American Defectors to the NVA

Answer 1

Over 1,900 US servicemen were MIA or POW during the war.

POW-MIA Issue (unaccounted-for versus missing in action)

Politics & People, On Vietnam, Clinton Should Follow a Hero's Advice, contained this quote about Vietnam, there has been "the most extensive accounting in the history of human warfare" of those missing in action. While there are still officially more than 2,200 cases, there now are only 55 incidents of American servicemen who were last seen alive but aren't accounted for. By contrast, there still are 78,000 unaccounted-for Americans from World War II and 8,100 from the Korean conflict.

Answer 2

Traditionally (in the past and/or during the Viet War) it took 5 men to support ONE US fighting man: Administrative (pay/promotions/rotation/etc.); Medical; Feeding; Supply; Transportation. During any one given day in Vietnam there were about 25,000 men in the field fighting (artillerymen, tank crewmen, infantrymen, and their direct support men with them in the field, such as a MEDIC, fueller, etc.). At the height of US manpower in 1968 there were over 500,000 men in Vietnam. With 25,000 or even 50,000 men in the field, that leaves approximately 450,000 to 475,000 men in the rear areas performing support functions. Multiply 25,000 or 50,000 men times, for one example, 5 years and that comes out to be about 125,000 or 250,000 men who seen combat in Vietnam. One little sidebar to all these figures: US Airmen (USAF/USN/USMC/USA pilots & crewmen) saw action since 1961 thru 1975 conducting Reconnaissance, Rescue, Ground Attack, Strategic Bombing, and Aerial Combat (Dog-Fighting). Nearly every POW released in 1973 were US AIRMEN! Those figures of fighting men in the field do not include those airmen.

Answer 3

See book: "The Phoenix Program", by Douglas Valentine

Answer 4

Jane Fonda.