WebAssuming 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 I knew nothing about the culture, nothing about the religion, nothing about the village community. From a military standpoint, it was almost an unprecedented performance. The ten percent of the draft-age generation that ended up serving in Vietnam consisted of three groups of relatively equal size. [CACF]. He was a tough, determined guy, said David Yuzuk, who befriended Flaherty more than two decades after the war ended, when both were living in Aventura, Florida, a planned community in the suburbs north of Miami. As American soldiers grew more frustrated with the war and how it was being conducted, some began to take out their frustrations on officers. For example, enemy forces buried land mines and set booby traps throughout the countryside of South Vietnam. ." [McCaffrey]. (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. There are 23,300 troops in Vietnam. In the following passage from his book A Rumor of War, former Marine Philip Caputo describes the emotional toll these hidden explosive devices took on the troops: The foot soldier has a special feeling for the ground. With regards the first table, original studies and sources should be consulted for details on methodology and the exact populations measured, surveyed, or considered.With regards the second table, these estimated figures for said countries and In the last decade, 69 nations have held multi-party elections for the first time in their histories. According to newspaper files, her grandparents operated a restaurant in Milton. Since then, the contribution of American military dogs has been recognized in several books and documentary films. A government agency called the Selective Service collected the names of all American men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-six. 10 Months later, U.S. military leaders abandon the base. As of 1967, eighty percent of the American troops had a high school education or less, and only six percent had completed four years of college. Many soldiers used them to escape from the boredom of their daily lives or to rebel against military authority. 22 Feb. 2023 . Enrolling in college. They spent long periods of time searching the countryside without ever finding Viet Cong or NVA forces. In the early years of the war, some U.S. soldiers expected the South Vietnamese people to greet them as heroes. Retrieved February 22, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/american-soldier-vietnam. . At the height of the war there were approximately 500,000 US Marines, soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Coast 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. Putting people in that situation changes them. he said. [VHPA databases]. Another problem associated with the decline in morale of U.S. soldiers was increased drug use. "The Marines provided them with a guaranteed annual income, free medical care, free clothing, and something else, less tangible but just as valuableself-respect," former U.S. Marine Philip Caputo explains in A Rumor of War. He's dead. The hard drugs American soldiers used in Vietnam were much more powerful and addictive than the versions available in the United States. "Almost as Flaherty took Yuzuk to a storage locker he rented to pull out photos and documents that might be useful in the documentary, and they returned several times in the following weeks until May 9, 2015 the date Flaherty was struck and killed by a hit and run driver near his palm-shaded campsite. "Perhaps the best single image with which to synthesize [combine While his allies came, fought, and left, the ARVN soldier had to live with his In the rice paddies, the U.S. soldiers often slogged through water and mud that came up to their waists. "Looking at your watch, counting the days, marking off the days you have left in Vietnam on a little calendar drawn on your helmet," veteran Tim O'Brien remembered of his time on combat patrol. 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." "Black and White," we were called. The South Vietnamese people were very poor, and they suffered great hardships during the war. In addition, wealthy young men could obtain deferments for physical problems more easily than poor or working-class men. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. The northern section, which was led by a Communist government under Ho Chi Minh, was officially known as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, but was usually called North Vietnam. One-third were volunteers who had chosen to join the military. In the early 1970s, the American public was shocked by a series of news reports about atrocities (acts of extreme cruelty or brutality) committed by U.S. soldiers in Vietnam. The final third enlisted because they expected to be drafted soon. troop numbers peaked in 1968 with President Johnson approving an increased maximum number of U.S. troops in Vietnam at 549,500. (the herbicide was called "orange" in Vietnam, not Agent Orange. 17. They also had to deal with swarms of mosquitoes. Nearly one-in-seven active-duty members were in the Middle East and North Africa (13%) and 3% were in sub WebThe average age of American troops in Vietnam was nineteen, compared to an average age of twenty-six for U.S. soldiers in World War II (193945). For example, the weather in Vietnam tended to be very hot and humid. An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the e-mail address listed on your account. As a result, African Americans made up twenty-five percent of the U.S. soldiers killed in Vietnam during 1965 and 1966. They were Kim's cousins not her brothers. Dan Bullock (1953-1969) Dan Bullock was the youngest member of the United States Armed Services to die in the Vietnam War. killed or wounded by a booby trap. We won't share it with anyone else. story building where the CIA station chief and many of his officers lived, located at 22 Ly Tu Trong St. During most of the Vietnam War, nineteen-year-olds were not even allowed to vote. It just sort of mounts. [1996 Information Please Almanac] 1995 Information Please Almanac Atlas & Yearbook 49th edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston & New York 1996, pages 117, 161 and 292. Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password. ", In addition, men from poor families tended to have fewer job options in civilian [non-military] society. Many people criticized the government policies that selected mainly young, uneducated men from the nation's less-affluent families to serve in Vietnam. "The military mission became to inflict casualties and the primary reason for existence became to minimize your own casualties. With regards the first table, original studies and sources should be consulted for details on methodology and the exact populations measured, surveyed, or considered.With regards the second table, these estimated figures for said countries and 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. Of the 58,256 Americans listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Dude. This guy, Sergeant James Conner, was 53. The other Marines called him The Leprechaun (never to his face), because he was Irish and because By April 1968, Flaherty was a paratrooper and a platoon leader with the 101st Airborne Division. But the term was later used in reference to any deliberate act of violence toward a higher-ranking person. In some cases, African American soldiers intentionally segregated themselves from the rest of their unit. Today, interviews with vets give Not in my platoon," veteran Steve Harper noted in No Victory Parades. American involvement in February 1973. No matter where in Vietnam these American units patrolled, the landscape made travel difficult. You have permission to edit this article. Myth: Most Vietnam veterans were drafted. Very few U.S. soldiers came from upper-class families. After all, such attacks gave American military leaders information about the size and location of NVA troops. It was called "shell shock" and other names in previous wars. 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], Approximately 12,000 helicopters saw action in Vietnam (all services). Encyclopedias almanacs transcripts and maps. Unfortunately, the poor treatment the South Vietnamese people received from some American soldiers led to greater support for the Viet Cong and NVA. [VHPA 1993] Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association 1993 Membership Directory page 130. Most awards are earned, not won. Just a suggestion. This is Audie Murphy. Murphy earned every single award the United States could give including t Shortest US soldier in Vietnam War was not short in courage. More than fifty-eight thousand American soldiers and an estimated two million Vietnamese soldiers and civilians were killed in the Vietnam War (1954, Westmoreland, William C. If you forget it, you'll be able to recover it using your email address. "Why didn't they get behind us? Although the percent who died is similar to other wars, amputations or crippling wounds were 300 percent higher than in World War II. American soldiers knew that the war was unpopular at home. Low 54F. Nguyen Cao Ky, Vo Nguyen Giap From 1957 to 1973, the National Liberation Front assassinated 36,725 South Vietnamese and abducted another 58,499. The pilots who were flying this helicopter, WebA weighted average gives us a figure of 22.96 (Standard Deviation: 5.85) which is pretty close to the linked information above from the CACF. Another words a US Soldier who did 3 tours actually He returned to Southeast Asia in 1969 and remained there until 1971 when he left the Army. A free weekly newsletter with expert sports betting insight and analysis. Shortest US soldier in Vietnam War was not short in courage "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. Nguyen Van Thieu An interesting detail I came across years and years ago: average height of French male was significantly shorter after WWI then before. Perhaps not Approximately 25% were draftees. He also weighed less than 100 pounds, further disqualifying him from serving in the Army. [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. Richard Flaherty returned from war and studied at the University of Miami in Florida. You love the musty morning air. But many other American soldiers conducted themselves honorably throughout their time in Vietnam. "Ethical confusion is the only word that I can use. Soviet Union. With each step, each light-year of a second, a foot soldier is always almost dead, or so it feels, and in such circumstances you can't help but love. New York: Free Press, 1974. 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. A friend of his from high school told me he had fond memories of watching Richard breaking boards with his hands when he walked past the Flahertys garage. (The CACF is the basis for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, i.e. The Vietnamese pilot who dropped the napalm in error is currently living in the United States. Friendships sometimes happen casually, the former policeman said. evidence of enemy activities. Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers. Vietnam Veterans are less likely to be in prison - only 1/2 of one percent of Vietnam Veterans have been jailed for crimes. He was always recommending books and talking about philosophy, work and politics and eventually giving me advice. Americans were tall because The two began meeting more frequently, and Yuzuk became so fascinated with Flahertys story that he asked permission to tell it in the form of a documentary. I'm alive. 75,000 Vietnam veterans are severely disabled. Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in. Even the AP photographer, Nick Ut, who took the picture was Vietnamese. The South Vietnamese ran out Walking down the A Rumor of War. Such findings have confirmed the widespread belief that U.S. draft policies unfairly targeted the segments of American society with the least political power. You love your mom and dad, the Vikings, hamburgers on the grill, your pulse, your futureeverything that might be lost or never come to be. It was if he was hardening himself up for some special task.. [Parade Magazine]. The average time lapse between wounding to hospitalization was less than one hour. Lewy, Gunter. to Europe and both have since died. South Vietnamese military and political leader; president of the Republic of Vietnam, 196775 "I didn't know the language. She knows the booby trap is there, but she doesn't warn them. As they marched through the rice paddies and jungles, U.S. combat units never knew when enemy forces would suddenly appear. Why didn't they care that we were dying for them?" Capt. was several blocks from the Pittman Apartments. "If the war was so important, why didn't our leaders put everyone's son in there, why only us?". In fact, after the 5-year post-service period, the rate of suicides is less in the Vietnam veterans' group." For example, U.S. soldiers resented officers who directed dangerous field combat from the safety of high-flying helicopters or distant command posts. Many factors combined to cause American combat troops to lash out violently against Vietnamese civilians. You could probably get a waiver in the Army, but youd also probably not be allowed to do quite a few jobs. I cant say Im 100% sure about the oth Nguyen Cao Ky 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. Specifically, as it relates to western troops vs. Japan/North Korea/North Vietnamese forces. Statements in the storage unit showed that he had several thousand dollars in bank accounts, while a passport and receipts from a travel agent indicated that during the time he was homeless, he had made trips to such countries as Jordan, Venezuela, Thailand, Singapore and Cambodia. Some American soldiers reacted to their situation by lashing out violently against the Vietnamese, while others took out their anger on U.S. military leaders. The decline in morale among U.S. troops contributed to a number of significant problems, including atrocities, desertions (when a soldier leaves the military illegally before his term of service has ended), violence toward officers, drug use, and strained race relations. Encyclopedia.com. Never knowing who to trust, the U.S. combat troops experienced constant fear and anxiety during their frequent patrols of the villages and countryside. March 1, 2023, 4:22 PM. After all, every spot where they stepped or sat might lead to injury or death. For some American combat soldiers, the constant anxiety and tension of their time in Vietnam served to heighten their senses and emotions. Combat troops spent much of their time patrolling the countryside in small groups, searching for Viet Cong guerilla fighters or North Vietnamese Army (NVA) forces. But about eight percent of the U.S. soldiers who died in Vietnam came from towns that size. 2. http://www.air-america.org. And you were sort of walking that tightrope the whole time," veteran James Webb recalled in Working-Class War. The South Vietnamese soldier. The American military did not lose a battle of any consequence. WebBelow are two tables which report the average adult human height by country or geographical region. When sprayed on dense jungle foliage, less that 6 percent ever reached the ground. The fall of Saigon happened 30 April 1975, two years AFTER the American military left Vietnam. Here are some facts to clear up that poor job of reporting by the news media. [Burkett]. Part of the problem was that most American soldiers did not understand the South Vietnamese people and culture. It does not have to be war related. In his new life as a civilian, Flaherty studied at the University of Miami in Florida, but entered a period of despondency after a girlfriend died in a car wreck in 1975. The platform is the top of the elevator shaft for the building and was not Packaging: Original (Unopened) Theme: TV, Movie & Video Games. Instead, the local farmers and villagers usually viewed the Americans with distrust or even hostility. Caputo, Philip. On February 21, 2000, a memorial was dedicated in Riverside, California, to honor the American military dogs who served in Vietnam and other wars. Images of firefights, bloodied U.S. soldiers and body bags were seen nightly on network television, along with scorecard-like tallies of the number of American and enemy soldiers killed in action. 86% of the men who died in Vietnam were Caucasians, 12.5% were black, 1.2% were other races. Peak troop strength in Vietnam was 543,482, on 30 April 1969. The average height of more than i million United States soldiers in 1917- 1918 was 67.5 inches. You love your friends in Alpha Companya kid named Chip, my buddy. Web38.8% (6,332,000) of U.S. servicemen and all servicewomen were volunteers 61.2% (11,535,000) were draftees Average duration of service: 33 months Overseas service: 73% served overseas, with an average of 16 months abroad [1996 Information Please Almanac], POW-MIA Issue (unaccounted-for versus missing in action), Politics & People, On Vietnam, Clinton Should Follow a Hero's Advice, New York: Penguin Books,1997. Winds WSW at 15 to 25 mph. When they got back on dry land, they had to check their skin for blood-sucking leeches. The constant threat of triggering a hidden explosive caused some soldiers to become paralyzed with fear and indecision. Many of these men were career soldiers or recent graduates of military academies. Ebert, James R. A Life in a Year: The American Infantryman in Vietnam,19651972. "Fragging" initially referred to the practice of using a fragmentation weapon (an explosive device, such as a hand grenade) to murder an officer. Another reason for declining morale and performance was the one-year tour-of-duty rotation schedule used in Vietnam. "You go out on patrol maybe 20 times or more and nothin', just nothin'," a soldier told Time magazine in 1965. The domino theory was accurate. Which made up only about 10% of the total American soldiers in Vietnam. 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 schoolteachers. "Where were the sons of all the big shots who supported the war? NVA The North Vietnamese Army, which assisted the Viet Cong guerilla fighters in trying to conquer South Vietnam. The enemy, the hummingbird that we were after, was just buzzing around. They would march for days or weeks at a time, carrying heavy packs full of food, clothing, weapons, and ammunition. Since 1973, when U.S. troops withdrew from Vietnam, Americans who have served in the U.S. military have done so voluntarily. Yet undoubtedly every plane in Laos carried opium at some time, unknown to the pilot and his superiors. Wolf absolutely would not let me go by him. [VHPA databases], Army UH-1's totaled more than 10,693,902 flight hours in Vietnam between October 1966 and the end of About 60 percent, or 16 million, of these draftable men avoided service in legal ways. As military dogs, they were trained to sniff out booby traps, land mines, tunnels, snipers, and hidden stashes of weapons and other supplies. Vietnam: A History. Some gave candy to the children and tried to help in other ways. In the My Lai massacre of 1968, for example, U.S. troops raided a South Vietnamese village and killed between 300 and 400 innocent civilians (see box titled "The My Lai Massacre" in Chapter 12, "Nixon's War (19691970)"). He worked for a while as a confidential informant for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the 80s but he was homeless in Aventura, just north of Miami, by 1990. [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. WebPrivate First Class Bullock arrived in South Vietnam on May 18, 1969, and was assigned as a rifleman in 2nd Squad, 2nd Platoon, Company F, 2nd Battalion 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division. Therefore, its best to use Encyclopedia.com citations as a starting point before checking the style against your school or publications requirements and the most-recent information available at these sites: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. tail number N4 7004, were Bob Caron who lives in Florida and Jack This unfamiliar environment made their jobs more difficult and unpleasant. THE UNITED STATES DID NOT LOSE THE WAR IN VIETNAM, THE SOUTH VIETNAMESE "Every time we slapped someone around, or trashed a village, or shouted curses from a jeep, we defined ourselves as the enemy and thereby handed more power and legitimacy to the people we had to beat.". Rarely have so many people been so wrong about so much. . [McCaffrey], Vietnam veterans have a lower unemployment rate than our non-vet age group. He carries the M16A1 Armalite rifle, which the small-statured Vietnamese found ideally suited to their needs. Create a password that only you will remember. "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. Myth: A disproportionate number of blacks were killed in the Vietnam War. Other times, they burned down huts and destroyed food supplies. He was stationed at An Hoa Combat Base, west of Hi An in Qung Nam Province. Curry, Cecil B. Besides looking for enemy troops, they had to watch out for tiny trip wires that caused hidden hand grenades to explode, and for signs of digging that might indicate a landmine or a dangerous pit. North Vietnam was to return all American POWs.No more American troops or military supplies were to be sent to South Vietnam. 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. Recent reports in the news media that an American commander ordered the air strike that burned Kim Phuc are incorrect. No Victory Parades: The Return of the Vietnam Veteran. The Indonesians threw the Soviets out in 1966 because of America's commitment in Vietnam. These carefully hidden explosive devices caused a great deal of death and suffering among the American troops. 1967: LBJ increases U.S. troops to 485,600. "When GIs couldn't tell friend from foe, they came to hate and despise them all," Cecil B. Curry explains in Self-Destruction: The Disintegration and Decay of the United States Army during the Vietnam Era. The last American troops departed in their entirety 29 March 1973. Adopted by the U.S. Army in the early 1960s, the Huey was the aerial workhorse of the U.S. military, serving prominently with the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force. Working-Class War: American Combat Soldiers and Vietnam. "My father had served, everyone in our community had served. [VHPA databases], Army AH-1G's totaled more than 1,166,344 flight hours in Vietnam. '", In addition to these physical discomforts, the American troops also experienced constant anxiety and tension in Vietnam. While many draft-age males of that era sought ways to avoid being among the 385,000 troops sent to the beleaguered Southeast Asian nation that year, Flaherty was working the angles to find a way in. [People]. . 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