Thursday, September 09, 2004

Iraq and Vietnam: WIA and KIA

A comment on my comparison of deaths in Iraq v. Vietnam wondered whether or not the including total casualties (those killed and wounded) would show less of difference between the two casualties. I wasn't able to find total casualties by month or for 1965 for Vietnam, but here they are for 1961-1965 and 1966:

Vietnam:
1961-1965
KIA: 1864
WIA:7337
Total Casualties: 9201

1966:
KIA: 5008
WIA: 29,992
Total Casualties: 35,000

1961-1966
KIA: 6872
WIA: 37329
Total Casualties: 44,201

Iraq:
2003
KIA: 482
WIA: 2408
Total Casualties: 2890

2004
KIA: 523
WIA: 4089
Total Casualties: 4612

2003-2004
KIA: 1005
WIA: 6497
Total Casualties: 7502

Again, because of the differing dates, this isn't a perfect comparison. Nonetheless, even when you look at WIA and total casualties, as well as KIAs, Iraq is a much lower intensity conflict than Vietnam.

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