[CyberAnt]

"130,000 casualities a month"

WHAT?? I thought there were 58,000 total for the war.

[Interesting Times]

WHAT?? I thought there were 58,000 total for the war.

That's the total number of Americans killed.

Kerry was probably counting all casualties in the theater, times some fudge factor. Or maybe he just made it up. After all, this is the guy who spoke of "200,000 a year who are murdered by the United States of America" during his testimony before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

The full text is posted at WinterSoldier.com.

[GreyFriar]

On casualties. For the military casualties consist of those killed, wounded, and/or missing in action. Depending how one 'defines' casualties on can get different totals. The 58,000 is only for US killed in action. One can also get various totla numbers for killed, wounded and missing in action for US, South Vietnamese, Australian, South Korean, New Zealand and Thai troops during the course of the Vietnam war (using dates of 1963-74)

I have no idea where the 130,000 figure comes from, if it is from the VVAW then it is probably from the sphincter research department. Numbers are available for the Friendly Casualties in Vietnam, except for the final year of the war between the south and north vietnamese in 1974-5. No casualty figures were collected on final South Vietnamese casualties by the US Army as far as I know, or at least weren't kept as part of the previous monthly total of casualties.

I doubt if the South Vietnamese, after they were out of ammuniton and over run by the 30+ divisions of the North Vietnamese Army, had anyone left to keep and relay to the US their final figures. Of course all those executed in the re-education camps don't count, especially for Jane, John and the other folks who supported 'uncle Ho.'