10 Things Everyone Gets Wrong About The Vietnam War

10. It Is Often Said That A Higher Proportion Of African-American Soldiers Died Than Caucasians... When This Is Simply Untrue

Due to the likes of boxer Muhammad Ali refusing to be conscripted by the draft and being stripped of his world heavyweight title, there is a common misrepresentation of the ethnic make-up of the US military during the Vietnam War. In actual fact, of the 58,303 American soldiers killed during the war, just 12.5% were black, with 86% Caucasians and 1.5% from other ethnic backgrounds. African-Americans accounted for roughly 12 per cent of the US population during the Vietnam War, but they made up approximately 14 per cent of the military. That means that, if anything, proportionately there were actually less African-American deaths than caucasian casualties.