#TBT "After the 12 year war"
This month's #throwbackthursday is an image that appeared in engage/Social Action in March 1973.
Church and Society (and its predecessor bodies) has distributed several different publications throughout its history. engage/Social Action was one of these magazines. Published monthly, the 60-page, pocket-sized magazine presented issues of social concern to United Methodists who paid $5 per year (roughly $28 is today’s money).
The Vietnam War officially ended January 27, 1973. The March edition of engage/Social Action featured several articles, including an unsigned editorial calling for “a broad, general, unconditional amnesty” for those who avoided the draft.
The image above, of a wrinkled hand holding a few coins and an army figurine, accompanied an article titled, “What happens now? After the 12 year war.” The image includes the words: “The Cost of War: US combat dead – 45,993 $135 billion from 1965-73.” (That’s nearly $775 billion in today’s dollars).
More costs cited in the article:
Someday it may be possible to compile a more complete toll, but that will only emphasize further the proportions of this international tragedy.
As of January 13, 1973, US government figures for the period from January 1, 1961, were:
— US combat dead: 45,933
— US non-combat dead (illness, accidents, etc.): 10,298
— Missing and probably lost: about 1,300
— Saigon government forces: 183,528
— Other allied forces dead: 5,225
— Estimated North Vietnamese forces dead: 924,048
— South Vietnamese civilians: Figures vary from 205,000 dead and 615,000 wounded cited by President Nixon in the summer of 1972 to a total of 1,050,000 dead and wounded estimated earlier by the Senate Sub-committee on Refugees.
Current estimates of the total deaths range between 1.5 million and 3.6 million people.
