PROOF OF THE NATURE OF VIETNAM CONFLICT
A statistical study of American ground casualties in the fighting in Vietnam offers striking indirect confirmation that the ~ conflict is primarily of a civil nature, involving largely guerrilla forces. The study, reported in the New York Times of October 7, compares the character of wounds inflicted on American troops in World War II, the Korean war and Vietnam.
About 61% of the killed or wounded in 1944, a typical year of the second world war, were caused by fragments from artillery and mortar shells. Only 18% were due to bullets from rifles, machine © oe guns and other small arms. 7
In Korea about 50% of the wounds were caused by artillery and mortar shells. Some 27% were due to bullets.
In Vietnam, on the other hand, only 18. 9% of a sampling of American casualties were victims of mortar shells while’ BA. 7% were wounded by bullets.
"Military analysts," reports the Times, "believe the contrast between the Vietnam casualties and those of the earlier wars directly reflects the fact that the American soldier in Vietnam faces a guerrilla-type enemy rather than a conventional armed force."
The radically different nature of the fighting in comparison to a "conventional" war is shown in other ways, too. In World War II, about 1.6% of American casualties were caused by grenades. In Korea the percentage was about 8%. In Vietnam it is 15.7%. , a
Similarly, in World War II only 3.1% of American ground casualties were caused by mines and booby traps. In Korea the figure was 3.9%. In Vietnam it is 20.6%.
The statistics also indicate that the arms used by the Vietnamese freedom fighters are by and large seized from the foe or are — home-made. Whatever equipment is being received from sources like China and the Soviet Union would also seem to consist mostly of small arms.