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Griffin Daily News
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NEWEST IN RIFLES is held by SP/4 Rodney W. Henning in
South Vietnam. It weighs six pounds, one and a half less
than the much-criticized M-16, and can be fired as rapidly
as a submachinegun. Henning is from Chippewa Falls, Wis.
RAY CAOMLEY
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True Viet Casualty Figures
Right from Pentagon Files
By RAY*CROMLEY
NEA Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON (NEA)
Though the Defense Department’s casualty figures are
highly misleading, unpublished data stashed away in Penta
gon files gives a fairly accurate picture of the cost of the
Vietnam war in lives and injuries. v
The picture that data gives is much different from the
“100,000-plus casualties” widely reported.
Os the 102,000 casualties due to enemy action up to Oct. 7,
1967, slightly more than 77,000 have returned to action. An
estimated 6,000 to 7,000 more will return to action. About
17,000 to 18,000 of the 12,000 were disabled or killed and
slightly less than 800 missing or captured.
The figures are even more interesting when broken down
in greater detail.
Os the 102,000 casualties due to enemy action to date:
• 13,736 were killed, or died of wounds or died while miss
ing or after being captured.
• An estimated 3,000 to 4,000 have been or will be dis
charged as disabled.
• Some 570 arc missing and 212 captured.
• 24,000 “casualties” were never off duty; that is, they
Were outpatients.
• An estimated 17,500 were off duty for a night or a day
or two.
• Approximately 22,000 other men were or will be off duty
for less than 30 days.
• Roughly 14,000 more were or will be off duty for less than
60 days.
• An estimated 6,000 to 7,000 additional have been or will
be off duty for more than two months.
There is also data in the files on the type of wounds the
American soldier is suffering in Vietnam.
Thirty-nine per cent of those Gls hospitalized suffer from
wounds in the legs, thighs or feet (the lower extremities), 22
per cent in the upper extremities, 12 per cent in the head and
neck, 7 per cent in the abdomen and 7 per cent in the thorax.
Almost 13 per cent are “multiple wounds” and miscellaneous.
Almost 62 per cent of the combat deaths, where known,
have been from small arms. Slightly over 29 per cent of the
deaths were from grenade, mortar and other fragments, 9 per
cent from booby traps and mines.
The figures are quite different for nonfatal wounds. More
than 54 per cent have been from fragments, 20 per cent from
booby traps, mines and junji stakes. (The stakes alone ac
counted for 8 per cent of all nonfatal wounds). Small arms
fire was responsible for a quarter of the wounds that didn’l
1 result in death.
In Vietnam from July 1965 through May 1967 deaths due tc
combat were 20 per thousand average troop strength pci
year, as compared to a rate of 43 for Korea and 52 for the
European Theater of Operations from June 1944 through May
1945.
Using the same base period in Vietnam, U.S. Army troops
with nonfatal wounds were admitted to medical facilities at
the rate of 86 per thousand average strength per year. In
Korea, the rate was 121 and in the European Theater of
Operations from D-Day to V-E Day it was 152.
BRUCE BIOSSAT
LBJ Aides Are Optimistic
On Outcome of Viet War
, By BRUCE BIOSSAT
I NEA Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON (NEA)
The Johnson administration is growing increasingly confi
dent about the outcome of the Vietnam war at the very time
Sopular disenchantment with it is reaching unprecedented
eights.
Vice President Humphrey, who, of course, sees the key war
reports, is known to believe that U.S. bombing of North Viet
nam, is proving heavily effective for the first time.
The steadily more daring raids on the port facilities at
Haiphong are said to be hurting Hanoi’s supply flow to forces
in South Vietnam seriously.
Raids along a lengthy s'tretch of the North Vietnam-China
Border may be even more telling. Hanoi has long been using
as a war-preparation sanctuary the 30-mile border zone
where U.S. bombers feared to go because of the danger of
Violating Chinese air space. Sophisticated new flying tech
niques have nearly eliminated that peril and permitted re
peated attacks against storage depots.
Except for the pounding Red forces are giving dug-in Ma
rines at Con Thien and other fixed points below the “demili
tarized” North Vietnam-South Vietnam border, Hanoi and the
iViet Cong are not mounting anything major.
A high administration official not given to bursts of opti
mism about the war told this reporter that the situation today
is “a whacking amount better” than it has ever been in the
2'z years since sizable U.S. forces entered Vietnam.
He believes that, aside from the troublesome DMZ area,
Hanoi is on a downhill slide. Guerrilla activity is weakened.
Viet Cong recruitment is said to be down by half.
One consequence of the rising confidence about the war in
administration circles is that some key officials seem much
less nettled than they once were over antiwar criticism from
some intellectuals.
In a few instances, official attitudes now border closely on
contempt. .A widening feeling is that the critics have never
produced viable alternatives and have ignored the larger
strategic aspects of the war in Southeast Asia.
It is felt that Secretary of State Dean Rusk's stress on this
aspect, with focus upon Red China as the great enemy, repre
sents a significant turn in the administration’s argument for
Its war policies.
The President himself foreshadowed this turn in his late
September San Antonio speech. As long ago as March, 1966,
the Vice President urged him to give heavier emphasis to
China’s role. Concern for possible direct Chinese involvement
is thought to have held Johnson back.
One top authority thinks that, even though the war is going
much better, the gains are not dramatically visible to the
American people and are not likely to be in ihe next several
months at least. He suspects a continuing clamor of discon
tent which could present a grave peril to the President in a
1968 re-election bid.
Though the Vice President is understood to be one of those
sharing in the present more confident mood, nothing suggests
he has any illusions about the difficulties facing a Johnson-
Humphrey ticket next year. Some “visible victories” are
needed in Vietnam. The hard question is how to get them.
6
Friday, October 20, 1967
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