Much has changed in the United States and Vietnam after tanks from communist North Vietnam burst through the gates of the Presidential Palace in Saigon 40 years ago on Thursday, but the war also left a permanent mark on both nations. Here are some key numbers related to the Vietnam War and how Vietnam has changed in the 40 years since the fall of Saigon.
The people-
92.5 million - Vietnam’s population in 2014. More than two-thirds of the country was born after the war ended.
More than 1.3 million- Number of Americans of Vietnamese ethnic origin, up from 231,000 in 1980.
The casualties:
Over 58,000 - Number of U.S. servicemen killed in Vietnam and neighbouring Laos and Cambodia.
Over 3 million - Number of Vietnamese Communist fighters and civilians killed. That does not include South Vietnamese forces, whose losses are estimated by some American sources at up to 250,000.
1,971 - Number of Americans missing in action or otherwise unaccounted for in Vietnam at war’s end.
More than 700 - Number of U.S. remains recovered and identified by joint U.S.-Vietnamese teams since then.
Other costs:
About $250 billion - Estimated U.S. spending on the war from 1965 to 1975 the equivalent of more than $1 trillion in today’s dollars.
5 million to 7.8 million - Tonnes of U.S. bombs dropped on Vietnam.
800,000 - Estimated tonnage of unexploded bombs and land mines left at war’s end.
35,000 to 42,000 - Number of people killed by that ordnance since war’s end.
$80 million - Amount U.S. has spent on ordnance cleanup efforts so far.
12 million - Gallons of the herbicide Agent Orange sprayed by the U.S., over about 10 percent of South Vietnam, from 1961-71. It contained the toxic chemical dioxin and is blamed for cancer, birth defects and other serious health problems among American veterans and generations of Vietnamese.
2.1 million to 4.8 million - Number of Vietnamese exposed to Agent Orange.
2.4 million - Estimated number of U.S. service members exposed.
$65 million - Amount the U.S. has spent cleaning up dioxin in Vietnam so far.
From war to business:
$170 million - Vietnam’s exports in 1976.
$132 billion - Vietnam’s exports in 2013.
Less than $500 million - U.S.-Vietnamese trade in 1995, when the countries normalized relations.
$35 billion - U.S.-Vietnamese trade last year. The U.S. is Vietnam’s biggest single-country export market.
7.6 million - Number of foreign tourists to Vietnam in 2013.
