No Official Record of “Hispanics” in Vietnam War

I came across this in one of those “today in history” posts.

I didn’t know this, so I imagine that other people would have no reason to know it either. Thirty six years ago this week the first American combat troops set foot in Vietnam. According to a post in Fox News Latino

3500 Marines land at China Beach to defend the American air base at Da Nang. They joined 23,000 American military advisors already in Vietnam.

That much is common knowledge. What I didn’t know is that the Army had no official count as to how many Latinos served or died in Vietnam because they didn’t keep records of “Hispanics.” I have a primo and a concuño, Richard and Xavier, who are Vietnam veterans. They both saw combat and they rarely talk about their time over there.

A report by Latinoadvocates.org says that 3,741 Latinos died in the Vietnam war. Mrfa.org says that 170,000 Latinos served there. Richard and Xavier served, were wounded, and made it back.

For the record, 973 American troops have died in Afghanistan through February of 2010. 75 of them are Latino.

Follow Victor Landa on Twitter: @vlanda