In 1973, the United States listed 2,646 Americans as unaccounted for from the entire Vietnam War. By October 2022, 1,582 Americans remained unaccounted for, of which 1,004 were classified as further pursuit, 488 as non-recoverable and 90 as deferred.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency lists 684 POWs returned home alive from the Vietnam War — the majority after the U.S. pulled out of the war in 1973. (The war officially ended April 30, 1975). There are 1,582 Americans still unaccounted for, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
NOW IS THE TIME FOR INCREASED RESULTS! Accountability: As of today, the Department of Defense lists 1,579 Americans as missing and unaccounted-for, over 90% of them in Vietnam and in areas of Cambodia and Laos where Vietnamese forces operated during the war. from Vietnam, 43 from Cambodia and 3 from the PRC.
Continued accounting
For instance, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the number of U.S. military and civilian personnel still unaccounted for from the Vietnam War was given as 1,621 as of March 23, 2016.
After Operation Homecoming, the U.S. still listed roughly 1,350 Americans as prisoners of war or missing in action and sought the return of roughly 1,200 Americans reported killed in action, but whose bodies were not recovered. These missing personnel would become the subject of the Vietnam War POW/MIA issue.
Robert Russell Garwood (born April 1, 1946) is a former United States Marine. Often cited as the last verified American prisoner of war (POW) from the Vietnam War, Garwood was captured on September 28, 1965 by Việt Cộng forces near Da Nang, Quang Nam Province.
She Became America's First Female POW There. Dr. Eleanor Ardel Vietti, known as Ardel, joined the Christian and Missionary Alliance in 1957 and was sent to the Ban Me Thuot Leprosarium in the midst of tiger-infested jungles.
In 1973, after the peace accords, Hanoi returned 591 American prisoners and said these were all the prisoners they had. Yet more than 2,200 American military men are still missing and unaccounted for from the Vietnam War. Half or more of those men are known to be dead though their remains have never been recovered.
Our research and operational missions involve coordination with hundreds of countries and municipalities worldwide. As of the latest update on May 22, 2023, more than 81,000 Americans remain missing from WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and the Gulf Wars/other conflicts.
The conditions at the prison were appalling, and prisoners were frequently tortured. American POWs bore this suffering until the end of the war. With the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973, the American withdrawal had a firm end date. As such, the North Vietnamese released the POWs they still held.
At the end of the war, there were approximately 79,000 Americans unaccounted for. This number included those buried with honor as unknowns, officially buried at sea, lost at sea, and missing in action. Today, more than 73,000 of those lost Americans remain totally unaccounted for from WWII.
During World War II, Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany (towards Soviet POWs and Western Allied commandos) were notorious for atrocities against prisoners of war.
North Vietnamese torture was exceptionally cruel--prison guards bound POWs' arms and legs with tight ropes and then dislocated them, and left men in iron foot stocks for days or weeks. Extreme beatings were common, many times resulting in POW deaths.
Floyd James "Jim" Thompson (July 8, 1933 – July 16, 2002) was a United States Army colonel. He was one of the longest-held American prisoners of war, spending nearly nine years in captivity in the forests and mountains of South Vietnam, Laos, and North Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
While Vietnam veterans came home to an indifferent-to-hostile society, the biggest catalysts for homelessness were the lack of mental health care, addiction treatment and job training. Several of the root causes of homelessness were abundant among veterans at this time, and there were few resources to address them.
Oklahomans and the Vietnam War
Unlike veterans of other wars, Vietnam veterans did not return home to cheers and ceremonies. Most Americans wanted to forget the trauma of the Vietnam War and move on. As a result Vietnam veterans were seen as a reminder of defeat and of a time that should be forgotten.
America's direct eight-year intervention in the Vietnam War was at an end. In Saigon, some 7,000 U.S. Department of Defense civilian employees remained behind to aid South Vietnam in conducting what looked to be a fierce and ongoing war with communist North Vietnam.
California had the highest number of Vietnam War casualties among all states, with 5,575 deaths. The state had the highest number of soldiers deployed to Vietnam, which contributed to the high number of casualties.
In 2021, there were 49.41 million females and 49.1 million males in Vietnam's population. In that year, the population of Vietnam exceeded 98.5 million people.
According to the General Office for Population and Family Planning, the country's sex ratio at birth has reached 112 boys per 100 girls in 2021. Vietnam is among three countries with the highest rate of sex ratio imbalance, behind only China and India.
Many of the women and children were held in prison camps in terrible conditions and forced on death marches. Some women were killed on sight and others were raped, beaten, and forced to become sex slaves.
Army Corps Nurses arrived in Vietnam as early as 1956. 90% of women who served were volunteer nurses. 8 American military women were killed the Vietnam War. 59 civilian women were killed the Vietnam War.
Months later, the first Vietnam POWs to return home would learn that their rescuers were their wives, a group of women that included Jane Denton, Sybil Stockdale, Louise Mulligan, Andrea Rander, Phyllis Galanti, and Helene Knapp.