The War: The Longest

As of midnight on Sunday, June 23, the Viet Nam conflict became the longest war ever fought by Americans. It was 2,376 days since Dec. 22, 1961, when Viet Cong bullets killed the first American soldier. The U.S. death toll to date: 25,068. The previous longest U.S. conflict: the War of Independence, which lasted 2,375 days and, according to the Revolutionary Army’s records, cost 4,435 American dead.