Friday, Nov. 28, 2025

Did fentanyl and drug overdoses claim more American lives in 2024 than the Vietnam War, as Sen. Mullin claimed?

yes

According to the CDC, the number of drug overdose deaths in the United States from January 2024 to January 2025 is almost 1.4 times greater than the 58,220 American military casualties during the Vietnam War, though the number of deaths caused by opioids such as fentanyl is comparable at 53,206.

When taking into account non-American combatants, the 258,220 American, North Vietnamese, and Viet Cong combatant deaths conservatively estimated by the U.S. military dwarfs the 79,000 drug overdose deaths.

A Population and Development Review study estimated a total of 882,000 Vietnamese deaths, both soldiers and civilians, caused by the war just during its last ten years. This number, which includes 84,000 children, brings the total Vietnamese and American death toll to 940,220.

Drug overdose deaths in 2024 decreased 25% from 2023, the year in which Oklahoma saw 1,326 such fatalities.

Editor’s note: this fact brief originally stated the answer was no. It was corrected on 12/26/25.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

National Center for Health Statistics Provisional Drug Overdose Death Counts
Britannica Vietnam War
JSTOR Vietnamese Casualties During the American War: A New Estimate
Defense Casualty Analysis System U.S. Military Casualties - Vietnam Conflict - Casualty Summary
Oklahoma State Department of Health Drug Overdose Data Dashboard

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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by newsrooms in the Gigafact network.

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