Mr. President. the Subcommittee on Refugees. which I serve as chairman. has compiled from official U.S. Government and South Vietnamese sources. a statistical summary of the human costs of the Vietnam war in South Vietnam since 1965. These are the civiliansthe men. women. and childrencaught over the years in the crunch of escalating violence and war. and they represent the human debris of this war for which we must show compassion and concern. We cannot begin to know the full dimension of the humanitarian needs of the people of Indochina until we begin to know what impact this war has had on the civilian population and the social fabric of the nations of the region. The following summary of statistics compiled by the Refugee Subcommittee serves to focus attention on the cumulative human costs of the war in South Vietnam only. based upon subcommittee estimates as well as official data made available to the committee from the U.S. Agency for International Development. As outlined in the following tables. civilian war casualties since 1965 total some 1.350.000including 415.000 deaths. The bulk of civilian war casualties is attributable in large part to United States and South Vietnamese firepower. Refugees and other war victims since 1965 total some 10.105.400more than onehalf the population of South Vietnam. By official count. some 213.400 new refugees were registered during the first 3 weeks of the ceasefire. This Is a daily average of more than 10.000twice the daily average during the 1972 North Vietnamese offensive. Civilian war casualties are also running at a high rate during this period.
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Refugees Refugee refugees