Quick questions on Impact of the war on civilians and society: HSC Modern History Indochina

The total human cost of the conflict was around 3.8 million Indochinese deaths between 1954 and 1979, with a further 1.7 million Cambodian deaths under the Khmer Rouge regime that the conflict produced. Vietnamese estimates of total war dead are around 3.1 million; lower estimates put the figure around 1.5 to 2 million.

Operation Ranch Hand, the US herbicide programme, ran from January 1962 to January 1971. Around 20 million gallons of herbicides were sprayed from C-123 aircraft over South Vietnam, Laos, and parts of Cambodia. Around 11 million gallons of "Agent Orange" (a 50/50 mixture of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T) was the primary defoliant; the 2,4,5-T contained dioxin (TCDD), one of the most toxic synthetic compounds known.

Rural Vietnam emptied into the cities. Saigon's population grew from around 1.4 million in 1954 to around 4 million in 1975. Da Nang grew from around 100,000 to around 500,000. Around 5 million southerners were internally displaced by 1968; the Tet 1968 fighting alone displaced 700,000.

After the 1975 communist consolidation, around 800,000 Vietnamese fled by boat between 1975 and 1995. The peak years were 1978 to 1979 (around 200,000) and 1980 to 1982. Around 200,000 are estimated to have died at sea from drowning, dehydration, pirate attacks, or storms.

The new regime imposed re-education camps. Around 300,000 former ARVN officers, GVN officials, intellectuals, religious leaders, and Chinese businesspeople were detained, many for years. The senior figures were held at Yen Bai and other northern camps for up to 17 years.

Cambodia: around 1.7 million dead under the Khmer Rouge 1975 to 1979 (see related dot point). The subsequent civil war ran to 1991; unexploded ordnance continues to kill around 50 people per year. Cambodia is among the world's most landmine-contaminated countries.

Around 75 to 80 million unexploded munitions remain across Indochina. Mine and UXO clearance in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos is a generational task. The Mines Advisory Group and the HALO Trust operate there.

Marilyn Young (The Vietnam Wars, 1991) is a standard left-critical narrative on civilian impact.

The Indochinese civilian experience is the dominant dimension.

The secret war is part of the conflict and produces the per-capita bombing statistic.

1978 to 1982 was the peak, not the immediate aftermath of 1975.