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| ~ 1968 Tet Offensive ~ As with much of the Vietnam War, the news media misreported and misinterpreted the 1968 Tet Offensive. It was reported as a overwhelming success for the Communists forces and a decided defeat for the U.S. forces. Nothing could be further from the truth. Despite initial victories by the Communists forces, the Tet Offensive resulted in a major defeat of those forces. General Vo Nguyen Giap, the designer of the Tet Offensive, is considered by some as ranking with Wellington, Grant, Lee and MacArthur as a great commander. Still, militarily, the Tet Offensive was a total defeat of the Communists forces on all fronts. It resulted in the death of some 45,000 NVA troops and the complete, if not total destruction of the Viet Cong elements in South Vietnam. The Organization of the Viet Cong Units in the South never recovered. The Tet Offensive exceeded on only one front and that was the News front and the political arena. This was another example in the Vietnam War of an inaccuracy becoming the perceived truth. However inaccurately reported, the News Media made the Tet Offensive famous. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ~ Truth Vs Myth ~ |
| Common Belief is most American soldiers were addicted to drugs, guilt-ridden about their role in the war, and deliberately used cruel and inhumane tactics. |
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The facts are:
91% of Vietnam Veterans say they are glad they served. 74% said they would serve again even knowing the outcome. |
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There is no difference in drug usage between Vietnam Veterans and non veterans of the same age group (from a Veterans Administration study). |
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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 schoolteachers. |
| Atrocities - every war has atrocities. War is brutal and not fair. Innocent people get killed. Vietnam Veterans are less likely to be in prison - only 1/2 of one percent of Vietnam Veterans have been jailed for crimes. 97% were discharged under honorable conditions; the same percentage of honorable discharges as ten years prior to Vietnam 85% of Vietnam |
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Veterans made a successful transition to civilian life.
Vietnam veterans' personal income exceeds that of our
non-veteran age group by more than 18 percent.
Vietnam veterans have a lower unemployment rate than our non-vet age group. 87% of the American people hold Vietnam Vets in high esteem. Common Beliefis 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. |
| 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. |
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"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. |
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Common belief is that 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. 79% had a high school education or better. |
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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) Deaths / Average Age |
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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. The oldest man killed was 62 years old. 11,465 KIAs were less than 20 years old. |
| The common belief is 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. The average man who fought in World War II was 26 years of age. |
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The common belief is that 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. |
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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). |
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~Who WON ~ |
| 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) This included Tet 68, which was a major military defeat for the VC and NVA. THE UNITED STATES DID NOT LOSE THE WAR IN VIETNAM, THE SOUTH VIETNAMESE DID. |
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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. |
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| ~ Facts about the end of the war ~ |
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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. 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.
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. |
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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. An automobile accident or other traumatic event also can cause it. It does not have to be war related. The Vietnam War helped medical progress in this area. |
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| ~ Another Famous Picture ~ |
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Myth: (As reported by the media) 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. |
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[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, National Archives, Washington, DC [All 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. [1996 Information Please Almanac] 1995 Information Please Almanac Atlas & Yearbook 49th edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston & New York 1996, pages 117, 161 and 292. [Burkett] Stolen Valor: How the Vietnam Generation was Robbed of its Heroes and its History by B.G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley, Verity Press, Inc., Dallas, TX, 1998. And the truth is I was in Country from Sept 1965 until
Med Evac on 4 Jan 1967 |
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