How many people were killed during the American involvement in the
conflict in Vietnam? I know that about 52,000 American soldiers were
killed in battle. I've heard that more than that died from suicide and
other causes, but I cannot find any official references or statistics.
I have heard estimates of from 1 million to 7 million Vietnamese
deaths, but I haven't seen any official numbers. I would like as much
detail as possible. References do not have to be limited to the web --
books or magazine or newspaper articles that I might find in a library
would be fine, for example.

Quick answer: Approximately 5.4 million total.

Regarding American casualties, see http://www.vhfcn.org/stat.htm :

The official number is 58,148 killed during service. An additional 114
were captured and died in captivity.

In the 5 years following the war, the suicide rate of veterans was 1.7
times the non-Veteran population, yielding an estimate of 9,000
suicides as a direct result of the war. After 5 years, suicide rates
fall back in line with the general population.

(Testimony by Dr. Houk, Oversight on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,
14 July 1988 page 17, Hearing before the Committee on Veterans'
Affairs United States Senate one hundredth Congress second session.
Also "Estimating the Number of Suicides Among Vietnam Veterans" (Am J
Psychiatry 147, 6 June 1990 pages 772-776)

A total of approximately 67,000 Americans.

Also on the American "side" were 223,748 South Vietnamese soldiers
killed, as well as 5,282 of other nationalities. (See
http://www.rjsmith.com/kia_tbl.html for the breakdown)

A total of approximately 300,000 so far...

Vietnamese casualties are far less specific, and they were
deliberately falsified prior to 1995, leading to some of the
confusion. According to the Agence France Presse (French Press Agency)
as reported on http://www.rjsmith.com/kia_tbl.html , "...the true
civilian casualties of the Vietnam War were 2,000,000 in the north,
and 2,000,000 in the south. Military casualties were 1.1 million
killed and 600,000 wounded in 21 years of war. These figures were
deliberately falsified during the war by the North Vietnamese
Communists to avoid demoralizing the population."

So approximately 5.1 million total Vietnamese casualites.

And a grand total of approximately 5.4 million.

Another reference coroborrating this number is at:
http://www.chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/casualty.html

Search terms: vietnam war casualties

This was a very good answer. With the search terms I was able to find
even more detailed information. Thanks,

Pretty interesting...

more numbers, in particular civilian casualties in Laos and Cambodia
in this article from today's Guardian (UK newspaper)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4401617,00.html

This doesn't include the deaths in the "overflow areas" of Laos and
Cambodia. In Cambodia in particular, a published
Khmer Rouge estimate was that the population declined from 7,000,000
to under 4,000,000 over the course of the war.
That probably gives a close order of magnitude estimate of the
casualties there.