Cav's Reviews > Di Di Mau: A True Story About Tigers, Rock Apes, the Jungle, and War

"...I was coming home to Marin County, California, a predominately liberal community critical of the war. And while Marin culture was tolerant, spiritual, and forward-looking in many respects, I doubted I’d get a free pass as a homegrown guy who spent a year of his young life in the jungles and bush of Vietnam, despite my in-step political leanings.
I wasn’t mistaken. Soon after landing on U.S. soil, I tasted the bitterness of what it was like being a Vietnam War veteran. It wasn’t pretty..."

"The numbers below, by themselves, tell their own story. They tell of pervasive and wanton destruction, profound human pain, and emotional isolation. They represent a repulsive legacy that will indelibly darken humanity. They need no embellishment to still the heart and shock the conscience.
• 2.7 million Americans served in uniform in Vietnam.
• 58,148 Americans were killed in action (KIA) in Vietnam (including medic Thomas P. Coffino, the brother of the coauthor of this book).
• Of those Americans KIA, the average age was twenty-three; more than 60 percent were twenty or younger; five were sixteen; the oldest was sixty-two; and more than 17,000 were married.
• It is estimated that almost 300,000 Vietnam veterans eventually died from Agent Orange exposure during the war.
• 2,338 Americans were missing in action; more than 1,600 are unaccounted for today.
• 766 Americans became prisoners of war (POW) and of them, 114 died in captivity.
• More than 303,000 Americans were wounded.
• More than 75,000 American soldiers were severely disabled as a result of the war. More than 5,200 lost limbs, and more than 1,000 suffered multiple amputations.
• Countless Vietnam veterans have committed suicide.
• One study shows that almost 20 percent of Vietnam veterans returned with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
• Between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died in war.
• Approximately 4.8 million Vietnamese were exposed to Agent Orange contamination during the war, of whom 400,000 have died from exposure.
• More than 300,000 Vietnamese “boat people” trying to flee Vietnam either died or were killed by pirates.
• As many as 2,000,000 Vietnamese civilians (North and South) about 1,100,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers died during the war.
• South Korea suffered more than 4,000 dead, Thailand about 3,000, Australia more than 500, and New Zealand some three dozen.
• The number of families from all affected countries that were devastated is countless."