2018 Full Disclosure Vietnam W ar Commemorative Calendar (50th Anniversary of 1968 events)

The battle for Hue (the former imperial Capital, located in central Vietnam) was the most contested battle (January 31- March 2) in the 1968 Tet offensive, widely considered to be the political turning point of the American war in Vietnam. Pictured is the National liberation Front (NLF) flag placed on the Hue Citadel flag tower on January 31.

1968 was a defining year in the American War in Vietnam and in US history. The Tet offensive turned the tide in the war; President Johnson decided not to run for a second term. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. GIs at Fort Hood and the Presidio took stands against the war, and campuses exploded with protest. For more information about these events, consult the Full Disclosure chronology at http://vietnamfulldisclosure.org/index.php/a-brief-chronology-of-vietnam-the-united- states-and-their- relations. The calendar is for 2018, but all entries, except for 2018 holidays which are iitalicized, are anniversaries of events from 1968. All -related entries are in bold. Apologies in advance for omissions due to lack of space and/or consciousness. January 2018

Northern nemesis: An NLF (South Vietnamese National Liberation Front) soldier taking part in the Tet offensive, 1968 (Getty Images / Agence France- Presse)

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 2 3 4 5 6 New Year’s Day. GIs threatened with Alexander Dubček Article 15 (non- succeeds Novotný judicial) as Communist punishment for leader of antiwar positions. Czechoslovakia. 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 1st class US postage raised from 5 cents to 6 cents.

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 5,000 women rally The Youth LBJ calls for the In the White in D.C. in International Party non-conversion of House Eartha Kitt Jeannette Rankin (Yippies) founded. the U.S. dollar. criticizes Lady Brigade. 1st all Bird Johnson female antiwar about the war. protest. MLK Holiday. 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 20,000 North North Korea seizes Operation Coburg, Vietnamese troops the USS Pueblo, Australian and attack the claiming the ship New Zealand American air base violated its military action in at Khe Sanh. A 77- territorial waters Vietnam, begins. day siege begins. while spying. 28 29 30 31 Radiation alert The Tet Offensive The Battle for Hue following B-52 crash is launched all over begins; fighting on Jan. 21 in Arctic South Vietnam. until March 2. air base of Thule in Greenland.

Some time in January Vietnam veteran Jeff Sharlet launches the first GI-run anti-war paper addressed to GIs, calling it Vietnam GI (VGI) & UFO coffee shop opens in Columbia, South, Carolina near Fort Jackson as outreach to GIs. The Tet offensive reaches all US military bases in Vietnam and 110 cities and towns in South Vietnam, including 34 of 44 provincial capitals and 64 district capitals. February 2018

South Vietnamese General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, chief of the national police, shoots suspected NLF officer Nguyen Van Lem, also known as Bay Lop, on a Saigon street on Feb. 1, 1968.

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 2 3 In Saigon, Springer Publishers in suspected NLF West Berlin, bombed. fighter shot in Groundhog Day. head by police chief Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan. 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Dutch 2nd Reporter Peter Protest at a white- Chamber Arnett quotes US only bowling alley condemns US major in Ben Tre in Orangeburg, SC bombing of North city: 'It became broken up by Vietnam. necessary to patrolmen; 3 destroy the town students killed. to save it'. 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Memphis TN: After US sends 10,500 Valentine’s Day. Pvt. George Davis the crushing to additional soldiers court-martialed death of 2 workers, to Vietnam. after refusing over 1000 black orders to sanitation workers Vietnam. begin strike. 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Thousands of First statewide State troopers used people in West teachers' strike in tear gas to stop Berlin demonstrate U.S. history in protest at Alcorn against US war in Florida. A & M in Mississippi. Vietnam. Presidents Day. 25 26 27 28 Joint Chiefs Chairman Wheeler, asks for 206,000 more soldiers for Vietnam war.

Frederick Douglass was born in February 1818 on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Talbot County, Maryland. Black History Month. March 2018

A soldier outside a burning hut in My Lai. The picture provides context for the horrific events of March 16, 1968. CreditRon Haberle, courtesy of National Archives

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 2 3 Clark Clifford 48 U.S. Army replaces soldiers killed in McNamara as ambush at Tan Son U.S. Secretary of Nhut airbase near Defense. Saigon. Marines end Operation Hue City. 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Martin Luther King Unrecognized The battle for Capt. Dale Noyd Sgt. Peppers album North Vietnamese Jr. announces plans Rhodesia executes 3 Saigon (as part of sentenced to 1- wins 4 Grammy and Communist for Poor People's Black citizens, Tet offensive) ends. year hard labor; awards. Laotian troops Campaign. prompting refusing to train Student protests overrun a secret US international pilots for war. spark 1968 Polish radar facility, Lima condemnation. International political crisis. Site 85 (on Laotian Women’s Day. mountaintop). 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Operation Sure By a slim margin Sen. Robert . Hundreds in My Lai Antiwar rally in Thing: 28-day LBJ defeats anti- Kennedy offers massacred by Charlie London results in offensive by US & war Democrat secret proposal: he Company, 1st 86 injured and over South Vietnamese Eugene McCarthy will stay out of the Battalion, 20th 200 arrested. battalions near in the NH primary; presidential race if Infantry U.S. Army. 10,000+ rallied Saigon. political support for LBJ will change his peacefully. Daylight Savings LBJ eroding. war strategy. St. Patrick’s Day. Time. 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Howard University, LBJ signs a bill Israeli forces cross Announcement: Rev Walter Fauntroy, Aer Lingus Flight In protest over removing gold Jordan River to Westmoreland to is 1st non-voting 712 crashes killing ROTC program & backing from US attack PLO bases. be relieved of his congressional 61 passengers and war; demands paper money. World Poetry Day. command. delegate from DC. crew. Afrocentric studies. Spring Equinox.

25 26 27 28 29 30 31 LBJ meets with Second day of LBJ Suharto officially Initial report by Students seize Leavenworth - Capt. LBJ decides not to “The Wise Men” meeting with “the succeeds Sukarno as participants at My building at Bowie Levy put in seek re-election; who advise he Wise Men”. president of Lai: 69 NLF soldiers State College in "disciplinary segre- also announces a “take steps to Joan Baez marries Indonesia. were killed; no Maryland. gation" r for refusal partial bombing disengage.” antiwar activist mention of civilian to teach Special halt. David Harris in NYC. causalities. Forces going to Vietnam. Army: court martial of Pfc. Mike Nelson after he “complained to his Congressman on the treatment of troops on-base”. Pvt. George Davis sentenced to 4 years at Hard Labor for refusal to go to Vietnam. Fort Jackson - Robert Tater and Steven Kline threatened with court martial for antiwar agitation. Women’s History Month. April 2018

Andrew Young (left) and others on balcony of the Lorraine pointing to where the shot originated while Martin Luther King lies at their feet. (Joseph Louw photo)

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 The U.S. 1st Senator Eugene Navy court- Martin Luther Berlin Brigade is LBJ orders 5,000 Cavalry Div. begins McCarthy wins martials PO/3 King, Jr., “locked down” troops to Chicago to Operation Pegasus Democratic Dennis assassinated in to protect GIs combat an to reopen Route 9, primary in Ciesielski for Memphis, TN from antiwar "insurrection”; death relief route to Wisconsin. refusal of exactly one year leafletters. of Black Panther besieged Marines orders to after his “Beyond Bobby Hutton in at Khe Sanh. Vietnam. Vietnam” speech. Oakland shootout. Easter Sunday. 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 The siege of Khe Fort Ord: military Equal Pay Day. Defense Sect. Day of Holocaust Sanh base ends will court martial Clark Clifford: Remembrance with withdrawal of Pvt. Kenneth Westmoreland's (Yom Hashoah). NVA troops; US Stolte and PFC request for then secretly shuts Daniel Amick for 206,000 more down the base. passing out anti- soldiers will not war leaflets. be granted. 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Berkeley CA PO/3 Dennis Fort Sill: Pvt. anti-war demo; Ciesielski: 1-year is brutal actions hard labor; bad given of police in conduct discharge undesirable Berkeley spark for refusing to discharge for global outcry. board ship to antiwar activity. Tax Day. Vietnam. 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Earth Day. Beale AFB: Jeffrey . A million Antiwar march in Beale given college & high Chicago ends in "undesirable school students police attack; discharge" for boycott class in 200,000 students in hunger strike in opposition to NYC boycott opposition to the the war. classes; GIs for Vietnam War. Peace March in SF.

29 30 "Hair" opens at The Battle of Dai Biltmore Theater Do or Dong Ha NYC for 1750 along the DMZ. performances. Vietnam Day of Liberating the South (1975). April 4-11 Uprisings in 125 US cities in response to King’s assassination; Army reserves are called-up. April 23-30 Student demonstrators at Columbia University in NYC protest Columbia’s institutional ties to the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), weapons research think tank affiliated with the Pentagon as well as its plan to build a gym in Harlem. National Sexual Assault Awareness Month. May 2018

Catonsville Nine, after burning 378 draft files with napalm in Cantonsville, Maryland: Daniel & Philip Berrigan, Marjorie Bradford & Tom Melville, Mary Moylan, David Durst, John Hogan, Tom Lewis, & George Misch.

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 2 3 4 5 Air Force gives Gold reaches Braniff Flight The NLF launches George Edwards then record high 352 crashes "Mini Tet": series 1-year hard ($39.35 per near Dawson, of rocket and labor, dishonor- ounce) in Texas, killing mortar attacks able discharge, London. all 85. against Saigon for refusal to go and 119 cities. to Vietnam. Cinco De Mayo. May Day. 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Street battle Pulitzer prize Peace talks Students & police "March of Poor" between students & awarded to between US battle in Paris, 100s led by Rev. Ralph troops in Paris, William Styron and the DRV injured. Abernathy reach 1,000 injured. (Confessions of open in Paris. Washington, D.C. Nat Turner).

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Paris student Beatles announce A tornado strikes Earthquake kills Cantonsville 9, Nigerian forces demos; 1 million formation of Apple Jonesboro, 47 in Japan. burn 378 draft capture Port march through the Corp. Arkansas, killing files with Harcourt and form streets of Paris. 36. napalm. a ring around the Mother’s Day. Biafrans.

20 21 22 23 24 25 26 USSR performs Fort Ord: Ken FLQ separatists nuclear test Stolte & Dan bomb the U.S. (underground). Amick given 4 consulate in years hard labor Quebec City. & dishonorable discharge for disloyalty. 27 28 29 30 31 30-50,000 attend Memorial Day. UN votes De Gaulle meeting of Union sanctions on disbands French Nationale des white-minority- Parliament. Étudiants de France ruled Rhodesia. West German (National Union of Parliament the Students of accepts France). emergency crisis law. May 1968: punctuated by demonstrations and massive general strikes as well as university and factory occupations across France. June 2018

Standing with co-defendants (William Sloane Coffin Jr. Michael Ferber, and Mitchell Goodman) famed pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock (second from left) talks to newsmen here June 14th after they were convicted by a federal jury of conspiring to counsel young men to evade the draft.

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 2 Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs Robinson" hits #1.

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Radical feminist Robert Kennedy, Sirhan Sirhan Navy court 850 women New colonial Valerie Solanas shoots with 88% voting shoots Bobby martial, hearing machinists at the constitution for and wounds Andy for him & rival Kennedy, who for Fred Patrick: Ford factory in Bermuda adopted. Warhol. anti-war candidate dies next day. conscientious Dagenham, UK McCarthy, wins World objection to war, go on strike over the CA Democratic Environment valid defense vs. unequal pay. primary. Day. charge of AWOL.

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Boston jury John Lennon and . convicts Dr. Yoko Ono plant an Spock, 3 others, acorn at Conventry of conspiring to Cathedral. violate the Selective Service Act. 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Malayan Supreme Court 50,000 Supreme Court War in Vietnam Communists begin bans racial participate in Chief Justice Earl becomes the 2nd insurgency; discrimination in Solidarity Day Warren resigns. longest war in state of emergency sale & rental of March of Poor American history. re- imposed in housing. People's Malaysia. Campaign. Father’s Day. Juneteenth. 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Resurrection City in Iwo Jima & Ludvik Vaculik Daniel Ellsberg Lockheed C-5 Washington, D.C. Bonin Islands publishes indicted for Galaxy heavy closed returned to "Manifest of 2000 leaking military transport permanently. Japan after 23 words", Pentagon aircraft first flies in years occupation promoting Papers. the U.S. by the United States Navy. reforms

LGBTQAI Month. July 2018

The Phoenix Program was a CIA creation in Vietnam. It consisted basically of assassination squads which aimed to physically eliminate NLF leaders.

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Westmoreland El Al Israeli airliner Independence France performs replaced as U.S. hijacked to Algeria Day. nuclear test at commander in by the Popular Mururoa atoll. Vietnam by Front for the General Creighton Liberation of W. Abrams. Palestine (PFLP). 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Israeli-Egyptian USSR performs French government- Bastille Day. artillery duel along nuclear test at Couve de Murville Suez Canal. Eastern forms. Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR. 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Saddam Hussein Semiconductor The 1st International becomes Vice company Intel is Special Olympics Chairman of the founded. Summer Games are Revolutionary Nelson Mandela held in Chicago, Il. Council in a coup International Day. in Iraq.

22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Anti-racist Anti-racist Pope Paul VI South Vietnam demonstration in insurrection in encyclical “On opposition leader Gary, Indiana. Cleveland results The Regulation of Trương Đình Dzu in 11, including 3 Birth”-anti- calls for coalition police officers, contraception. govt., given 5 years killed. hard labor 29 30 31 Gram Parsons refuses to play with the Byrds in South Africa. The Phoenix assassination program is established to crush the secret NLF infrastructure in South Vietnam. US, Britain, USSR & 58 nations sign Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. August 2018

1968, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, thousands of Vietnam War protesters battle police in the streets, while the Democratic Party falls apart over disagreements about the war in Vietnam.

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 2 3 4 . 7.6 Casiguran 100,000 attend earthquake in the Newport Pop Philippines kills at Festival, Costa least 207 and Mesa, California. injures 261.

5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Republican Hiroshima Day. Anti-racist Nagasaki Day. Anti-racist demos Convention in demonstration in in Miami, Chicago, Miami begins. Miami. & Little Rock.

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 USSR performs nuclear test at Sary Shagan.

19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Prague Spring Killeen, TX: 5 100+ Black GIs at ends as 750,000 Oleo Strut coffee Fort Hood, TX Warsaw Pact house staff protest being sent troops and 6,500 charged with for "riot control" tanks with possession of duty to Chicago for 800 planes invade illegal drugs. the Democratic Czechoslovakia. convention 26 27 28 29 30 31 Demonstrations John G. Mein, US Demonstrations 12,000 die in 7.8 begin at Ambassador to at Democratic quake destroys Democratic Guatemala, is Convention 60,000 buildings in Convention in assassinated in culminate in NE Iran. Chicago Guatemala City. “police riot”. August 5-8 Republican National Convention in Miami Beach nominates Richard Nixon, who pledges that he will end the Vietnam War as soon as he takes office. A line of tanks has sealed off Miami Beach from demonstrations taking place in Miami. August 26-30 Democratic National Convention in Chicago nominates Hubert Humphrey, as the police confront 10,000+ protestors in what the Kerner Commission later termed a “police riot”. September 2018

Some of he Fort Hood 43 who refused orders to go to Chicago during the Democratic Convention in August. From left, Pfc. Ernest Bess, Atty. Michael Kennedy, Pfc. Guy Smith, Sp/4 Albert Henry, Pvt. Ernest Frederick, Sgt. Robert Rucker, Sp/4 Tollie Royal. October 1968 at Fort Hood, Texas.

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 Earthquake in Iran, 2,000 killed.

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Vietnam Labor Day. Nigerian troops Nuclear test in In Atlantic City, National Day conquer Aba Biafra. Eastern USSR. 150 members of (1945 New York Radical independence Women protest from France). Miss America Pageant. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Rosh Hashanah Al Hijra (New Albania leaves USSR's Zond 5 is (New Year’s Day). Year’s Day). Warsaw Pact. launched on 1st circumlunar flight.

16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Mexican The Marylebone Yom Kippur. Fort Hood - 5 of the Autumn Equinox. Independence Day Cricket Club tour of Ft Hood 43 found (1810). South Africa is guilty of failure to cancelled. report for reveille.

23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Proclamation of the US performs nuclear 3 more of the Fort Greek referendum Republic of Puerto test at Nevada Test Hood 43 sentenced results in more Rico in revolt Site. to hard labor. power to military against Spain junta. (1868).

30 The 900th U.S. aircraft shot down over North Vietnam. Vietnam GI reports that the stockade at Fort Leonard Wood is so overcrowded that there’s a waiting list! Same story as elsewhere -- GIs are going AWOL in ever-increasing numbers. There are 135 men awaiting trial who live in regular barracks, pulling soft duty -- and they’re even getting passes. October 2018

Precipitated by the murder of Presidio stockade prisoner Richard Bunch, and in protest of prison conditions, as well as the war, prisoners broke ranks and sat in the grass, singing "”.

Walter Pawlowski,r eading demands during The Presidio Mutiny of 1968. Photo: Steve Rees

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 2 3 4 5 6 Fort Dix - Spec/4 Mexico City student Iuan Francisco Police baton civil Allen Myers demo ends in Velasco Alvarado rights demonstrators acquitted of bloodbath, seizes power in in Derry, Northern handing out hundreds killed, military coup in Ireland marking the “subversive” more injured, and Peru. beginning of The literature. 1300+ arrested. Troubles.

7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Operation Sealord: Indigenous Peoples’ The Catonsville 9 Navy nurse Susan NASA launches GIs for Peace demo largest combined Day. sentenced to 18 Schnall drops flyers Apollo 7, the first in , naval operation of years; several go from the air for GIs manned Apollo including speech by the war; with over underground. for Peace March on mission. Schnall in uniform 1200 U.S. Navy and Government seizes military bases in National Coming leading to court South Vietnamese oil fields in Peru. San Francisco Bay Out Day. martial. Navy ships. Area: Dia de la Raza. ·

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 The Presidio Tommie Smith and John Lennon & Derry Citizen's Action mutiny: a sit-down John Carlos give Yoko Ono fined Committee stages a protest by 27 salute £150 for marijuana sit-down at Guildhall prisoners at the after winning possession; US Square as part of civil Army stockade, medals in the Olympic Comm. disobedience San Francisco. Olympics; Rodney Suspends Smith & campaign in Riots in Jamaica. Carolos. Northern Ireland.

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 U.S. releases 14 Gun Control Act People's Democracy 6 of Fort Hood 43 In London, 50,000 North Vietnamese of 1968 enacted. (PD) stages protest singled out for protest the war. POWs. at Parliament, harsher punish- Belfast, Northern ment; said to have Ireland. played a leading role in demo. 28 29 30 31 . USSR performs LBJ ends bombing nuclear test at Sary of North Vietnam Shagan. (Rolling Thunder). Halloween. Tacoma’s Shelter Half coffeehouse, the fifth such coffeehouse in the nation, opens. The GI Civil Liberties Defense Committee issues an appeal for telegrams of support on behalf of antiwar GIs. Domestic Violence Awareness Month. National Bullying Prevention Month. November 2018

Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, left, and President Richard M. Nixon after Kissinger was sworn is as the 56th secretary of state in the East Room of the White House on Sept. 22, 1973. (Associated Press)

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 2 3 . A banned march in 300,000 Derry, North Ireland, demonstrate by members of the against fascist junta Derry Citizen's Action in Greece. Committee (DCAC), is joined by thousands. 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Battles between Richard Nixon Led by Third World USSR performs Ian Paisley and Jordanian army & narrowly defeats Liberation Front nuclear test at Ronald Bunting lead a Palestinian Al Fatah Hubert Humphrey (TWLF), San Novaya Zemlya Loyalist march to the forces. for the US Francisco State USSR. Diamond area of Daylight Savings. Presidency. students strike for Derry, North Ireland. Ethnic Studies. Election Day. 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Operation 12 US Supreme Court: Craig, Home Affairs National “Turn in The Derry Citizens Panagoulis is Commando Hunt: Epperson v. Arkansas, Minister, bans all Your Draft Card Action Committee condemned to to interdict people declares law banning marches, excepting Day" features draft defies a ban on death for & supplies on the teaching evolution in Loyalist parades, in card burning. marches in Derry, attempting to Ho Chi Minh trail. 3 public schools Derry, Northern Northern Ireland. assassinate Greek million tons of unconstitutional. Ireland. dictator bombs will be Papadopoulos dropped on Laos.

18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Military coup in US performs nuclear Beatles release Veterans Day. 4 men hijack Pan Mali, president test at Nevada Test "Beatles" (White Buy Nothing Day. Am Flight 281 from Modibo Keita flees. Site. Album). New York to Thanksgiving. Transgender Day of Havana, Cuba. Resilience. 25 26 27 28 29 30 International Day President-elect John Lennon and for the Elimination Nixon appoints Yoko Ono release of Violence Against Harvard professor their 1st album Women. Henry Kissinger as "Two Virgins" in National Security UK. Advisor. William E. Colby replaces Robert Komer as head of CORDS (Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support), the group responsible for the brutal Phoenix Program. November 27–30: 1st National Women's Liberation Conference in Lake Villa, Illinois. Native American Heritage Month. December 2018

The Hồ Chí Minh trail: A logistical system that ran from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) to the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). The system provided support, in the form of manpower and materiel, to the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam.

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 World AIDS Day.

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 International Day of National Day of Rolling Stones Persons With Remembrance & release Beggars Disabilities. Action on Violence Banquet, which Chanukah. Against Women contains the classic (Canada). song "Sympathy for the Devil." 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 International Operation Taylor Brazilian President Human Rights Day. Common: search Da Costa e Silva and destroy issues Ato operation by Task Institucional Force Yankee, of Número Cinco 1st Marine emegency decree. Division.

16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Revocation of the International Launch of Apollo 8 Mao Zedong starts Edict of Expulsion of Migrants Day. begins the first US the "Up to the Jews from Spain at mission to orbit the mountains and Second Vatican Moon. down to the Council. villages" movement.

23 24 25 26 27 28 29 82 members of US Christmas Day. Kwanzaa begins. China performs Israeli forces launch intelligence ship nuclear test at Lop an attack on Beirut Pueblo released by Nor, PRC. airport. North Korea.

30 31 New Year’s Eve.

By year's end, U.S. troop levels reach 549,500 with 30,000 American deaths to date; over a 1000 per month were killed in 1968 and there were 155,536 individuals who were Away Without Leave (AWOL) from the US military. Vietnamese casualties are more difficult to come by, with estimates of 181,000+ NVA and NLF killed and at least 40,000 civilians. U.S. Army. Ramsey Clark's Justice Department prosecutes 1,500 draft refusal cases.