400,000 soldiers and civilians died in France’s invasion of Indochina. 90,000 French, 175,000 Viet Minh, and over 125,000 civilians.
Over 1,000,000 Communist militants died, NLF guerrillas and PAVN regulars alike. Approximately 300,000 ARVN military personnel were killed, the majority regional militiamen. 58,000 American soldiers died, of which 21,000 died during Nixon and Kissinger’s “negotiations”. At a conservative estimate, 285,000 civilians in South Vietnam died in the crossfire. Another 65,000 civilians in North Vietnam were killed by US bombing raids.
There were no heroes in the Vietnam War. As all civil wars go, both sides waged war with tremendous brutality. The Viet Cong were not “freedom fighters”:
>Some of the many murder victims of 1960 were tried and dispatched with machetes in front of village crowds. One woman was hacked to death because she had two sons in the ARVN. A man being buried alive shrieked repeatedly, “I’m going to die! I’m going to die!” before his cries faded beneath a rising mound of earth.
>The Vietcong once entered a village in Lai Cay, denounced twenty inhabitants as government spies, beheaded them, and threw the bodies in the street, each with a scrap of paper attached listing their alleged crimes. Elsewhere a hamlet chief was tied to a stake and disemboweled in front of the assembled villagers; his pregnant wife was eviscerated, their children beheaded.
Neither were the Americans:
>In 1968-69, Ewell commanded the 9th Division in the Mekong Delta. Ewell rejected the findings of the MACV inspector general that seven thousand civilians perished in his formation’s six-month-long Operation Speedy Express. Ewell said, “You get a sapper unit mining the road and you kill two or three, and they’ll knock it off. These people can count. And boy when you line up them bodies, their enthusiasm is highly reduced. That’s the way we opened up Highway 4. Just killing them.”
>“We returned a tremendous barrage of fire, and began to withdraw. I saw women and children in front of us being hit and cut to pieces. I heard their cries and other voices in the darkness as we made our retreat”. When they approached the hamlet proper, the SEALs herded together and shot another fifteen inhabitants, mostly women and children. A screaming baby was the last to die.
I would actually like to know how that specific engagement turned out for the French paratroopers.
Watching all those units fill the sky and float down looks overwhelming from the ground perspective
Slide 9 might be the coolest photo I’ve never seen before. Wow, what a shot
Great photos per usual
Honestly crazy how wars of colonialism was still being fought as recently as the mid 1950s. I wonder how the world would have changed and reacted to the Americans going ahead and using the three tactical nuclear bombs on the Viet Minh. Millions of Vietnam veteran hats vanish from existence.
Looks itchy.
Watching Ken Burns’ *The Vietnam War* series on PBS right now, and these photos are an interesting addition.
I highly recommend the series for all interested.
I think we kind of lose sight of some of the moments in the Vietnam war in the way that it is studied in America. We all know the numbers and the horrors of the war, Vietnam syndrome, and the social evolutions that happened.
But, I think that most don’t understand the horror that was Hue City. The aftermath of it all left:
4,856 likely massacred by VietCong.
80 percent of the city destroyed. 116,000 war homeless civilians.
668 KIA with 3,700 wounded for USA/ARVN.
2-5 thousand for Vietcong dependent on who you believe.
All in one month.
**One month**
The destruction of Hue is every bit as horrific as Sarajevo, Grozny, etc.
>Kissinger bombs Laos and Cambodia with 2,000,000 tons of ordnance.
Close to the amount of bombs dropped on all of Europe by US+UK combined during WW2. On a population of 2 million people (10% died).
I always look forward to your posts. Another phenomenal collection of photos. Thank you for keeping this history alive, as horrible and cruel as it was.
Say what you want about the Vietnam War, but it had the best soundtrack of any war.
Excellent photos with TIL captions. Thanks for posting!
The insanity of parachuting into that… At least the hueys put you on the ground faster, one way or another.
14 comments
400,000 soldiers and civilians died in France’s invasion of Indochina. 90,000 French, 175,000 Viet Minh, and over 125,000 civilians.
Over 1,000,000 Communist militants died, NLF guerrillas and PAVN regulars alike. Approximately 300,000 ARVN military personnel were killed, the majority regional militiamen. 58,000 American soldiers died, of which 21,000 died during Nixon and Kissinger’s “negotiations”. At a conservative estimate, 285,000 civilians in South Vietnam died in the crossfire. Another 65,000 civilians in North Vietnam were killed by US bombing raids.
There were no heroes in the Vietnam War. As all civil wars go, both sides waged war with tremendous brutality. The Viet Cong were not “freedom fighters”:
>Some of the many murder victims of 1960 were tried and dispatched with machetes in front of village crowds. One woman was hacked to death because she had two sons in the ARVN. A man being buried alive shrieked repeatedly, “I’m going to die! I’m going to die!” before his cries faded beneath a rising mound of earth.
>The Vietcong once entered a village in Lai Cay, denounced twenty inhabitants as government spies, beheaded them, and threw the bodies in the street, each with a scrap of paper attached listing their alleged crimes. Elsewhere a hamlet chief was tied to a stake and disemboweled in front of the assembled villagers; his pregnant wife was eviscerated, their children beheaded.
Neither were the Americans:
>In 1968-69, Ewell commanded the 9th Division in the Mekong Delta. Ewell rejected the findings of the MACV inspector general that seven thousand civilians perished in his formation’s six-month-long Operation Speedy Express. Ewell said, “You get a sapper unit mining the road and you kill two or three, and they’ll knock it off. These people can count. And boy when you line up them bodies, their enthusiasm is highly reduced. That’s the way we opened up Highway 4. Just killing them.”
>“We returned a tremendous barrage of fire, and began to withdraw. I saw women and children in front of us being hit and cut to pieces. I heard their cries and other voices in the darkness as we made our retreat”. When they approached the hamlet proper, the SEALs herded together and shot another fifteen inhabitants, mostly women and children. A screaming baby was the last to die.
I would actually like to know how that specific engagement turned out for the French paratroopers.
Watching all those units fill the sky and float down looks overwhelming from the ground perspective
Slide 9 might be the coolest photo I’ve never seen before. Wow, what a shot
Great photos per usual
Honestly crazy how wars of colonialism was still being fought as recently as the mid 1950s. I wonder how the world would have changed and reacted to the Americans going ahead and using the three tactical nuclear bombs on the Viet Minh. Millions of Vietnam veteran hats vanish from existence.
Looks itchy.
Watching Ken Burns’ *The Vietnam War* series on PBS right now, and these photos are an interesting addition.
I highly recommend the series for all interested.
I think we kind of lose sight of some of the moments in the Vietnam war in the way that it is studied in America. We all know the numbers and the horrors of the war, Vietnam syndrome, and the social evolutions that happened.
But, I think that most don’t understand the horror that was Hue City. The aftermath of it all left:
4,856 likely massacred by VietCong.
80 percent of the city destroyed. 116,000 war homeless civilians.
668 KIA with 3,700 wounded for USA/ARVN.
2-5 thousand for Vietcong dependent on who you believe.
All in one month.
**One month**
The destruction of Hue is every bit as horrific as Sarajevo, Grozny, etc.
>Kissinger bombs Laos and Cambodia with 2,000,000 tons of ordnance.
Close to the amount of bombs dropped on all of Europe by US+UK combined during WW2. On a population of 2 million people (10% died).
I always look forward to your posts. Another phenomenal collection of photos. Thank you for keeping this history alive, as horrible and cruel as it was.
Say what you want about the Vietnam War, but it had the best soundtrack of any war.
Excellent photos with TIL captions. Thanks for posting!
The insanity of parachuting into that… At least the hueys put you on the ground faster, one way or another.
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