Vietnam War
Casualties

Estimates of casualties vary, with one source suggesting up to 3.8 million violent war deaths in Vietnam for 1955 to 2002. A demographic study calculated 791,000–1,141,000 war-related deaths during the war for all of Vietnam, for military and civilians. Between 195,000 and 430,000 South Vietnamese civilians died in the war. Extrapolating from a 1969 US intelligence report, Guenter Lewy estimated 65,000 North Vietnamese civilians died. Estimates of civilian deaths caused by American bombing of North Vietnam range from 30,000 to 182,000. A 1975 US Senate subcommittee estimated 1.4 million South Vietnamese civilians casualties during the war, including 415,000 deaths. The military of South Vietnam suffered an estimated 254,256 killed between 1960 and 1974, and additional deaths from 1954 to 1959 and in 1975. Other estimates point to higher figures of 313,000 casualties.

The official US Department of Defense figure for PAVN/VC killed in Vietnam from 1965 to 1974 was 950,765. Officials believed these body count figures need to be deflated by 30 percent. Guenter Lewy asserts that one-third of the reported "enemy" killed may have been civilians, concluding that the actual number of deaths of PAVN/VC military forces was probably closer to 444,000.

According to figures released by the Vietnamese government there were 849,018 confirmed military deaths on the PAVN/VC side. The Vietnamese government released its estimate of war deaths for the more lengthy period of 1955 to 1975. This figure includes battle deaths of Vietnamese soldiers in the Laotian and Cambodian Civil Wars, in which the PAVN was a major participant. Non-combat deaths account for 30-40% of these. However, the figures do not include deaths of South Vietnamese and allied soldiers. These do not include the estimated 300,000–500,000 PAVN/VC missing in action. Vietnamese government figures estimate 1.1 million dead and 300,000 missing from 1945 to 1979, with approximately 849,000 dead and 232,000 missing from 1960 to 1975.

US reports of "enemy KIA", referred to as body count, were thought to have been subject to "falsification and glorification", and a true estimate of PAVN/VC combat deaths is difficult to assess, as US victories were assessed by having a "greater kill ratio". It was difficult to distinguish between civilians and military personnel in the Viet Cong, as many were part-time guerrillas or impressed laborers who did not wear uniforms and civilians killed were sometimes written off as enemy killed, because high enemy casualties was directly tied to promotions and commendation.

Between 275,000 and 310,000 Cambodians were estimated to have died, including between 50,000 and 150,000 combatants and civilians from US bombings. 20,000–62,000 Laotians died, and 58,281 U.S. military personnel were killed, of which 1,584 are still listed as missing as of March 2021.
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