Vietnam War: Most historians of the Second Indochina War concern themselves
primarily with the American Phase of the conflict, 1965-73; however, many do not
specify whether their estimated death tolls cover only this phase of the war or
the whole thing. An asterisk(*) indicates that the number seems to cover the
entire conflict rather than just the American Phase, :
South Vietnam military: 185,000 to 225,000 (Britannica) or 220,357 (Lewy)
or 223,748 (Summers; also 3 April 1995 AP) or 224,000 (Kutler, Olson)
or 250,000 (Clodfelter, Grenville*) or 254,257 (Wallechinsky*) or 650,000
(Small & Singer) [MEDIAN: 224,000]
North Vietnamese military and Viet Cong: 500,000 (S&S) or 660,000
(Olson) or 666,000 (Lewy, with the possibility that as many as 222,000 (1/3)
of these were actually SVN civilians mistaken for VC) or 666,000 (Summers)
or 700,000-1,000,000 (Wallechinsky*) or 900,000 (Britannica; Grenville*) or
1,000,000 (Clodfelter) or 1,100,000 (Tucker*, Official VN* [1954-75])
[MEDIAN: ca. 875,000]
South Vietnamese civilians: 250,000 (Olson) or 287,000 (Clodfelter =
247,600 war deaths + 38,954 assassinated by NLF) or 300,000 (Kutler;
Summers) or 340,000 (Lewy's estimate, with the possibility that an
additional 222,000 counted as VC (above) belong in this category) or 430,000
(The Sen. E. Kennedy Commission, according to Lewy, Olson) or 522,000 (Wallechinsky*)
or 1,000,000 (Britannica [in both North and South]; Eckhardt;
Grenville*) or 2,000,000 (Tucker*, Official VN* [N&S, 1954-75],)
[MEDIAN: ca. 476,000]
North Vietnamese civilians: 65,000 (Kutler, Lewy, Olson, Summers,
Wallechinsky) by American bombing.
USA: 58,000 (Britannica) or 58,153 (Wallechinsky*) or 58,159 (Kutler)
or 47,244 KIA + 10,446 other = 57,690 (Olson, Summers, 1961-80) or 56,146 (Lewy:
46,498 KIA + 10,388 other + 719 MIA) or 56,000 (S&S)
South Korea: 4,407 (Lewy, Olson, Summers); 4,687 (Wallechinsky); 5,000
(S&S)
TOTAL: 1,216,000 (military only, S&S) or 1,312,000 (Summers) or
1,353,000 (Lewy) or 1,520,453 (WHPSI: S. Vietnamese only, 1965-75) or
1,637,000 (Olson) or 1,721,000 (Kutler) or 1,749,000 (Wallechinsky*) or
1,800,000 (B&J, 1960-75) or 2,058,000 (Eckhardt) or 2,163,000
(Britannica) or 2,500,000 (Grenville*) or 3,000,000 (1965-75, Chomsky*
(1987)) or >3,100,000 (Tucker*; Official VN*)
[MEDIAN of TOTALS: ca. 1,900,000] or [TOTAL of MEDIANS: ca. 1,710,000]