Counting the cost

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32568, 30 March 1971, Page 17

Counting the cost

(By

WILLIAM McGAFFIN.

of the "Chicago Daily News", through N.Z.P.A.)

WASHINGTON, March 29. The Vietnam war has resulted in the deaths of at least 900,000 people, and has cost the American taxpayer SUSIIS,OOOm.

In addition, 2,855.700 Americans have seen military service in Indo-China and Thailand since 1965, the yeat that Vietnam became an American war.

These are some of the figures made available by the Defence Department in response to a request by Senator George McGovern (Democrat, South Dakota). The accounting is believed to be the most comprehensive yet provided by the Pentagon. In it, the department states that the death toll from the beginning of the conflict, in 1960, was 902,028, this figure breaking down thus: American soldiers, 53,771; South Vietnamese soldiers, 131,995; South Vietnamese civilians, 26,700; Allied soldiers, 4282; enemy soldiers, 703,280. The South Vietnamese civil, ian figure is probably on the conservative side; it was supplied by the South Vietnamese Government, and represents the number of deaths caused by enemy terrorist attacks. No figure was available for the number of civilians killed by American forces. Of the 53,771 American deaths, 44,518 came from enemy action, and the remaining 9253 from aircraft accidents and from causes not the result of enemy action. In addition to more than 900,000 deaths, the war has resulted in the wounding of nearly the same number of people, though there is no estimate of enemy wounded. The wounded included 294,414 Americans, 10,211 Allied troops, 320,970 South Vietnamese military, and 252,000 South Vietnames

civilians—the latter figure taking into account only those admitted to hospitals between 1967 and 1970. . The number of American servicemen in Vietnam at any one time has never been

more than about 530,000 and by May 1, it will be down to 284,000.

The number of Americans who served from January 1, 1965, to September 30, 1970, is 2,855,700. The Army supplied 1,522,800 men; the Navy and Coast Guard, 450,000; the Marines, 430,100; and the Air Force 452,800.

The SUSIIS,OOOm cost of the war to the United States is calculated to have begun in the 1965 financial year, in which it was SUSIOOm. The peak yearly figure was $28,800m, in 1969. In 1970 it declined to $U523,200m, and the Pentagon estimates that by June 30 next, when the 1971 financial year ends, the United States will be spending on the war at a rate of about SUSI4,SOOm.