¶ Suicides among Vietnam veterans have been said to be 50,000 to 100,000. At any time during the Vietnam conflict, there were 37 million males aged 18 through 35. Of this group approximately 2.6 million served in Vietnam. Of the entire 37 million male population there have been approximately 152,000 suicides.
¶ If 50,000 to 100,000 Vietnam veterans commited suicide, that would mean that between one-third and two-thirds of all the suicides in the 37 million population came from the 2.6 million subgroup. There is no factual evidence to support this assertion.
¶ The best estimate of suicide among Vietnam veterans, from the Centers for Disease Control in 1988 Congressional testimony, is 9,000.
¶ As a Vietnam veteran who regularly visits veterans' hospitals, I fully understand how war wounds the mind as well as the body. However, the problem of veterans of all wars should be considered without sensationalism, and not to make political points. BERNARD A. HEENEY Bayonne, N.J., Feb. 20, 1991.
¶作为经常访问退伍军人医院的越南退伍军人,我完全理解战争是如何伤害身心的。但是,一切战争退伍军人的问题都应该被视为没有轰动效应,而不是制定政治观点。 BERNARD A.Heene Bayonne,N.J.,1991年2月20日。
老兵 Michael Kelley 1997 撰文论述
A typical example can be found in an article entitled Healing My Own Wounds, an article published in a 1996 issue of The California Zephyr. Among its otherwise thoughtful observations is a statement emblematic of a general misrepresentation now the cause of severe heartburn among many of us whom it colors. Without attribution of any sort, the author emphasizes our war's tragic legacy by informing us that "Since the end of the Vietnam War, approximately 150,000 veterans have taken their own lives."1
"Reports of large numbers of suicides among Vietnam veterans began to appear in 1980. In that year, a manual on the treatment of post traumatic stress disorder included a statement that more Vietnam combat veterans had committed suicide than were killed in Vietnam. In 1981, [the March 18, issue of the Seattle Times reported] that since their return from Vietnam more than 50,000 veterans had committed suicide. The reported number in [the June, 1985, issue of Discover magazine] was 58,000, and it was 60,000 or more in books published in 1986 [Spencer, D., Facing The Wall] and 1987 [Williams, R., Introduction in Unwinding the Vietnam War: From War Into Peace], In 1987...[CBS 60 Minutes, Vietnam 101, 4 Oct 86] broadcast that more than 100,000 Vietnam veterans had committed suicide. In 1988, a network news anchor [CBS Reports: The Wall Within, 2 Jun 88] asserted that between 26,000 and 100,000 suicides had occurred among Vietnam veterans ‘depending on which reputable source you believe..'" 2 and 3
越南退伍军人自杀事件的大量报告开始出现在1980年。当年,一篇关于创伤后应激障碍治疗的手册包括越南战斗退伍军人自杀死亡人数超过越南被杀的人数,1981年,据“西雅图时报”3月18日报道,自从越南回国以来,已有5万多名退伍军人自杀,1985年6月发表的“发现”杂志报道的数字为58,000,达到6万以上在1986年出版的书籍[Spencer,D.,Facing The Wall]和1987 [Williams,R.,“解开越南战争的介绍:从战争进入和平”,1987年... [CBS 60 Minutes,Vietnam 101,4 10月86]播出超过10万越南老兵自杀,1988年,一个网络新闻主播[CBS报告:墙内,6月2日88]声称,在26,000至100,000自杀发生在越南老兵'取决于哪个声誉好来源你相信.
...... ...... ......
Conclusion
It is the author's opinion that to accept the mythical rates is to abandon intellect and common sense altogether.
Of no small significance in that regard is the fact that high-rate claims remain completely without substantiation of any sort. In all the exhaustive research and reading that went into the preparation of this monograph, not so much as a single shred of verifiable data was ever unearthed that would even remotely suggest Vietnam veterans were killing themselves in greater numbers than our enemy could.
Absent evidence to the contrary, it is impossible to conclude other than that the popularly reported rates of suicide among Vietnam veterans form an urban myth of colossal dimensions. And yet underlying question remains unanswered for us: just how many Vietnam veterans have committed suicide since coming home?
For the sake of argument, presume that one third of all Vietnam veterans are now deceased (a number far above the actual total). If 1,000,000 Vietnam veterans were now dead from all causes, then the AMA/CDC 1.23% overall rate suggests that only 12,300 of those deaths would be the result of suicide.
One VA study indicates that as of 1983 there were fewer than 9,000 Vietnam veteran suicides, and that "...no more than 20,000 Vietnam veterans died from suicide from discharge through 1993" (emphasis added). It goes on to say that even if all Vietnam veteran reported accidental death (only 5% of all veteran deaths, including single-driver car accidents) were presumed to be suicide and included in the suicide total, that total could not exceed 24,000 through the year 1993. 1
Based on the 1997 Australian mortality study and our own VA's 1996 mortality statistics, the actual total mortality of Vietnam veterans (including KIA) as of January 1996 appears to lay in a range of from 208,010 to 363,100. Net of KIA, the range is 150,010 to 305,100. When we apply the overall average suicide rate of 1.23% predicted by the CDC/AMA studies to those totals, we see the following predicted suicide totals for the period ending January 1, 1995:
Total predicted suicides based on US VA data - 1.23% of 305,100, or 3,752
Total predicted suicides based on the Australian data - 1.23% of 150,010, or 1,845
Given what verifiable data is now available, it would seem reasonable to estimate that as of 1996, a total of somewhere between 2,000 and 20,000 Vietnam veterans had taken their own lives and that the most probable total is less than 4,000, but in any case does not exceed 1.23% of all Vietnam veteran deaths.