Flaherty, who had to obtain a waiver to join the Army during the Vietnam War because of his size, was a paratrooper and platoon leader with the 101st and received a Silver Star for leading his platoon on a flanking assault of an enemy bunker. Over the ten years of the war, Operation Ranch Hand sprayed about eleven million gallons of Agent Orange on the South Vietnamese landscape. Partly due to their young age and working-class backgrounds, the U.S. soldiers in Vietnam did not tend to be well-educated. The mortality rate among injured soldiers in Vietnam was less than 1 in 100 casualties compared with 2.5 in 100 during the Korean War. What was the avreage age of a soldier killed in combat in Vietnam? Others grew frustrated with the U.S. military strategy, which seemed to risk their lives on endless patrols without any clear purpose. Myth: The war was fought largely by the poor and uneducated. They tried to avoid combat whenever possible and did not form close relationships with other members of their military units. "The military mission became to inflict casualties and the primary reason for existence became to minimize your own casualties. You love the miracle of your own enduring capacity for love. In addition, black soldiers often received less desirable housing and duty assignments than white soldiers in the same unit. After that initial post-service period, Vietnam veterans were no more likely to die from suicide than non-Vietnam veterans. Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad: Feb. 26. Many American veterans, as well as citizens who had donated their pets, were angry and disgusted at the treatment the military dogs received. "Vietnam was a place where the elite went as reporters, not as soldiers," reporter David Halberstam noted. They were more educated, affluent, and older than any assembled American fighting force of equipment, including a ten-pound musket. The planes doing the bombing near the village were VNAF (Vietnam Air Force) and were being flown by Vietnamese pilots in support of South Vietnamese troops on the ground. many people from Harvard won Pulitzer Prizes [a prestigious award for journalism] in Vietnam as died there.". American soldiers knew that the war was unpopular at home. Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers. 7,484 women served in Vietnam, of whom 6,250 or 83.5% were nurses. Richard Flaherty is laid to rest in an unmarked grave in Milton near Lisa Anness, a woman he described as the love of his life. It is As an example, heavy Since the draft officially ended in 1973, many people have studied the role it played in determining the racial, ethnic, and social class makeup of the American troops in Vietnam. Burkett and Glenna Whitley, Verity Press, Inc., Dallas, TX, 1998. As American soldiers grew more frustrated with the war and how it was being conducted, some began to take out their frustrations on officers. In fact, some South Vietnamese civilians (people not involved in the military, including women and children) actively helped the Viet Cong guerillas (small groups of fighters who launch surprise attacks) that the Americans were fighting against. was several blocks from the Pittman Apartments. Id known him for 15 years, and this was the first time he ever mentioned the military. The building is the Pittman Apartments, a 10 . ", One reason that many U.S. soldiers suspected that the South Vietnamese villagers cooperated with the Viet Cong was that the villagers never seemed to trip land mines. [Westmoreland], Democracy Catching On - In the wake of the Cold War, democracies are flourishing, with 179 of the world's 192 sovereign states (93%) now electing their legislators, according to the Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union. "Perhaps the best single image with which to synthesize [combine By contrast, there still are 78,000 unaccounted-for Americans from World War II and 8,100 from the Korean conflict. In the following passage from his book A Rumor of War, former Marine Philip Caputo describes the emotional toll these hidden explosive devices took on the troops: The foot soldier has a special feeling for the ground. For example, young men who had physical problems, were enrolled in college, worked in an industry that was vital to the war effort, were needed at home to support a family, or joined the National Guard might be granted deferments. The Washington Post on how to fix freight rail. He used to spend all day at a movie theater. One-third were volunteers who had chosen to join the military. Viet Cong guerillas liked to launch surprise attacks at night or during bad weather in order to gain an advantage over the Americans and their powerful weapons. story building where the CIA station chief and many of his officers lived, located at 22 Ly Tu Trong St. If you forget it, you'll be able to recover it using your email address. . In his new life as a civilian, Flaherty studied at the University of Miami in Florida, but entered a period of despondency after a girlfriend died in a car wreck in 1975. An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the e-mail address listed on your account. Instead, the dogs were classified as "surplus armaments" (extra military equipment) and either put to sleep or left with the South Vietnamese army when the U.S. troops were withdrawn in 1973. They were Kim's cousins not her brothers. "No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. evidence of enemy activities. Capt. At the time, Yuzuk was a police officer and Flaherty was a member of Aventuras homeless community, camping under a palm tree off one of the citys main boulevards. The peace settlement was signed in Paris on 27 January 1973. See answer (1) Best Answer. [CACF]. "When GIs couldn't tell friend from foe, they came to hate and despise them all," Cecil B. Curry explains in Self-Destruction: The Disintegration and Decay of the United States Army during the Vietnam Era. Also, it has been incorrectly reported that two of Kim Phuc's brothers were killed in this incident. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. troop numbers peaked in 1968 with President Johnson approving an increased maximum number of U.S. troops in Vietnam at 549,500. Ebert, James R. A Life in a Year: The American Infantryman in Vietnam,19651972. Drugs were inexpensive and easy to obtain in Vietnam. rsteelhammer@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5169 or follow. [People]. Vietnam seldom flew above 1,500 feet which is traffic pattern altitude for Free shipping for many products! An automobile accident or other traumatic event also can cause it. Of the 40 percent that did serve in the military in the late 1960s and early 1970s, only about 2.5 million went to Vietnam. In some instances, they beat up women, children, or elderly men who refused to give them information. 58,169 were killed and 304,000 wounded out of 2.59 million who served. An old story, I guess. Rarely have so many people been so wrong about so much. During the spring "monsoon" season it would rain nonstop for days at a time. Myth: Air America, the airline operated by the CIA in Southeast Asia, and its pilots were involved in drug trafficking. [VHPA databases], Army AH-1G's totaled more than 1,166,344 flight hours in Vietnam. They tended to be assigned to dangerous combat duty more often than white soldiers. After all, these dogs had served their country as loyal soldiers, and many of them were considered heroes for saving men's lives. This low overall average probably was due to the larger number of "new" Americansimmi- grants or first-generation Americans. WebThis oft-repeated fact comes from the 1985 Paul Hardcastle song "19. [Nixon] No More Vietnams by Richard Nixon. Maclear, Michael. Approximately 5'8" average height. (the herbicide was called "orange" in Vietnam, not Agent Orange. Another factor was the frustration and uncertainty the Myth: Kim Phuc, the little nine year old Vietnamese girl running naked from the napalm strike near Trang Bang on 8 June 1972, was burned by Americans bombing Trang Bang. "That's just unheard of to do that to a four-footed soldier," U.S. Army dog handler John Burnam stated. After a few brushes with law enforcement, Flaherty reportedly worked as a confidential informant for the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in the early 1980s before becoming homeless in Aventura by 1990. [The Wall Street Journal]. The average infantryman in the South Pacific during World War II saw about 40 days of combat in four years. The final third enlisted because they expected to be drafted soon. The pilots who were flying this helicopter, Phan Rang, Vietnam 2. Encyclopedia.com. Item Height: 14.5 cm. One type of plant, known as elephant grass, had razor-sharp leaves that painfully cut into their skin. Richard J. Flaherty may never be known. A Rumor of War. The Vietnam War was shortly after China got involved in the Korean war, the time of the Cuban missile crisis, Soviet aggression in Eastern Europe and the proliferation of nuclear bombs. In fact, antiwar organizations often held meetings on college campuses to inform potential draftees about their options. "I hailed from a steel community and we handed out 29,000 boys from my county alone. In the early years of the war, many African American men viewed military service as a positive thing. ." casualties increased, some soldiers were overcome by fear. [1996 Information Please Almanac] 1995 Information Please Almanac Atlas & Yearbook 49th edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston & New York 1996, pages 117, 161 and 292. More than 2.5 million American men served in Vietnam during the war. "Among the infantrymen, the 'grunts,' this was known as 'humping the boonies. WebBelow are two tables which report the average adult human height by country or geographical region. The average age of American troops in Vietnam was nineteen, compared to an average age of twenty-six for U.S. soldiers in World War II (193945). The great majority of these efforts have erroneously portrayed many myths about the Vietnam War as being facts. Isolated atrocities committed by American soldiers produced torrents of outrage from antiwar critics and the news media while Communist atrocities were so common that they received hardly any attention at all. [All That We Can Be]. Item Width: Average for the last 12 While many draft-age males of that era sought ways to avoid being among the 385,000 troops sent to the beleaguered Southeast Asian nation that year, Flaherty was working the angles to find a way in. The fertile river valleys tended to be flat and fairly open, but also extremely wet. Low 54F. The American military was not defeated in Vietnam. The majority of draftees serving in Vietnam happened post-1965 (generally, 1967-1970) - that is, the profile of a US soldier in Vietnam prior to 1966 was very significantly different than post-1966. The fall of Saigon happened 30 April 1975, two years AFTER the American military left Vietnam. (as Cincinnatus). Sadly, only 200 of the American military dogs returned to the United States at the end of the Vietnam War. Vietnamese peasants grew rice in these lowland WebThe average age of American troops in Vietnam was nineteen, compared to an average age of twenty-six for U.S. soldiers in World War II (193945). But many other American soldiers conducted themselves honorably throughout their time in Vietnam. When he graduated high school in 1966, the 4-foot-9-inch man was 3 inches under the Army's height requirement. Evening headlines from the Charleston Gazette-Mail, The latest in travel and recreation around West Virginia, The daily opinion newsletter from the Charleston Gazette-Mail. This unfamiliar environment made their jobs more difficult and unpleasant. different ideas into one] the physical experience of the American combat soldier in Vietnam would be that of a column of men spaced about five yards apart; burdened with 80-pound packs; wearing thick armored vests called flak jackets; carrying rifles, mortars, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, and three or four canteens; and patrolling on foot through jungles, mountains, or rice paddies," Appy writes. The Washington Post on how to fix freight rail. "But she watches your men walk down a trail and get WebFind many great new & used options and get the best deals for JXK1/6 North American Gray Wolf Model LXF2209 12" Soldier Accessory Decor Gift at the best online prices at eBay! "If the war was so important, why didn't our leaders put everyone's son in there, why only us?". 36. Encyclopedias almanacs transcripts and maps. You love your mom and dad, the Vikings, hamburgers on the grill, your pulse, your futureeverything that might be lost or never come to be. Capt. WebU.S. Today, interviews with vets give Without that commitment, Communism would have swept all the way to the Malacca Straits that is south of Singapore and of great strategic importance to the free world. To some American combat soldiers in Vietnam, mines and booby traps turned the land into an enemy more frightening and deadly than the Viet Cong. Flaherty led his platoon in a flanking assault on the enemy position, during which an NVA bunker was spotted. The northern section, which was led by a Communist government under Ho Chi Minh, was officially known as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, but was usually called North Vietnam. Approximately 5'8" average height. Antiwar groups claimed that the increasing numbers of desertions proved that the American combat troops opposed the war. Appy estimates that the American forces in Vietnam consisted of twenty-five percent poor, fifty-five percent working-class, and twenty percent middle-class men. Marijuana use peaked at 58 percent of U.S. forces during this period, while heroin use This soldier of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam is equipped with US weapon, uniform, webbing, and radio pack. In the My Lai massacre of 1968, for example, U.S. troops raided a South Vietnamese village and killed between 300 and 400 innocent civilians (see box titled "The My Lai Massacre" in Chapter 12, "Nixon's War (19691970)"). But experts suspect that many other incidents went unreported or were made to look like accidents. The valleys were surrounded by steep hills and rugged mountains that were covered by a thick jungle of trees and tropical plants. [McCaffrey], MEDEVAC helicopters flew nearly 500,000 missions. The number of U.S. soldiers who left their units for more than 30 days without permission increased from 15 per 1,000 in 1966 to 70 per 1,000 in 1972. But these deferments were not available to students who had to work their way through college on a part-time basis. After a while, whenever Id see him, Id give him a little head nod and hed do the same. Another villageand nothing there. He gave me a friendly nip on the hand and looked at me. When sprayed on dense jungle foliage, less that 6 percent ever reached the ground. 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. Working-Class War: American Combat Soldiers and Vietnam. South Vietnamese military and political leader; president of the Republic of Vietnam, 196775 Statements in the storage unit showed that he had several thousand dollars in bank accounts, while a passport and receipts from a travel agent indicated that during the time he was homeless, he had made trips to such countries as Jordan, Venezuela, Thailand, Singapore and Cambodia. These tiring and unpleasant patrols made up much of an average U.S. combat soldier's experience in Vietnam. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. Of the 58,256 Americans listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the "We (Americans) had nothing to do with controlling VNAF," according to Lieutenant General (Ret) James F. Hollingsworth, the Commanding General of TRAC at that time. It was a "civilian" (Air America) Huey not Army or Marines. [1996 Information Please Almanac], There were almost twice as many casualties in Southeast Asia (primarily Cambodia) the first two years after the fall of Saigon in 1975 then there were during the ten years the U.S. was involved in Vietnam. Their feelings of vulnerability were increased by strained relations with Vietnam's rural communities. The Discarded Army. "Viewing all Vietnamese as less than human released American boys from their own humanity.". They also hid in villages or dense jungles and fired upon U.S. troops as they passed by on patrol. 2/3 of the men who served in World War II were drafted. What was the average age of soldiers in Vietnam? In 1971, for example, 5,000 American soldiers were hospitalized for combat wounds, while 20,500 were treated for drug abuse. "Every time we slapped someone around, or trashed a village, or shouted curses from a jeep, we defined ourselves as the enemy and thereby handed more power and legitimacy to the people we had to beat.". We fought to an agreed stalemate. During the early years of the war, many American servicemen supported the U.S. government's decision to become involved in Vietnam. Recent reports in the news media that an American commander ordered the air strike that burned Kim Phuc are incorrect. [Parade Magazine] August 18, 1996 page 10. MILTON The shortest soldier to serve in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, a highly decorated officer who completed one tour of duty as a platoon leader with an airborne battalion and another as a Green Beret captain, lies at rest in an as-yet unmarked grave in a Milton cemetery. Some historians blame the American antiwar movement for the decline in the motivation and performance of , two years after the American antiwar movement for the decline in South! Place where the elite went as reporters, not as soldiers, '' U.S. Army dog John. 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