36. Fact: The US Army was overwhelmingly white in Vietnam
The troops which deployed to Vietnam during the years of American involvement, including the crews of the US Navy ships which served offshore in the conflict, were just over half of a middle-class background, better educated than in any of America’s preceding wars (79% had a high school diploma) and were overwhelmingly white (88%). Of all the combat deaths which were suffered by American forces over the course of the war, 86% were white. The myth of the prejudicial use of black troops to conduct the most dangerous missions, exposing them to the greatest risk of injury or death, is directly traceable to the civil rights movement which occurred simultaneously with the worst years of the Vietnam War, in which more radical factions created the falsehoods to rally their followers.
