Why The Military Used Agent Orange In Vietnam
Why would the U.S. military use a chemical as toxic and deadly as Agent Orange? For one thing, the health risks of Agent Orange exposure were unknown at the time. Only years later, when veterans exposed to Agent Orange started getting sick and dying, did doctors and researchers begin to draw a link back to the chemical.
Additionally, Agent Orange is an extremely powerful herbicide. The military used Agent Orange to clear foliage during the Vietnam War, depriving enemy fighters of cover. However, the military was unaware at the time of how many veterans would be adversely affected by the chemical in years to come.
Women Vietnam Veterans Study
HealthVIEWS studyâThe HealthVIEWS: Health of Vietnam Era Women’s Study, conducted by VA’s Cooperative Study Program , was a study of approximately 10,000 women who served in the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. It included those who served in Vietnam, those who served in countries near Vietnam, and those who served primarily in the United States. It is the most comprehensive study to date of the mental and physical health of women Vietnam-era Veterans.
The five-year study looked at the lifetime and current incidence of conditions in women Vietnam-era Veterans, including PTSD, depression, diabetes, heart disease, and disability.
The first paper published as a result of this study, in 2014, found that women Vietnam-era Veterans had a lower risk of death from all causes combined and from diabetes, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and diseases of the nervous system, compared with other American women of their age.
Women Veterans who served in the United States and in Vietnam did have a higher rate of dying in motor vehicle accidents compared to other American women, just as male Veterans do compared with other men. In addition, nurses who served in Vietnam had twice the risk of death from pancreatic cancer, and nearly five times the risk of brain cancer, compared with nurses who served only in the United States.
Census Stats And I Served In Vietnam Wannabees
1,713,823 of those who served in Vietnam were still alive as of August, 1995 .
During that same Census count, the number of Americans falsely claiming to have served was: 9,492,958.
As of the current Census taken during August, 2000, the surviving U.S. Vietnam Veteran population estimate is: 1,002,511. This is hard to believe, losing nearly 711,000 between 95 and 00. Thats 390 per day. During this Census count, the number of Americans falsely claiming to have served in-country is: 13,853,027. By this census, FOUR OUT OF FIVE WHO CLAIM TO BE VIETNAM VETS ARE NOT. This makes calculations of those alive, even in 2017, difficult to maintain.
The Department of Defense Vietnam War Service Index officially provided by The War Library originally reported with errors that 2,709,918 U.S. military personnel as having served in-country. Corrections and confirmations to this errored index resulted in the addition of 358 U.S. military personnel confirmed to have served in Vietnam but not originally listed by the Department of Defense .
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Social Security Payments To Vietnam Veterans And Nonveterans And Share Who Received Them 2018
Vietnam veterans claimed Social Security earlier and received about the same amount as nonveterans.
The Vietnam War ran from August 1964 to January 1973.
Shaded area denotes the largest three-year cluster of veterans who served in the Vietnam War . Veterans in that cluster probably served from 1966 to 1969, when forces were largest.
Social Security payments include retirement, disability, and survivors benefits, as well as payments made by the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board.
CBO did not adjust the data to account for characteristics other than age and veteran status.
Veterans average annual Social Security payment was $17,900, much higher than nonveterans $13,900 average payment. That is generally explained by the fact that more veterans than nonveterans received Social Security benefits. A larger share of veterans than nonveterans had turned 66 by 2018, the age at which they were eligible for full Social Security benefits.33 In addition, many veterans claimed Social Security benefits earlier than nonveterans .
When only men who received Social Security payments were considered, a small difference persisted, but only at certain ages and levels of income. Veterans who received payments collected, on average, $20,800 nonveterans collected $20,000, about $800 less.
What Did Cbo Find
In 2018, the average income of Vietnam veterans and nonveterans was roughly comparable: For veterans, who were 63 to 78 years old at that point, it was $63,300, slightly less than the $65,000 average for nonveterans. The veterans average includes the disability compensation that some receive from VA. With that disability compensation excluded, veterans average income was $59,000, 9 percent less than nonveterans average income.
The income gap between veterans and nonveterans was largest for men in their mid-60s on average, Vietnam veterans who were age 72 or older in 2018 had more income than nonveterans, whether or not VAs disability compensation was included. For veterans and nonveterans age 71the modal, or most common, age of veteransthere was little or no gap in average income .
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Benefits Provided By The Department Of Veterans Affairs
The Department of Veterans Affairs provides benefits for Vietnam veterans because of their military service.Three of those benefits can be substantial: disability compensation, medical care, and pensions. Other benefits that VA provides tend to be smaller or are not available to Vietnam veterans.1
Disability Compensation
VAs disability compensation program is the departments largest program. In 2018, it provided payments to nearly one-quarter of all veterans. Of those receiving compensation, 1.3 million were from the Vietnam era, ages 63 to 78 VA spent roughly $25 billion on them in that year.
The disability compensation provided by the agency is a tax-free payment to veterans who have medical conditions or injuries that were incurred or aggravated during active-duty military service . VA compensates veterans for a wide variety of conditions, from tinnitus to post-traumatic stress disorder to lost limbs. The amount of the payment is linked to a composite disability rating that VA assigns to each disabled veteran. That rating ranges from zero to 100 percent in increments of 10.2 In calendar year 2018, base payments ranged from about $135 per month to about $2,975 per month depending on disability rating some veterans also received supplemental payments.
Medical Care
Pensions
3. For more detail on VAs disability program, see Congressional Budget Office, Veterans Disability Compensation: Trends and Policy Options ,www.cbo.gov/publication/45615.
Who Was The Last Surviving Veteran Of World War 1
a serenade by the National World War II Museums singing trio, and a military flyover of his New Orleans shotgun house. From the American South to military service in Australia and beyond Born in 1909, Brooks was one of 15 children and was raised in rural
Who was the last World War 1 survivor?
This a list of known veterans of World War I who died in 2009 , 2010 , 2011 and 2012 . Florence Green, who died on 4 February 2012, was the last surviving veteran of any nation.
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Common Components Of Income
Although Vietnam veterans and nonveterans relied on many of the same sources of income, some sources were more important for veterans. On average, Vietnam veterans had a greater share of annual income from Social Security and retirement plans than nonveterans, who remained more reliant on earnings even in old age. That was also true when men at veterans modal age of 71 were examined . CBO looked at income by age because the sources and amounts of income differ by age.
How Many Vietnam Veterans Are Still Alive Today
The New York Times reported that claims like those of the American War Library are false and that, instead of only one-third of Vietnam vets remaining, the number points to more than 75 percent of Vietnam veterans still living and breathing today.
In the article, the writer quotes Patrick S. Brady of Vietnam Veterans of Americas magazine. The VVA Veteran boils it down to a totally different conclusion that the American War Library drew.
Apparently, its been agreed upon that 800,000 Vietnam veterans had passed away by the year 2000. This is a reasonable number but you get very different notions of the death rate when you compare 800,000 to 2.7 million versus 800,000 out of 9.2 million.
So, where is the discrepancy in these numbers? It seems to be all about syntax.
It makes a big difference because stating that only one-third of Vietnam veterans are still alive today is much harsher than stating that three-quarters of Vietnam veterans are still alive and well.
The truth is that until Vietnam veterans can agree amongst themselves what constitutes a real Vietnam vet, the debate may continue.
Overall, the death rate of Vietnam veterans seems to be rather consistent if not better than other people their same age, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Cbos Approach To Analyzing Veterans Income
To quantify the income of Vietnam veterans and nonveterans, CBO analyzed ACS data from 2008 and 2018.20 The ACS is among the largest of the Census Bureaus surveys, reaching about 2 million households each year, and is designed to represent the entire U.S. population. Households in the ACS survey provide information on demographics, employment status, education, disabilities, and military service, among other topics. More than 75,000 male veterans who said they served during the Vietnam War were interviewed for the 2018 ACS.21
CBO chose the ACS after examining the Current Population Survey and the Survey of Income and Program Participation. The ACS covers more veterans than those surveys and is about as accurate, CBO concluded.
To determine VAs disability payments, CBO analyzed administrative data from VA, partly because VAs disability compensation is mingled with several other types of income in a residual category on the ACS.
CBO examined five sources of regular income: earnings, Social Security, retirement plans, investment income, and disability payments from VA. Onetime payments such as inheritances or home sales were excluded.22 The first four income sources CBO studied were common to all men the fifth, disability compensation, could only be received by veterans.
Imputing Amounts Of Income
CBO assigned income values to respondents using PMM.7 Under that method, respondents who had been designated to receive retirement income were matched with observationally similar cases , and the amount of income the respondents was assigned was determined by the amount the matching donors reported. PMM has a number of desirable properties. In contrast to standard regression imputation, which is deterministic, PMM includes a random component to introduce heterogeneity into the imputed values. Further, PMMs semi-parametric imputation process is less vulnerable to model misspecification than a fully parametric imputation model. Relative to hot-deck imputation within adjustment cells, PMM allows for more predictors and for the use of continuous variables as predictors.8
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A Troubled Return Home
Ryan was 20 and recently married when he joined the Army in 1974. His father had served during the Korean War, his grandfather fought in World War II and Ryan felt it was his turn.
So the Iowa high school dropout with plans of opening a furniture-repair shop became an expert marksman with an M-16.
The transition was rough.
He rarely spoke about what happened after he enlisted, but according to his ex-wife Linda Janes, It did a job on him.
He went to Fort Bragg, N.C., where his training included jumping out of planes and parachuting into mock Vietnamese villages built on the Army base. He was never sent to Southeast Asia, nor were most of those who served during Vietnam.
But Ryan was deeply disturbed by his training in survival behind enemy lines, according to relatives. At the time, there were widely publicized accounts of the torture endured by American prisoners of war, including John McCain, a naval officer who became a U.S. senator from Arizona. Two friends of Ryans were killed.
According to Ryans military records, he was honorably discharged, but only after being granted unexplained excess leave.
He had a nervous breakdown, said Janes, Ryans second wife, who married him two years after he left the Army.
A remarkable 38 percent of service members sent to Vietnam were divorced within six months of returning home, according to a study cited by VA.
Wetlaufer said Ryan had a sweet side but often turned abrasive and pushed a lot of people away.
Whose Income Did Cbo Examine
CBO looked at male veterans who served on active duty during the Vietnam War and were between the ages of 63 and 78 in 2018, about 5.4 million veterans.That group included most of the veterans who served during the peak years of the war. Only those members of the National Guard and reserves who were activated during the warroughly 25,000 menwere considered Vietnam veterans. CBO excluded women from its analysis because they were a very small share of Vietnam veterans in 2018 . Veterans who did not serve during the Vietnam War were excluded from the samples that CBO analyzed.
Of the nearly 9 million people who served, 3.4 million were deployed to Vietnam or to other countries in Southeast Asia where the war was waged. Less than one-quarter of those who served were drafted, but a disproportionate share of draftees served in Southeast Asia. In many aspects, the makeup of the military reflected the young male population in the United States at that time: Most service members were White and had a high school education.
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Vietnam Veterans Earnings In 2008
To help understand Vietnam veterans income in retirement, CBO examined their earnings in 2008, when well over half of all men in that group were still working . Earnings before retirement are closely linked to income after exiting the labor force. For instance, employer-sponsored pensions are based on a percentage of the employees annual pay and the number of years worked at that employer.
In 2008, Vietnam veterans ranged in age from 53 to 68 CBO examined earnings only for men 53 to 65 because a majority of those older than 65 no longer worked. CBO looked at earnings by age because earnings can differ substantially by age. In addition, comparing veterans to nonveterans by age accounted for the disparity in the two groups age distribution.
Vietnam veterans earned an average of $50,000 in 2008, 20 percent less than nonveterans in the same age range, who earned an average of $62,200.24 Veterans younger than 63 earned less than nonveterans their ages, but veterans age 63 or older earned about the same. At age 61, veterans modal age in 2008, the difference was smaller, $6,500. Average earnings at that age were $52,600 for veterans and $59,100 for nonveterans .
Vietnam Veterans Income In 2018
The disability compensation VA provides is unlike other sources of income because it is only available to veterans, who may have faced special risks in the course of their military service. That compensation can be viewed as a work-related benefit, a lifetime indemnification that the federal government owes to veterans with a medical condition that was incurred or worsened while they were in the military. If those disabled veterans are out of the workforce for a long time, their Social Security benefits will be less than they otherwise would be, and they might not accumulate much personal savings. VAs compensation mitigates such effects. The amount of that compensation can be sizable: CBO calculated that for Vietnam veterans who received it, average annual disability compensation was nearly as much as they received in Social Security benefits.
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How Many Vietnam Veterans Are Still Alive
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The approximate percentage of Vietnam-era veterans who are still alive in 2013 is 75.
Some online estimates suggest that the number is much more stark: Only one-third of Vietnam veterans are still alive, these Web sites say, and the survivors are going fast.
But as Patrick S. Brady made clear in an article for The VVA Veteran, the magazine of the Vietnam Veterans of America, the reality is more reassuring. The rumor illustrates the danger of using incompatible numbers from different sources.
It was apparently based on an estimate that 800,000 Vietnam-era veterans had died by 2000. That number was reasonable: About 9.2 million Americans served in the military during the Vietnam era , so that would mean about 8 percent of them had died and 92 percent were still alive.
The problem arose when someone applied the 800,000 figure to a different denominator: 2.7 million, the estimated number of veterans who actually served in Vietnam, rather than at home or in some other theater. This made it appear that nearly one-third of those veterans were dead in 2000 and that they were dying at a rate of almost 400 a day. That would have meant more than 100,000 deaths a year, or nearly two million between 2000 and 2015 a path to near-total disappearance.
Why The Vietnam War Was Unique
If you look up Vietnam Veterans Day images, youll find row upon row of Google images filled with American flags and colorful fonts. If you look up images from the Vietnam War itself, however, youll get a much more realistic and telling story rife with explosions, helicopters, injuries, and obvious struggles of almost every kind imaginable.
The Vietnam War was a vicious battle primarily between communist North Vietnam and their Viet Cong allies in the south against South Vietnam, who the U.S. was fully allied with. North Vietnam sought to unite the two areas under a communist regime.
The war began in 1954 with North Vietnams defeat of the French colonial administration of Vietnam. Large numbers of advisory U.S. military personnel were introduced into the area in 1961, with U.S. combat units coming to Vietnam by 1965.
South Vietnam strove for Western ideals, unlike communist-minded North Vietnam, which preferred the model of communist China and the Soviet Union, both of which supplied the North with ample weapons and supplies during the war.
The Vietnam War was the first war that Americans fought in during the growing era of television, meaning every American could sit down with their frozen dinners which had only recently reached full production in 1954 and experience the war up close and personal like never before.
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