The Vietnam Story

[Rock knocker]

I went through some of my books which mention 3,000 executed. The 15,000 number is from a book that was pretty detailed about Tet and Hue but I can't find said book. It might have been from a library or a book I have in storage. What it is my head is that there were multiple mass graves found, 3-5, with thousands in each grave.

I'm almost done with Mark Bowden's book "Hue". His numbers for non-combatant deaths are:
1) Those killed as what we call collateral damage, which are probably weighted towards being caused by American air power, and naval and land based artillery: approximately 6,000
2) Executed by the VC: between several hundred and 5,000. Douglas Pike, a Dept. of State employee on site at the time gives a number of 3,000, which is probably the closest to being correct.
3) Executed by ARVN and the SV Police (not all "non combatants"): About 2,000 VC, suspected VC and "collaborators" of various degrees, as well as innocents caught up in the blood letting.

This gives a total of probably 12- to 14,000.