votes.

In 1977, the May 4th Coalition took advantage of the contradictions it encountered--the sympathy of liberals, the media, academicians, politicians and judicial figures--to successfully delay for almost two and a half months the onset of construction. The Coalition succeeded in these delaying tactics without being heard seriously by the public, however.

Nor was the Coalition able to wage the sort of successful war of position that would have gained public acceptance of the radical view of both the Viet Nam war and Kent State 1970, partly because the public only agreed with the liberal interpretation of the Vietnam War (and largely disagreed with the liberal interpretation of 1970) and partly because the common ground on which Coalition leaders and sympathetic liberals approached the public on the annex question was too superficial to lend itself to some kind of ideological breakthrough.

The May 4th Coalition lost its battle to preserve the site of the Guard-student confrontation at Kent State of May 4, 1970, essentially because it failed to make itself an efficient enough critical mass to engineer a successful challenge of culturally-dominant assumptions and assertions about what the Viet Nam war, the antiwar movement and Kent State meant to the nation.

The group made a considerable effort to accomplish this, however, and a remarkable number of influential Americans responded to it on some level, even if the public at large did not. The Coalition needed to create a sympathetic counterculture to win its battle; the efforts to create one after 1970 and during the Tent City phase of the gym struggle were too small-scale to help in the end.

The Coalition did bring back before the public the issues of Viet Nam and Kent State 1970--even if that public failed to respond to the issues. It set an example of activism in the midst of the apathetic 1970s.

The publicity it helped to generate for the uncompleted story of Kent State may well have influenced the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in its decision to order a new trial for Kraus v. Rhodes--one which ended in an out-of-court settlement in 1979, at least providing the May 4th families with compensation and an apology from the state.

The energy and commitment of the Coalition's legal collective set an example for the May 4th Movement, even if its words and behaviors were often contradictory. And the experience gained during the course of the gym struggle by the more thoughtful men and women of the May 4th Coalition was bound to guide them later in other, broader struggles for social justice and change.

Vietnam War Prisoners

2,079 Americans are still missing and unaccounted for from the Vietnam War, though 468 were at sea/over water losses: Vietnam - 1,552 (North, 564; South, 986); Laos - 446 Cambodia - 75; Peoples Republic of China territorial waters -

8. The United States seeks the return of all US prisoners, the fullest possible accounting for those still missing and repatriation of all recoverable remains.

The United States's highest priority is resolving the live prisoner question. fficial intelligence indicates that Americans known to have been alive in captivity in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia were not returned at the end of the war. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, it must be assumed that these Americans may still be alive. As a matter of policy, the US Government does not rule out the possibility that American POWs could still be held.

Unilateral return of remains by the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) has been proven the most effective means of obtaining accountability. Extensive field activities have brought some progress through joint recovery or turnover in the field of remains fragments. From that process, 138 Americans have thus far accounted for by the Clinton Administration, all as a result of joint field operations..

Archival research in Vietnam has produced thousands of items, documents and photos, but the vast majority pertain to accounted-for Americans. A comprehensive wartime and postwar process existed in Vietnam to collect and retain information and remains. For this reason, unilateral SRV efforts to locate and return remains and provide records offer the most productive short term potential. The Defense Department's case-by-case review and other evidence reveal that unilateral SRV efforts could bring many answers.

Joint field activities in Laos are productive and, increasingly, the Lao Government has permitted greater flexibility while US teams are in-country. Agreements between the US and the Indochina governments now permit Vietnamese witnesses to participate in joint operations in Laos and Cambodia when necessary. POW/MIA research and field activities in Cambodia have received excellent support.

Over 80% of US losses in Laos and 90% of those in Cambodia occurred in areas where Vietnamese forces operated during the war; however, Vietnam has not yet responded to numerous US requests for case-specific records on US loss incidents in these countries. Records research and field operations are the most likely means of increasing the accounting for Americans missing in Laos and Cambodia.

Despite US intelligence assessments and other evidence that hundreds of Americans can best be accounted for by unilateral Vietnamese efforts to locate and return remains and provide relevant documents and records, President Clinton lifted the trade embargo, established a US Embassy in Hanoi, normalized relations, posted a US Ambassador to Vietnam and, recently, determined, without supporting evidence, that Vietnam is "fully cooperating in good faith" to resolve this issue.

The burden is squarely on the current administration to obtain increased accountability. The United States supports steps by the US to respond to concrete results, not advancing political and economic concessions in the hope that Hanoi will respond.

At the end of the Vietnam War, there were 2,583 unaccounted for American prisoners, missing in action or killed in action/body not recovered. As of October 1, 1998, 2,079 Americans are still missing and unaccounted for, over 90% of whom were lost in Vietnam or in areas of Laos and Cambodia where Vietnamese forces operated during the war.

Vietnam War Casualties

Estimating the number killed in the conflict is extremely difficult. Official records are hard to find or nonexistent and many of those killed were literally blasted to pieces by bombing. For many years the North Vietnamese suppressed the true number of their casualties for propaganda purposes. It is also difficult to say exactly what counts as a "Vietnam war casualty"; people are still being killed today by unexploded ordinance, particularly cluster bomblets. Environmental effects from chemical agents and the colossal social problems caused by a devastated country with so many dead surely caused many more lives to be shortened. In addition, the Khmer Rouge would probably not have come into power and committed their slaughters without the destabilization of the war, particularly of the American bombing campaigns to 'clear out the sanctuaries' in Cambodia.

The lowest casualty estimates, based on the now-renounced North Vietnamese statements, are around 1.5 million Vietnamese killed. Vietnam

released figures on April 3, 1995 that a total of one million Vietnamese combatants and four million civilians were killed in the war. The accuracy of these figures has generally not been challenged. 58,226 American soldiers also died in the war or are missing in action. Australia lost almost 500 of the 47,000 troops they had deployed to Vietnam and New Zealand lost 38 soldiers.

In the aftermath of the war many Americans came to believe that some of the 2,300 American soldiers listed as "Missing in Action" had in fact been taken prisoner by the DRV and held indefinitely. "Missing in Action" is a term applied to missing soldiers whose status cannot be determined through eyewitness accounts of their death, or a body. While little credible evidence has been shown for this, images of tortured, emaciated prisoners of war (notably in the sequel to Rambo) continue to evoke anger among many Americans. The Vietnamese list over 200,000 of their own soldiers missing in Action, and MIA soldiers from World War I and II continue to be unearthed in Europe.

Both during and after the war, significant human rights violations occurred. Both North and South Vietnamese had large numbers of political prisoners, many of whom were killed or tortured. In 1970, two American congressmen visiting South Vietnam discovered the existence of "tiger cages", which were small prison cells used for torturing South Vietnamese political prisoners. After the war, actions taken by the victors in Vietnam, including firing squads, torture, concentration camps and "re-education," led to the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese. Many of these refugees fled by boat and thus gave rise to the phrase "boat people." They emigrated to Hong Kong, France, the United States, Canada, and other countries.

Many effects of the animosity and ill will generated during the Vietnam War are still felt today among those who lived through this turbulent time in American and Indochinese history.

American involvement in the war was a gradual process, as its military involvement increased over the years under successive U.S. presidents, both Democrat and Republican (including Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon), despite warnings by the American military leadership against a major ground war in Asia. There was never a formal declaration of war but there were a series of presidential decisions that increased the number of "military advisers" to the region. One of the first occurred on July 27, 1964 when 5,000 additional American military

advisers were ordered sent to South Vietnam which brought the total number of US forces in Vietnam to 21,000.

Then on August 4, 1964 American destroyers USS Maddox and USS C. Turner Joy were attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin. Air support from the carrier USS Ticonderoga sinks two, possibly three North Vietnamese gunboats. The event was labeled the "Gulf of Tonkin incident" by reporters and the next day Operation Pierce Arrow was launched in retaliation; aircraft from the USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation bombed North Vietnam.

Vietnam War Memorial

Located in Washington, DC, The Vietnam Veterans Memorial recognizes and honors the men and women who served in one of America's most divisive wars. The memorial grew out of a need to heal the nation's wounds as America struggled to reconcile different moral and political points of view.

In fact, the memorial was conceived and designed to make no political statement whatsoever about the war. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a place where everyone, regardless of opinion, can come together and remember and honor those who served. By doing so, the memorial has paved the way towards reconciliation and healing, a process that continues today.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial accomplishes these goals through the three components that comprise the memorial: the Wall of names, the Three Servicemen Statue and Flagpole, and the Vietnam Women's Memorial.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial serves as a testament to the sacrifice of American military personnel during one of this nation's least popular wars. The purpose of the memorial is to separate the issue of the sacrifices of the veterans from the U.S. policy in the war, thereby creating a venue for reconciliation.

The Wall

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial consists of three main elements. The Wall, the first part of the memorial to be erected, was dedicated November 13, 1982. Today 58,226 names are inscribed on the wall. The wall includes the names of deceased and missing. The goal of

the memorial was to allow all people to reflect on the price of war and to honor those who served.

The Three Serviceman Statue

The Three Servicemen Statue at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial captures a full range of emotions. Taken as a whole, the statue symbolizes the spirit of compromise and reconciliation. Like the Vietnam War itself, the controversy over the creation of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial divided America while inflicting deep wounds among the veterans.

Vietnam Women's Memorial

When Diane Carlson Evans, a former army nurse in Vietnam, first saw the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, she felt something was missing. Her efforts to highlight the service of women in Vietnam were rewarded on November 11, 1993, when the Vietnam Women's Memorial was dedicated.

The sculpture, designed by T exas native Glenna Goodacre, depicts three uniformed women with a wounded soldier. While one nurse comforts the soldier, another kneels in thought or prayer. The third looks to the skies - for help from a medevac helicopter, or perhaps from a higher power. Goodacre left the interpretation open so that people could read into it whatever they wished.