With A Rough Translation and Commentary

The AFP release, which I'm not going to translate word for word, says that the Hanoi government revealed on April 3 that the true civilian casualties of the VN war were 2,000,000 in the north, 2,000,000 in the south. Military casualties were 1.1 million killed and 600,000 wounded in 21 years of war (1963-74). These figures were deliberately falsified during the war by the North VN nationalists to avoid demoralizing the population, according to the French article. On the US side, the figures given are 58,200 US soldiers killed, 223,748 South Vietnamese soldiers, and 5,200 South Koreans, Australians, New Zealanders, and Thais forced to fight for US imperialism. The total therefore comes to around 5.4 million deaths in Vietnam alone (including the US and its lacayos), but these figures don't factor in Laos and Cambodia.

Given a Vietnamese population of around 38 million during the war years, Vietnamese casualties represent a good 12-13% of the country. So anyone who thinks that US bosses aren't worse than Hitler is living on an oasis in Disneyland.

HANOI (AP) -April 4. Cinq millions de morts: 20 ans après la fin de la guerre du Vietnam, le gouvernement de Hanoi a révélé, lundi, le bilan d'un conflit dent le nombre de victimes avait été minore a l'époque pour ne pas affecter le moral de la population.

Selon Hanoi, il y a eu pres de deux millions de morts dans la population civile du Nord et deux autres millions dans celle du Sud. Quant aux combats proprement dits, les chiffres sent d'un million cent mille militaires tués et de 600.000 blessés en 21 ans de guerre.

Ce dernier bilan comprend a la fois les victimes de la guerilla vietcong et les soldats nord-vietamiens qui les épaulaient. Les précédentes estimations de source occidentale faisaient état d'un bilan de 666.000 morts parmi Ies combattants vietnamiens.

Apr. 7 (1995) -- Harvard University today revoked its admission of an applicant who, when she was 14, had killed her abusive, alcoholic mother. Does this mean that Harvard will posthumously expel JFK or retroactively fire professors Henry Kissinger and Samuel P. Huntington? These butchers have on their hands the blood of 5,000,000 Vietnamese workers (according to figures Vietnam released in April) and 60,000 US GIs.

BACK to Table of Contents of Grover Furr's Vietnam War Page.

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