9.12 Suicides among Vietnam veterans. Did the horrors of fighting in Vietnam drive many veterans of that war to suicide? A figure of 150,000 suicides among Vietnam veterans in the 20 years following the end of the war has been widely quoted. Explain why this number is not plausible. To help you, here are some facts: about 20,000 to 25,000 American men commit suicide each year; about 3 million men served in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War; there were roughly 93 million adult men in the United States 20 years after the war.