The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC, USA, "The Wall" now has carved into it the names of the 58,300 American military personnel (eight were women) who were direct casualties of the war, including about 1300 who are still considered Missing In Action (MIA) but officially classified as "Died, body not recovered".

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC is owned by the people of the USA and is maintained by the U.S. National Park Service. When The Wall was built, there were 57,159 names. A few names have been added each year: those where lost records of wartime death were found later and names of men who died after the war from physical injuries as a result of the war. The US Department of Defense established the criteria of geographic boundaries and beginning and ending dates. Each of the branches of the Department of Defense made and continues to make the determinations of eligibility. We do not determine if a person's death qualifies to have his name on the Wall. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) raised the money to build the memorial from donations of more than 275,000 private citizens and organizations.