New Delhi: Some spinechilling and interesting facts to note about the Vietnam war:The Vietnam war was fought from November 1, 1955 till April 30, 1975 for 19 years 5 months, 4 weeks and 1 day. The war ended with the victory of North Vietnam over the United States, whose army pulled out before the fall of Saigon. Both the North and South Vietnam were unified into the Socialist Republic of Vietnam led by the great Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh.The war extracted huge civilian and army casualties: 195,000 to 430,000 civilians were killed in South Vietnam, while 50,000 to 65,000 civilians were killed in North Vietnam. 171,331 to 220,357 South Vietnamese soldiers were killed, while four lakhs to 11 lakhs Viet Cong guerillas were killed.From the United States, 58,220 soldiers were killed and 303,644 were injured, from South Korea 4,099 were killed and 10,962 were wounded, from Australia 500 were killed and 3,129 wounded, from New Zealand 37 were killed and 187 wounded and from Thailand 351 were killed and 1,358 wounded. From China 1,446 soldiers were killed and 4,200 wounded, while 16 military advisers from Soviet Union were killed. The spin-off of the Vietnam war led to civil wars in Cambodia and Laos. While in Vietnam, 245,000 to 20 lakhs civilians died, the Cambodian civil war took a toll of 2 lakhs to 3 lakhs civilians, while the civil war in Laos took a toll of 20,000 to 2 lakh civilians. US soldiers committed seven massacres including the infamous My Lai massacre, in which at least 137 civilians were killed. Over 800 alleged atrocities were investigated but only 23 soldiers were convicted. From the North Vietnamese side, Viet Cong guerillas killed at least 37,000 civilians and resorted to cruel atrocities that included disembowelment, cutting off genitals and tongues, ramming bamboo lances through one ear and out the other and slashing open the wombs of pregnant women. They massacred nearly 3,000 civilians at Hue during the Tet Offensive.2,709,918 Americans served in uniform during the Vietnam war. As of January 15, 2004, there are 1,875 Americans still unaccounted for from the Vietnam War. 240 men in the US were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War
Updated on: May 01, 2014 7:40 IST
