Common Beliefis most Vietnam veterans were drafted. Mortality studies show that 9,000 is a better estimate. The CDC Vietnam Experience Study Mortality Assessment showed that during the first 5 years after discharge, deaths from suicide were 1.7 times more likely among Vietnam veterans than non-Vietnam veterans. Common belief is A disproportionate number of blacks were killed in the Vietnam War. Black fatalities amounted to 12 percent of all Americans killed in Southeast Asia - a figure proportional to the number of blacks in the U.S. population at the time and slightly lower than the proportion of blacks in the Army at the close of the war.
Common belief is that the war was fought largely by the poor and uneducated.
Vietnam Veterans were the best educated forces our nation had ever sent into combat. 11B MOS 18,465 22.55 years Five men killed in Vietnam were only 16 years old. The oldest man killed was 62 years old. 11,465 KIAs were less than 20 years old. The common belief is the average age of an infantryman fighting in Vietnam was 19.