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Note: Figures on the number of living veterans reflect final 1990 Census data and include only veterans living in the United States. Details may not add to total due to rounding.

Casualties of War - Putting American Casualties in Perspective

by R.G. Price - November 3, 2003

The United States of America has a somewhat unique relationship with war. While America is considered to be the most militarily powerful country in the world today, Americans as a whole have never experienced war in the way that many other countries of the world have. There is a huge disparity between the American experience of war and the global experience. This may have an impact on American attitudes towards war. Presented below are various statistics on causalities of war. The information is useful for reference material, but it is also useful for gaining an understanding of the human cost of war, and the cost of war for Americans compared to the rest of the world, which may be helpful in understanding cultural attitudes about war.  

The total number of Americans killed in action from all major wars combined, the ten listed below, is 2,757,196, which, while a disheartening number, is about the same as the number of Vietnamese that died in the Vietnam War alone.

 

The War	Duration in months
Revolutionary War	80
War of 1812	30
Mexican-American War	20
Civil War	48
Spanish-American War	4
World War I	19
World War II	44
Korean War	37
Vietnam War	90
Gulf War	1

 

 

War	Casualties	KIA
Revolutionary War	10,623	4,435
War of 1812	6,765	2,260
Mexican-American War	17,435	1,733
Civil War	970,227	184,594
Spanish-American War	4,108	385
World War I	320,710	53,513
World War II	1,078,162	292,131
Korean War	136,935	33,651
Vietnam War	211,471	47,369
Gulf War	760	148

 

 

World War I
Country	Military Personnel	Military Deaths	Military Casualties
Russia	12,000,000	1,700,000	9,150,000
Germany	11,000,000	1,773,700	7,142,558
Austria-Hungary	7,800,000	1,200,000	7,020,000
France	8,410,000	1,357,800	6,160,800
British Empire	8,904,467	908,371	3,190,235
Italy	5,615,000	650,000	2,197,000
Turkey	2,850,000	325,000	975,000
United States	4,355,000	126,000	364,800
Others	4,104,343	497,444	1,298,293

 

 

 

 

World War II Deaths
Country	Military	Civilian	Total
Soviet Union	13,600,000	7,700,000	21,300,000
China	1,324,000	10,000,000	11,324,000
Germany	3,250,000	3,810,000	7,060,000
Poland	850,000	6,000,000	6,850,000
Japan	1,506,000	300,000	1,806,000
Yugoslavia	300,000	1,400,000	1,700,000
Rumania	520,000	465,000	985,000
France	340,000	470,000	810,000
Hungary	?	?	750,000
Austria	380,000	145,000	525,000
Greece	?	?	520,000
Italy	330,000	80,000	410,000
Czechoslovakia	?	?	400,000
Great Britain	326,000	62,000	388,000
USA	295,000	N/A	295,000
Holland	14,000	236,000	250,000
Belgium	10,000	75,000	85,000
Finland	79,000	?	79,000
Canada	39,000	N/A	39,000
India	36,000	?	36,000
Australia	29,000	N/A	29,000
Spain	12,000	10,000	22,000
Bulgaria	19,000	2,000	21,000
New Zealand	12,000	N/A	12,000
South Africa	9,000	N/A	9,000
Norway	5,000	?	5,000
Denmark	4,000	?	4,000
Total	23,289,000	30,755,000	55,714,000

 

(Note that Australian, British, French, Chinese, Laotian, Cambodian, and several other nationalities were involved in the Vietnam war as well, but I don't have their statistics shown here. Laos is actually the most heavily bombed country in world history, and one person is still killed by American bombs an average of every two days in Laos currently, some 25 years after the war. It is estimated that it will take another 100 years to completely rid Laos of all the unexploded American ordinance that remains in the country.)

American dead - 58,169

Vietnamese killed by American military - 1,165,000+

 

The Vietnam Veteran's Memorial, also known as The Wall, is 493 feet long, or almost 1/10th of a mile. A Vietnamese equivalent to this memorial, including both North and South Vietnamese military and civilians who were killed by the American military, would be 9,903 feet, or almost 1.9 miles, long. This does not include disease and starvation deaths, injuries, or South Vietnamese killed by the North Vietnamese Army.

 

Sources:

http://www.cwc.lsu.edu/cwc/other/stats/warcost.htm

http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat2.htm

http://www.valourandhorror.com/DB/BACK/Casualties.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWdeaths.htm

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