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    [OC] US military deaths in Vietnam War, total per state and per capita by state
    Data

    [OC] US military deaths in Vietnam War, total per state and per capita by state

    Sources: https://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics

    https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2621124/

    Tools: Google Sheets (geo charts), Mac image preview app.

    Note: I posted the second map on its own a few days ago. Hopefully that's ok with the mods.

    Here's that post, where there is some good discussion and several more data sources in the comments https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/1p28kxe/oc_us_military_deaths_in_vietnam_war_by_state_per/

    Posted by previousinnovation

    View 11 Comments

    11 Comments

    1. previousinnovation on

      Note that many US nationals from US territories died in Vietnam. Unfortunately Google Sheets doesn’t have a geo chart that includes US territories. Here are those numbers:

      Puerto Rico: 345

      Guam: 70

      US Virgin Islands: 15

      American Samoa: 4

      Foreign: 4 (not sure who qualified for this category. It clearly doesn’t include the 134 Canadian nationals who died in Vietnam as members of the US military)

      Canal zone: 4

    3. PacquiaoFreeHousing on

      The median age of the people who died in this post is 21…

      Holy fuck, how lucky am I to not be born on that era

    6. LordHogan on

      I’m wondering what it is about the pocket of NE states+NY+NJ that might have resulted in relatively fewer deaths per capita.

      Is it a rural v. urban thing, where rural kids/families were more likely to enlist?

      Thanks for posting both the raw totals and the per capita.

    7. msuvagabond on

      If I had to take a guess, it would be the per capita map would largely be the inverse of a per capita of college students and graduates for those states. 

      I’ve talked to a few people about the time and generally speaking getting a waiver was fairly easy if you could be considered a professional in any capacity, or on the path to being one (hence in college). 

    8. GreenGorilla8232 on

      Sent halfway around the world to kill a bunch of civilians and burn down their villages. 

    9. previousinnovation on

      I’d be really interested in comparing these numbers to the total number of people enlisted from each state, but haven’t been able to find reliable data on that topic. If anyone else knows where to find it please let me know

    10. 1964anonymous on

      It would be interesting to see post-war deaths due to the war. Studies indicate that high incidents of post-war trauma and chemical exposure caused more deaths than during the war. Hope to see an update post.