I found this article interesting and thought to share these facts with you. It is also information that I never considered and if asked could not respond. So here are the facts about French losses during their war in Vietnam. The question above was asked on the website “Quora” and was answered by Gérard Briais, who used data from “Teachings of the Indochina War.” I found some additional data on the website, “UQAM” The French Faculty of Social Science and Humanity, and added it to the original.
- Army:
Generals: 3 killed
Colonels: 8 killed
Lieutenant-Colonels: 18 killed; 1 disappeared or not returned from captivity
Commanders: 69 killed; 5 missing or not returned from captivity
Captains: 341 killed and 60 missing or not returned from captivity
Lieutenants and Sub-Lieutenants: 1,140 killed and 134 missing or not returned from captivity
NCOs: 2,683 killed
French soldiers: 16,008 killed
French Colonies of North African & Black African: 15,200 killed and 13,900 wounded
Foreign Legion: 11,600 killed and 7,200 wounded
Indigenous Officers and Soldiers (mainly ethnic Vietnamese) : 27,700 killed or not returned from captivity
Indigenous auxiliary troops (supplétifs) and the armies of the Associated States of Indochina together accounted for 17,600 deaths and 12,100 wounded
2,755 known French officers and soldiers are still missing in action – beyond those 16,118 POW’s returned by DRV.
- Marine (Navy)
Officers: 27 killed and 53 missing or dead as a result of injury or illness
Petty Officer: 39 killed and 157 missing or dead as a result of injury or illness
Sailors: 235 killed and 615 missing or dead as a result of injury or illness
Total for the navy: 1126
- Air Force
General: 1 killed
Officers: 60 killed and 85 missing or dead as a result of injury or illness
NCOs: 160 killed and 243 missing or dead as a result of injury or illness
Soldiers: 49 killed and 52 missing or dead as a result of injury or illness
Total for the Air Force: 650
In all, according to these 1955 official statistics, the armed forces of the French Union lost 92,800 individuals and 76,400 wounded.
Since the end of the Indochina War, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), nor its successor since 1976, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, have ever revealed publicly the total casualties suffered by their armed forces between 1945 and 1954. The French have advanced the rough figure of 500,000 Vietnamese killed during the Indochina War, apparently including civilians. More methodically sound estimations put the number at 300,000. No reliable figures exist for the number of wounded, missing in action, or deserters on the DRV side. Nor do we have statistics on gender, age, or the social origins of those killed.
To see the original article in Quora follow this link: https://www.quora.com/What-was-the-French-death-toll-in-the-Vietnam-War
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I don’t care that the countryside is beautiful. I never want to go back. Too much blood spilled on the soil of Vietnam. I too have read extensively on the French experience although I did not know the figures.
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Correct me if I am wrong, but is it true that no French soldiers who were drafted could serve outside France. And, were they used to defend the homeland…France Only French Foreign Legion from outside France could be used in the war….North Africa and other places???? If true makes for one huge SNUFU on the French, again.
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I think you meant SNAFU not SNUFU. The number of French soldiers that were killed was in the vicinity of 55,000, but the French had only a 1/4 of the population of the US.
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May as well include all the American casualties since the French hoodwinked the U.S. into the damn war in the first place.
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AGREED
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Good post – I never had an idea about the French losses in Vietnam – I ‘think’ they lost 6.000 men at Dien Bien Phu – which of course is a disastrous number, but obviously not the complete number.
I would like to point out though, that in your title you mention Vietnam (only), but the in the post it is Indochina – ‘French Indochina’ comprised of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Indochina).
I don’t know if they fought the Vietnamese in those 3 countries (as did the US, later on), or any other enemies as well – siding with DRV or separately.
To me the ‘Vietnam war’ is what the Vietnamese call the ‘American war’ – from 1954 till 1975. But clearly the French lost many more people previously.
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Thanks I knew the French was there before us and we was there in 1954 trying to give them support
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