Some Facts & Myths about the Vietnam War from a Medal of Honor Recipient

by Don Moore

I received an e-mail from 1st Sgt. Nick Bacon, a Vietnam vet and a Medal of Honor recipient who thinks the “mainstream media” is working to make the current fight in Iraq and Afghanistan turn out like the Vietnam War.

I doubt the “mainstream media” is doing much more than reporting what’s happening to our troops and others in President George W. Bush’s war. I can assure him this newspaper has published more positive stories about veterans in the past five or six years than most, because I have written most of them.

The former sergeant provided a number of statistics and myths about the Vietnam War I thought were interesting and worth repeating.

Here’s what Bacon says:

•  The Vietnam era ran from Aug. 5, 1964, to May 7, 1975.
• Some 2,709,918 Americans served in uniform in Vietnam.
• There were 240 Medals of Honor awarded during the Vietnam War…
• 58,148 American service personnel were killed in Vietnam.
• Five American soldiers killed in Vietnam were only 16.
• The oldest American soldier killed in the war was 62.
• There were 1,875 Americans still missing as of Jan. 15, 2004.
• Some 97 percent of Vietnam vets were honorably discharged.

Myths & Facts

• Myth: Most Vietnam veterans were drafted.
• Fact: Two-thirds of the servicemen in Vietnam were volunteers. Seventy percent of the soldiers killed in Vietnam were volunteers.

• Myth: A disproportionate number of blacks were killed in Vietnam.
• Fact:  86 percent of the men who died in Vietnam were white, 12.5 percent were black, and 1.2 percent were other races.

• Myth: The war was fought largely by poor and uneducated soldiers.
• Fact: Vietnam veterans were the best-educated soldiers our nation has ever sent into combat. Some 79 percent of the soldiers had high school or college educations.

• Myth: The domino theory was proven false.
• Fact: The Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand remained free of Communism because of the U.S. commitment to the Vietnam War.

• Myth: Kim Phuc, the 9-year-old Vietnamese girl photographed running naked from a napalm strike near Trang Bang on June 8, 1972, was burned by Americans bombing the area.
• Fact: No Americans were involved in the incident. The planes doing the bombing were from the Vietnam air force flown by Vietnamese pilots.

• Myth:  The United States lost the war in Vietnam.
• Fact:  American military forces were not defeated in Vietnam. The fall of Saigon took place April 30, 1975, two years after the American military left Vietnam.

Research for this information was also provided by Capt. Marshal Hanson, U.S.N.R (Ret.) and Capt. Scott Beaton.