Vietnam
Much has been written about the Vietnam War. Unfortunately, incorrect statements have been made, that are often repeated then re-repeated, until they stand, often un-challenged, to go forward as the historical record of an event that defined a generation. The below is an attempt to present source data so that readers can understand the sacrifices made by our Armed Forces and also to correct some of the erroneous statements and claims made about the war.
 
Vietnam War - Casualties by Name

The alphabetical listing of those members of our armed forces who gave their lives during the Vietnam War. The 3064 page report was created to honor their scarifies and includes the Panel and Line where their names are inscribed in the Vietnam memorial.

 
Vietnam War - Casualties by Reason

A summary of all reasons is provided at the beginning of the listing (with totals and percentages) , followed by the alphabetical list of the casualties within each group.

 
Vietnam War - Casualties by Year

A summary of the casualties suffered by each year, followed by a chronological listing of the casualties by date within each year.

 
Vietnam War - Casualties by State and Home Town

A summary of the casualties suffered by each state, followed by an alphabetical listing of the casualties by State and Home Town.

 

 

The data presented in the above reports comes from the Combat Area Casualty File (CACF1193). This was a text file in which the data fields were often represented by ambiguous codes that were often used to save file space and which did not lend themselves for easy understandability. For example:

Reason Field - P = Stroke, T = Accidental Homicide

Race - L = Malayan, N = Negro

The original text list was converted into a relational database and the 58,169 records were modified so that the data fields were made more understandable. I did all of the work myself and within the limitations of the accuracy of the original data I finally had the tools to correctly analyze the casualty data in the database.

Additions and corrections to the CACF1193 came to light over the years and the government in 2008 made available the Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File ( DCAS.VN.EXT08 ) which then had 58,220 records. A similar process was used to create my own relational database and the original CACFF1193 file was scrubbed against the newer DCAS.VN.EXT08 file for discrepancies. A laborious process then was undertaken to reconcile the differences, and upon completion the database was used as the basis for the above reports which were created using Crystal Reports report writer.

No database this large can be 100% accurate, but I feel the work was all worthwhile and the casualties suffered in Vietnam can be understood more accurately.

Brian N. Bagnall - Webmaster