19 (song) shoved into jungles and shot at." The title "19" comes from the documentary's claim that the average age of an American combat soldier in the war was 19, as compared to World War II's 26. This claim has since been disputed. Undisputed statistics do not exist, although Southeast Asia Combat Area Casualties Current File (CACCF), the source for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, shows a large number of deaths (38%) were ages 19 or 20. According to the same source, 23 is the average age at time of death (or time of declaration of death). The song also comments that while
1956 in the Vietnam War military advisers in South Vietnam. The first American killed in the Vietnam War died June 8 at the hand of another American soldier. In 1956 the term Viet Cong came into use and gradually replaced the older term Viet Minh. The government-controlled Saigon press first started using the term referring to communists in South Vietnam as "Viet Cong" a shortening of "Viet Nam Cong-San" which means "Vietnamese Communist." President Diem issued Ordinance Number 6 which permitted the imprisonment of communists and others "dangerous to national defense and common security." Diem's anti-communist repression reduced communist party membership in South Vietnam by