I was a kid during the Vietnam War. I wasn't paying attention then to combat casualties. I couldn't have told you that just over 1800 Americans soldiers lost their lives in the first 4 years (1961-1965) of US combat there. Or that just over 1600 were killed in the last 2 years (1971-1972).1Now that I know that, I'm finally understanding what politicians mean when they say "Iraq is not Vietnam." With 2000 American soldiers killed in Iraq in the last 2 years, our rate of death has surpassed that of Vietnam's ... by a chilling factor of 2.
1 Soldiers Lost in Iraq Top Those Lost in First Four Years in Vietnam; Expert on the '60s Reflects on Similarities, Differences
3 comments:
Someone brought to my attention a good point. US involvement in Vietnam in 1961-1965 was not as an occupying force. So the casualty rates probably can't be compared as apples to apples.
Still, if Bush had told the American people that we expect to see a casualty rate double of what we saw at the start of Vietnam, it may have given war supporters pause.
you can't compare only the first 2 years and the last 2 years of the vietnam war. It would be helpful for you to show the casualty rates for the ENTIRE war, and THEN you can compare them. In fact, nearly SIXTY THOUSAND americans died during the whole war. If you want to compare the two wars and their casualty rates, I suggest you use ALL of the information.
Really, you can do better than that. The first two years were the early runup, and the last two were the final years of Vietnamization.
Numbers mean squat without historic context.
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