Names On The Wall: A Closer Look At Those Who Died In Vietnam

During the Vietnam War, the Navy and Air Force became substantially white enclaves - enlisted and officer casualties were 96 percent white. Indeed, officer casualties of all branches were overwhelmingly white. Of the 7,877 officer casualties, 7,595, or 96.4 percent, were white; 147, or 1.8 percent, were black; 24, or 0.3 percent, were Asian; 7, or .08 percent, were Native American; 104, or 1.3 percent, were unidentified by race.

The 1970 census which is being used as our Vietnam era population base did not list an Hispanic count but gave an estimate of 4.5 percent of the American population. In a massive sampling of the database, it was established that between 5 and 6 percent of Vietnam dead had identifiable Hispanic surnames. These were Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban and other Latino-Americans with ancestries based in Central and South America. They came largely from California and Texas, with lesser numbers from Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Florida, New York and a few from many other states across the country. Thus it is safe to say that Hispanic-Americans were over-represented among Vietnam casualties — an estimated 5.5 percent of the dead against 4.5 percent of the 1970 population.

In terms of national origin/ancestries, an extensive sampling of the data-base reveals that Americans of French Canadian, Polish, Italian and other Southern and Eastern European surnames made up about 10 percent of the Vietnam casualties. These casualties came largely from the Northeast and North Central regions of the United States, many from the traditionally patriotic, Catholic working class neighborhoods.

The remaining 70 percent of our Vietnam enlisted casualties were of English/Scottish/Welsh, German, Irish and Scandinavian-American ancestries, more from the South and Midwest than the other regions, many from small towns with a family military tradition. The officer corps has always drawn heavily on English/Scottish/Welsh, German, Irish and Scandinavian-American ancestries from middle-class white collar homes, with other large percentages from ambitious working class blue collar and, of course, career military families. These officer casualties came more from the South and West regions, 4.1 deaths per 100,000, in contrast to 3.5 from the Northeast and Midwest regions.

The DOD database listed precise religious preferences for the 58,152 Vietnam casualties. Protestants were 64.4 percent (37,483), Catholics were 28.9 percent (16,806). Less than 1 percent (0.8) were Jewish, Hindu, Thai, Buddhist or Muslim combined, and 5.7 listed no religion. Blacks were 85 percent Protestant. Officers of all services, by tradition largely Protestant, remained so during the Vietnam war, sustaining casualties in comparison with Catholics by a 5 to 2 ratio.

As a region, the South experienced the greatest numbers of dead, nearly 34 percent of the total, or 31.0 deaths per 100,000 of population. This number of deaths per 100,000 compared strikingly with the 23.5 in the Northeast region, 29.9 in the West and 28.4 in the North Central (Midwest) region.

This uneven impact was caused by a number of factors: (1) While the South was home to some 53 percent of all blacks in the 1970 census, almost 60 percent of black casualties came from the South; (2) Although we cannot be as precise, we do know that a considerable majority of Hispanic-American casualties came from the West, (California, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado) and the South (Texas); (3) Better employment opportunities in the Northeast reduced the number of volunteers; (4) Greater college matriculation in the Northeast increased the number of status deferments for the region’s 17- to 24- year olds; (5) More anti-war sentiment in the media and on college campuses in the Northeast.

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2 Comments to “Names On The Wall: A Closer Look At Those Who Died In Vietnam”
The statistics given are schewed when USAF USCG,and USN services, heavily represented by career specialists and fixed wing pilots, are included. Naturally exeptions must be made for special operations within the combat zone by (comparatively) very small units from these services. Despite numbers of pilots in these services that were lost, the fact is that the vast majority of casulties in this war were in the Marines and Army enlisted ranks, lower ranked officer and warrant officer (flight), and in the traditional combat MOS categories. Males enlisted for many reasons. My reason and that of many comrades in arms was the desire to avoid being drafted into the Marines. The 2 year enlistment RA gave an outwardly better chance of surviving if being drafted appeared inevitable…as it was for me. The draft made it virtually impossible for a male to become employed at most companies if he had a 1-a status, as they did not want to spend money on training draft bait or be tied with a drafted worker and the issues of post service reemployment. Enlistment for 2 years was the only option short of a quick marriage and immediate multiple pregnancies. The option of service in the Coast Guard, navy or air force was subject to highly competitive entry requirements and, in many cases, connections with political figures. A better assessment would be to evaluate the losses by age and MOS. My information places the average age of Army and Marine KIA and DOW at 19 years and 2 months. Similar studies on WWII place the same measure at 28, Korea at 24, and for the Civil War in the thirties. The main reason cited is the virtual exemption from Vietnam Service for NG and ER, especially in the combat arms units. Casulty numbers are also schewed by bean counters in government by including a very wide theater description that extended well outside the Vietnam combat operational area to units that did not serve in Vietnam, Cambodia or Laos. Finally, even inside the combat arms, there was a grading system which placed combat MOS in field units by in country assignments. Units like the 1st Air Cavalry, 82nd Airborne, 173rd Airborne, and 1st Division got high “draft” picks. Units like the Americal, 4th Division, and 101st (Now called “Airmobile”) were favored with lower quality (and much more likely to be drafted) remnants. If my memory serves, the Americal (23rd Division) was 80% enlisted Draftee in 2 of it’s brigades in 1970. The same applied to assignment of military academy junior officers. “Elite” units such as the 1st Cavalry and 82nd Abn got combat arms officers from the academy and the Americal got ROTC and, even worse, OCS officers with virtually no field skills, or West Pointers with non combat arms experience transferred from a missle silo in Montana. Ted Macinski

By Ted J. Macinski on Jul 4, 2008 at 3:07 pm
its good for my report on vietnamese.

By malikathompson on Oct 24, 2008 at 7:29 pm

Names On The Wall: A Closer Look At Those Who Died In Vietnam

2 Comments to “Names On The Wall: A Closer Look At Those Who Died In Vietnam”

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