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/iMieu oviuiers n^iiiea: i^osrvr uver jMO billionLong And Costly Indochina War Almost Quarter Of Century OldThe Progress-lndex, Sunday, May 9, 1971 21!By FRED S. HOFFMAN AP Military WriterWASHINGTON (AP) - The Indochina war, almost a quarter century old, has killed more than 280,000 Allied fighting men and cost the United States and France more than $135 billion.It sped France's decline as a world power.It ignited a youth revolution in the. United States, threw American politics into turmoil and •soured this country on foreign military .involvements.It produced a generation of Vietnamese, South and North, who have never known peace and may not for years to come.The French fought first, with heavy U. S/ aid in money and materiel. But they gave up and the United States moved ever more deeply in. Now this country. has beeniin an undeclared try has been in an undeclared est of any of the wars in U. S history.The 54,505 American lives lost in Southeast Asia compare with 405,399 U. S. deaths in World War II, 116,516 in World War I, and .54,246 killed in the three-year'Korean War.The Indochina war opened in 1946 and France fought for eight years to overcome Nationalist and Communist forces and regain control of its colony. The French lost heart and went home after the Vietnam humiliated their army at Dien Bien Phu in 1954.France paid with 92,800 dead French, - Indochinese, African colonial and Foreign Legion troops. It also, paid $5.8 billion of Its own money. ■An international conference partitioned Vietnam, and there was aii uneasy lull until the late1950s when Communist-led insurgents began a camapign to overthrow the South Vietnamesegovernment.In 1961 President John F. Kennedy responded to Saigon’s plea for help with increased U. S. arms and advisers. A decade later .the United States is painfully disengaging from a war swollen to proportions nobody anticipated.'So far, it has cost the United States 45,019 lives in battle andLicense NeededBURTON CONSTANBLE, England (AP) — The squire of Burton Constable was told today to get a license for his elephant and a road safety certificate before he rides Jumbo at the Lord Mayor’s show in Hull.The reason? Jumbo runs on gasoline, not hay, being a mechanical job powered by a motorbike engine.John Chichester-Constable uses Jumbo to give rides to kids who visit his stately home in this Yorkshire village.“I suppose the safety certificate is necessary before the elephant takes to the highway,” he said, “and I’ve no doubt that he’ll pass comfortably.”Epilepsy was recognized and accurately described by the Grecic physician Hippocrates nearly 2,500 years/ago, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica.9,486 from other causes. The bill to the U. S. Treasury adds up to more than $329,395,000,000 counting direct support and conduct of war plus military and economic aid to France, South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.South Vietnam has seen 129,-127 of its soldiers killed in combat over the past 10 years. Five Allied nations-South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines and Thailand — have spent 4,485 lives in the cause.Statistics on Communist andNationalist military losses areof questionable reliability. Butvarious estimates total 1,238,202since 1946 — roughly four timesas many dead as the Allies have suffered.French sources have used a round figure of 500,000 Vietminh slam in the 1946-1954 phase of the war across what is now North and South Vietnam.• The Pentagon lists 738,202 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese combat deaths since 1961.However, U. S. officials acknowledge that much of this is based on unsustantiated claims by the South Vietnamese government. Furthermore, the validity of “body count” figures by Americans has been challenged by war critics in and out of the military who contend the statistics sometimes were inflated to meet demands from top officials for impressive results.The Russians, Communist Chinese and East European friends of North Vietnam haven’t lost a man in Indochina, so far as is known.What’s more, their contributions in weapons, other- military hardware and economic aid to North Vietnam were worth atiny fraction of the U. S. investment — about $5.5 billion in all, according to U. S. government estimates. Hanoi siphoned some of this aid to the Viet Cong in South Vietnam, the Pathet Lao in Laos and the Cambodian Communists.The Russians have chipped in about $3.2 billion, the Chinese about $1.7 billion and the remainder was furnished by European Communist countries, in-clubing Czechoslovakia, East Germany and Poland.Thus, America’s $129.4 billion 'financial burden in Southeast Asia has been more than 23 times as great as that of North Vietnam's allies put together.And senior U. S. defense officials contend this is one reason why the Russians have been able to close the gap on the United States in missile power over the last five years.Deducting about $10.1 billion for various forms of U. S. aid, Pentagon budget officials calculate the actual direct cost of waging the Indochina war has reached $119.3 billion.This is nearly seven times what it took to fight the $18 billion Korean War but only a bit more than one-fifth the $330 billion price of American participation in World War II, allowing for depreciation of the dollar.Following are statistical breakouts and comparisons which convey the magnitude of the U. S. involvement in Vietnam and certain effects of the war:MANPOWER - CASUALTIESPentagon authorities estimate that more than 3 million American servicemen’have done tours in Southeast Asia, nearly 40 per cent of at least 7.6 million in U.S. uniform during the war period.More than 16.1 million Americans were on active duty in World War II and 73 per cent of them, or nearly 12 million, went overseas.In the Korean War 1,789,000men, or almost one-third of the 5.7 million enrolled, were shipped to the Far East Command.Through April 24, the roll of those Americans wounded seriously enough to require hospital care carried 150,671 names, some 47,000 more than in the Korean War but about half a million fewer than World War H.Prisoners of war are among the saddest victims, particularlysome American fliers who have been in North Vietnamese hands six years and longer with no sign when, or if, they may be freed.As things stand, the Pentagon lists 1,651 servicemen as captured or missing. Only a tricle, 54 men, have been freed by the enemy. Most were captured orcounted as missing after their planes wqre shot down during the air war against North Vietnam from early 1965 to late 1968.The South Vietnamese held 37, 381 enemy prisoners, according to a report reflecting the situation in early February, the last available report.In Korea, 7,152 American soldiers were taken captive. In World War II there were 128,-782 U. S. POWs. But in neither war did U. S. servicemen stay penned behind barbed wire as long as some have in Southeast Asia.'The General Accounting Office, the Congress’ investigating agency, reported to a Senate Judiciary subcommittee last December that “there continues to be no reliable measure of the total number of civilian war-related casualties in Vietnam.”Nonetheless, the subcommittee, headed by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., has since provided estimates that 1,050,000 civilians in South Vietnam have become casualties, including 325,000 killed.Asked how the subcommittee arrived at its estimates, a staff member said they are based on a formula which takes the number of persons admitted to hospitals and extrapolates the figures. He said spot checks were made as well.The Senate subcommittee staff official also claimed that South Vietnamese government records reflect 131,000 war widows, 258,000 orphans and 156,200 physically disabled.As questionable as statistics on civilian casualties in South Vietnam may be, there is nothing dependable on such losses in North Vietnam, Laos or Cambodia.The Hanoi government claimed wanton U.S. bombing of the North Vietnamese population; the U.S. government claimed its pilots were instructed to avoid civilian targets and that few in the north were killed.America critics of U.S. involvement in Indochina say many Lao peasants were slain during bombing of the Ho Chi M:nh trail and South Vietnamese ground attacks on that enemy supply net in Laos. American authorities retort that very few natives live in the Laotian panhandle, and big civilian life loss there is impossible.A footnote:The U.S. Strategic BombingSurvey conducted after WorldWar II found that some 300,000German civilians were killed,780,000 wounded and 7.5 million made homeless by Allied air raids which destroyed 3.6 million homes.The same survey said 806,000 Japanese civilians were killed and injured, including 113,000 slain and 111,000 wounded at the atom bombed cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Another 8.3 million Japanese were left without homes in a U.S. homing campaign that lasted only abouteight months at the end of that war.BOMBS AND OTHER MUNITIONSThough limited to the Indochina peninsula, this war has used up more than 5.8 million tons of bombs, a significant part of this enormous tonnage dropped by giant B52 bombers on the jungles of South Vietnam and Laos.This dwarfs the 2.057.244 tons of bombs unloaded bv U.S. forces over Europe. North Africa and Pacific targets in all of World War II, and the 635,000 tons dropped by U.S. planes during the Korean War.The volume of artillery and other ground and ship-fired munitions exploded in Southeast Asia tops the air bombardment total, reaching nearly 5.9 million tons by the end of 1970.By Comparison, Army Military History Office specialists estimate that about 6 million tons of ammunition were fired in World War II.The volume of munitions actually used in Korea was not available, but records indicate more than 2.6 million tons of high explosives were shipped to the Far East Command.AIRCRAFT LOSSESThe United States has made massive use of air power in this war, and on many occasions it has provided the margin that saved South Vietnamese and U.S. ground troops, such as in the siege of Khe Sanh in 1S68.But the price has been high.Through April 20, this country has lost 3,327 fixed wing planes, mostly expensive jets, in combat and in accidents. The overall cost: about $6,654,000,000.Also 4,441 helicopters have been destroyed. The bill: $1,1 billion.This does not include thousands of damaged planes and helicopters restored to usable shape. Officials say they don't have the figures that would tell how much money this involved.America lost 27,137 planes fighting on a global scale in World War II and 3,001 in the Korean conflict.But planes were much cheaper then.You could buy a World War II B17 bomber for $190,000, less than the average $250,000 price of a helicopter nowadays. A Korea War F86 jet fighter went for$212,000 while the average jet fighter bomber in the Vietnam war is worth about $2 million.AFTER EFFECTSSome of the actions of both sides could leave a long wake of destruction.For example, what will happen in years to come to the more than 5.5 million acres of South Vietnam which were sprayed with defoliating chemicals?Then there is the lingering danger from unexploded bombs and artillery shells, as well as from mines—and booby traps planted by the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese—throughout the country.Nobody knows how many there are, or where they are. They will be Vietnam’s unhappy legacy.■±iave Cleaner,Fresher Air!Sears ElectronicMENSCLOTHINGOUTLET%r.y’S/myMr!Y-7Llli/v.vrMen's QualityClothingAtFACTORYPRICESBig savings are involved on all of our sport coats so we can't tell you the outstanding and well
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Petersburg Progress Index
Petersburg, Virginia, US
Mon, May 10, 1971
Page 81
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