The Vietnam War - which lasted from 1964 to 1975 - unquestionably caused huge numbers of casualties, although a lack of official records and alleged propaganda on the part of the North Vietnamese as regards stating their casualties means estimates must be viewed with a certain amount of caution. The lowest casualty estimates - based on the now-renounced North Vietnamese statements - are around 1.5 million Vietnamese killed. However in 1995 Vietnam announced that a total of 1 million Vietnamese combatants and 4 million civilians were killed in the war. The accuracy of these figures has generally not been challenged. 58, 226 American soldiers died in the war or, in the case of 2,300 of them, are listed as 'missing in action', a term applied to missing soldiers whose status cannot be determined through eyewitness accounts of their death, or a body. Australia lost around 500 troops and New Zealand lost 38. Based on a combination of the 1995 Vietnam announcement and the American, Australian and New Zealand figures one arrives at a figure of 5,058,764 dead. But this figure remains a mixture of listed deaths and estimates.
