Vietnam War Death Statistics Question

[Nick Leduc]

Maybe one of you guys can help me understand these figures. My Google results are only coming back with total death statistics, vs what I'm looking to learn about.
I am currently watching the PBS Documentary The Vietnam War with Ken Burns. As I watch, I like to read about certain topics. I was looking up death rates to compare total deaths per side. Under the USA deaths on Wikipedia it has 58,318 (47,434 from combat).

So what caught my eye was the almost 10k death from non combat.
I ended reading the Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File at Archives.gov which confirmed Wikipedias numbers. (Screenshots attached).

The question I have is about the non hostile deaths. From the data, I can see they include accident, illness, and homicides. Does anyone have any information on the accident deaths (9,107)? That just seems like a huge number. I'm curious as to what the military considers an accident. And am also curious if these numbers were available to the public during the war, or was just the total death figure released?

 

[millbilly]

One of my friends told me his company lost 3 to a car crash and 1 to an on base neglegent discharge in an Iraq tour. Multiple that by hundreds of thousands of troops over a decade in Vietnam sadly sounds feasible. I'd imagine lack of sleep can lead to many vehicle accidents, drownings, mds, etc

 

[Nick Leduc]

I suppose you are correct.
I ended up finding a list of every death in Vietnam and you can sort by death type. A good amount are vehicle accidents.

For those interested.

 

[Picton]

What's the start/end year? If it's 1962-72, then less than 10k accidental deaths over 10 years, with massive numbers of young Americans on the roads and in the skies, or playing around with knives, guns, and C4, seems about right to me.

Seems low, in fact.

For perspective, I was in the army (NG, then active) for seven years. During that time, I can remember at least nine deaths in my various units or neighboring units, and not one of them involved enemy fire. The military is dangerous, even on a normal day.

Five of those were vehicle rollovers.

 

[appraiser]

The young widow that moved in next to us with her little girl, who was getting re-married to a nice man, lost her husband in Vietnam in a jeep crash

He was an Officer , and was being driven by a driver , she told me Officers didn't drive.... and she said if he was driving he would have survived.

He was studying to be a Doctor, he was killed before he made it, but last year I saw his Daughter had become one.

RIP Captain Thomas Morris

THE WALL OF FACES - Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund

www.vvmf.org

 

[zyx123]

Lots of explanations for these sad non-combat related deaths. In that era the military was made up of a LOT of young males, ages 18-22, and they tend to be very kinetic types with an affinity for alcohol and not all that sensitive to what, today, you might call "industrial safety." Lots of plain-old unfortunate accidents - remember that at one time there were 500,000+ American in Vietnam. There are times when your number comes up. No surprise that, even today, on American military installations there is a huge emphasis on industrial safety.

 

[CATI]

Over 10 years scaled to include the number variation if they were all just tow truck drivers in the US you would have almost 2000 deaths. And that is just those that die on the job. I would guess similar numbers if you include those that die of other caused off the job. (I just picked a random job that is know as dangerous)

 

[Dench]

This breaks down some of it. https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1589&context=etd

A lot are from 3 main things: vehicle and aircraft crashes and illness.

 

[Nick Leduc]

This breaks down some of it. https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1589&context=etd

A lot are from 3 main things: vehicle and aircraft crashes and illness.

Thanks, I skimmed thru that yesterday after I posted. The charts break it down pretty good. That's one long research paper that makes me glad I didn't go to college. Lol
His bibliography is where I got the link that I posted in post #3. Where they have details on every death.

 

[Skysoldier]

Fraggings, drug overdoses, and drunken negligent discharges were all listed as accidental. A lot of deaths also occurred “down in the ville” that nobody could prove were the result of enemy action.
10K doesn’t surprise me.......

 

[M60]

To add to skysoldiers post, picture being on patrol in the jungle / mountain areas, during monsoon season. Everything is constantly wet and slippery and that agent orange crap wasn't much good for traction either. All of the guys are humping up the slippery slope and everyone has full auto capability. The guy in the middle slips and falls into everyone in back of him. People are falling down the mountain side and full auto bursts are going off. This happened more often than you might think. Someone is bound to be hit by friendly fire.