These Are the Wars the U.S. Has Fought-- Part 2: The World Wars, Korea and Vietnam

**  WORLD WAR I (1917-1918)

The U.S. declared war on Germany April 6, 1917.

A total of 4,734,991 Americans served.     There were 116,516 killed and 204,002 wounded.

**  WORLD WAR II   (1941-1945)

16,112,566 Americans were called into service.  

405,339 were killed and 670,846 wounded.

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**  KOREAN WAR   (1950-1953)

The Republic of Korea (South Korea) versus the Democratic  People's Republic of Korea (North Korea).  The United States and United Nations countries supported South Korea and China and the Soviet Union supported North Korea.

The war ended with an armistice that persists to this day.

5,720,000 Americans fought.

54,246 died and 103,284 were wounded.

**  VIETNAM WAR  (1955-1975)

There is some discussion as to when the war began for the United States.

It was North Vietnam (Communists) versus South Vietnam supported by the United States.

It really picked up for the U.S. after what was called the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.

In this war, 8,744,000 served and 90,220 died and 153,303 were wounded.

--Cooter

August 2 in History: Declaration, Census, Bad Day for Wild Bill, Black Sox and Gulf of Tonkin

From the Chicago Tribune.

**  1776   Members of the Continental Congress began signing the Declaration of Independence.  (And most people think it was signed on July 4, 1776.)

**  1790   The enumeration of the first U.S. census began.  When it was over, the final total was 3,929,214.

**  1876   "Wild Bill" Hickok was fatally shot from behind while playing poker in a saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory.  He was holding two aces and two eights, a combination that became known as the "Deadman's Hand."

**  1921   After two hours of deliberation, the jury in the "Black Sox" trial of eight White Sox players returned a verdict of not guilty in the plot to fix the 1919 World Series.  (However, Baseball Commissioner Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis banned them from baseball for life.)

A real sad day for us Sox fans as we might have had that successful reign that the Yankees had after that.

1964   The Pentagon reported the first of two attacks on U.S. destroyers by North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin.  This was a major step for the U.S. escalation in the Vietnam War.

--  SadSoxCoot