US and Vietnam, 40 years after Saigon's fall

Updated - April 30, 2015 04:45 pm IST

Published - April 29, 2015 04:03 pm IST

In this April 10, 1965 file photo made by Peter Arnett, newly-landed U.S. Marines make their way through the sands of Red Beach at Da Nang, Vietnam on their way to reinforce the air base as South Vietnamese Rangers battled guerrillas about three miles south of the beach.

In this April 10, 1965 file photo made by Peter Arnett, newly-landed U.S. Marines make their way through the sands of Red Beach at Da Nang, Vietnam on their way to reinforce the air base as South Vietnamese Rangers battled guerrillas about three miles south of the beach.

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.

AN EXECUTION: A vivid image by Eddie Adams from the war. South Vietnamese General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, chief of the national police, fires his pistol into the head of suspected Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem, also known as Bay Lop, on a Saigon street, early in the Tet Offensive. February 1, 1968.

The casualties-

THE WAR ENDS: A North Vietnamese tank rolls through the gate of the Presidential Palace in Saigon, signifying the fall of South Vietnam. The war ended on April 30, 1975, with the fall of Saigon, now known as Ho Chi Minh City, to communist troops from the north. April 30, 1975

More than 58,000- Number of U.S. servicemen killed in Vietnam and neighbouring Laos and Cambodia.

More than 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-

DEATH ON EVERY SIDE: American infantrymen crowd into a mud-filled bomb crater and look up at tall jungle trees seeking out Viet Cong snipers firing at them during a battle in Phuoc Vinh, north-Northeast of Saigon in Vietnam's War Zone D. June 15, 1967.

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- Tons 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-

PETRIFIED: Women and children crouch in a muddy canal as they take cover from intense Viet Cong fire at Bao Trai, about 20 miles west of Saigon, Vietnam. January 1, 1966.

$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.

(Photos credit: AP)

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