The Faces of the American Dead in Vietnam:

The Following Is From ___

LIFE MAGAZINE June 1969

It was June 1969 when "LIFE" Magazine published a feature that remains as moving and, in some areas, as controversial as it was when it intensified the nation’s soul-searching 54 years ago. 

On the cover was the image of a young man and 11 stark words: "The Faces of the American Dead in Vietnam: One Week’s Toll." Inside, across 10 somber pages, LIFE published picture after picture and name after name of 242 young men killed in seven days halfway around the world "in connection with the War in Vietnam."

To no one’s surprise, the public’s response was immediate, and anguished. Some readers expressed amazement, in light of the thousands of American deaths suffered in a war with no end in sight, that it took so long for LIFE to produce something as dramatic and pointed as “One Week’s Toll.” Others were outraged that the magazine was, as one reader saw it, "supporting the anti-war demonstrators who are traitors to this country." But still others, perhaps the vast majority, were quietly and disconsolately devastated.

LIFE.com republishes every picture and every name that originally appeared in that extraordinary 1969 feature. Below is the text in full that not only accompanied portraits of those killed, but also explained why LIFE chose to publish "One Week’s Dead" when it did and in the manner that it did.

From the June 27, 1969, issue of LIFE:  The faces shown on the next pages are the faces of American men killed, in the words of the official announcement of their deaths,  "in connection with the conflict in Vietnam.” The names, 242 of them, were released on May 28 through June 3 1969, a span of no special significance except that it includes Memorial Day. 

The numbers of the dead are average for any seven-day period during this stage of the war.

It is not the intention of this article to speak for the dead. We cannot tell with any precision what they thought of the political currents which drew them across the world. However, from the letters of some, it is possible to tell they felt strongly that they should be in Vietnam, that they had 

a great sympathy for the Vietnamese people and were appalled at their enormous suffering. Some had voluntarily extended their tours of combat duty. And some were desperate to come home.

 Their families provided most of these photographs, and many expressed their own feelings that their sons and husbands died in a necessary cause.  Yet in a time when the numbers of Americans killed in this war—36,000—though far less than the Vietnamese losses, have exceeded the dead in the Korean War, when the nation continues week after week to be numbed by a three-digit statistic which is translated to direct anguish in hundreds of homes all over the country, we must pause to look into the faces.   

We must know how many. We must know who. The faces of one week’s dead, unknown but to families and friends, are suddenly recognized by all in this gallery of young American eyes.

NOTE:  I looked this article up in the archives of LIFE MAGAZINE.  I looked at the photos of each of the 242 young men. It's the saddest feeling to look into the eyes of each one.  It breaks my heart 💔

Glenda Watkins Nichols