Here is a look at the Vietnam War in numbers. The sources are Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century's war death tolls.

These numbers exclude the war between 1954, when Vietnam was divided, and 1965, when the US officially entered the war, or took over from the French.

American deaths: 58,226; wounded: 153,303
Allies deaths (Filipinos, Koreans, Australians, Thais, New Zealanders & Canadians): 7,000
Vietnamese military deaths (North & South): 1.8 million
Vietnamese civilian deaths (North & South): 2 million, and counting

Furthermore, these numbers exclude casualties as the result of political executions, imprisonment, famine, and the refugee EXODUS. It's all part of the larger conflict involved the peoples of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, that seems to have lasted for almost a century. Though no longer with bullets and on the battlefield, it is still raging on in parts of the expatriate communities.

*****
Listen to Sonny's commentary on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" which aired earlier this week here.

See him on CNN tonight at 7:30 pm Pacific Time/10:30 pm Eastern Time.