THE LEDGER-STAR 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Tuesday, April 4, 1995                 TAG: 9504040331
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: HANOI, VIETNAM                     LENGTH: Short :   33 lines

VIETNAM SAYS 1.1 MILLION DIED FIGHTING FOR NORTH

Twenty years after the end of the Vietnam War, the government disclosed Monday that 1.1 million Communist fighters died and 600,000 were wounded in 21 years of conflict.

The casualties included Viet Cong guerrillas who operated in South Vietnam and professional North Vietnamese soldiers who aided them.

Previous estimates in the West said the Communist forces lost about 666,000. During the war, North Vietnam played down its losses to boost morale at home and discourage South Vietnam and the United States.

Nearly 58,200 U.S. soldiers were killed and 223,748 South Vietnamese died. More than 5,200 South Koreans, Australians, New Zealanders and Thai soldiers who fought on the southern side also were killed.

The figures, published by the official Vietnam News Agency, were the first Vietnam has made public.

Other figures showed nearly 2 million civilians were killed in the North and South and an equal number were injured. About 50,000 children were born deformed, allegedly because of the U.S. use of the chemical defoliant Agent Orange.

KEYWORDS: VIETNAM WAR CASUALITIES