# Do you know the deadliest war since the big one? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 9, 2013, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-deadliest-war-since-the-big-one/660591 "2013-06-09T23:38:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-deadliest-war-since-the-big-one/660591/21 "2013-06-10T14:41:52Z")
I made the same guess as **Giles**. So, wrong. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-deadliest-war-since-the-big-one/660591/22 "2013-06-10T14:42:05Z")
I did not realize the extent and was also unaware of that as the name. ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-deadliest-war-since-the-big-one/660591/23 "2013-06-10T14:48:42Z")
I got it right, but that little factoid is virtually all I know about the war. ---
**Author:** ![OurLordPeace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e8c25b/32.png) [@OurLordPeace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OurLordPeace)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-deadliest-war-since-the-big-one/660591/24 "2013-06-10T15:50:06Z")
Doesn’t factoid mean “something often considered to be a fact, but which is actually not true”? The suffix “-oid” means “similar to, but not really,” right? ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-deadliest-war-since-the-big-one/660591/25 "2013-06-10T16:16:32Z")
> [@OurLordPeace](#): > > Doesn’t factoid mean “something often considered to be a fact, but which is actually not true”? The suffix “-oid” means “similar to, but not really,” right? It’s come to also mean a short fact that’s given without any particular context, which is the sense I meant it as. Googling, though, apparently that usage is much less correct and slack-jawed types such as myself are ruining the language. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-deadliest-war-since-the-big-one/660591/26 "2013-06-10T17:10:10Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > I knew it. I really thought that everybody on the Dope should know it. > > Everytime I think about it, I get angry at Kofi Annan. He and his supporters loved to claim how he had despite his failures in the Mid East, had great success in Africa. yeah right. We’re mostly Americans. We’re ahead of the national curve just knowing where Africa _is_. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Quatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@Mr\_Quatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Quatro)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-deadliest-war-since-the-big-one/660591/27 "2013-06-10T17:26:52Z")
Does this have anything to do with abortion? ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-deadliest-war-since-the-big-one/660591/28 "2013-06-10T18:11:36Z")
Add me to the **Giles** group. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-deadliest-war-since-the-big-one/660591/29 "2013-06-10T18:17:06Z")
My two guesses were the Iran-Iraq war and the Chinese civil war (if it counted). At least I’m in good company. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-deadliest-war-since-the-big-one/660591/30 "2013-06-10T18:42:21Z")
Given that what we call the “Vietnam War” included substantial interventions in Laos and Cambodia, and considering that our intervention in Cambodia gave the Cambodians reason to support the Khmer Rouge that they otherwise largely lacked, I have to consider the killing fields of Cambodia to be part of the death toll from our intervention in Vietnam. Wikipedia gives a death toll range for the Vietnam War proper as 1,102,000-3,886,026. If we add in the 1.7M-2.5M death toll for the Cambodian killing fields, we get 2.802,000 - 6,386,000, while the range given for the Second Congo War is 2,500,000–5,400,000. So it all depends on how one defines things. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-deadliest-war-since-the-big-one/660591/31 "2013-06-10T20:28:04Z")
I got it pretty much right. I guessed the Congo Civil War rather than the Second Congo War. But there was only a short period of peace between the first and second wars, so I figured they were really one extended war. This was actually a minor controversy in current affairs a few years back. Some people were pointing out that this major war was going on and nobody was paying attention to it. So the lack of attention ended up calling attention to the war. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-deadliest-war-since-the-big-one/660591/32 "2013-06-10T20:55:04Z")
> [@GreasyJack](#): > > I got it right, but that little factoid is virtually all I know about the war. It’s tough to follow all of the factions involved because new ones keep joining in. Here’s the basics. Mobutu Sese Seko used to be the dictator in charge. He was solidly pro-American so we supported him. But when the Cold War ended he was less needed and our support dried up. So the first part of the war was when all his opponents, both inside the country and from neighbouring countries, banded together to drive Mobutu out of power. They accomplished this in 1997. But then once Mobutu was gone, the alliance of his opponents fell apart and the various groups each wanted to establish themselves as the new power. This led to the second part of the war, which officially ended in 2003 but is really still going on today. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-deadliest-war-since-the-big-one/660591/33 "2013-06-11T02:58:31Z")
> [@OurLordPeace](#): > > Doesn’t factoid mean “something often considered to be a fact, but which is actually not true”? The suffix “-oid” means “similar to, but not really,” right? I’ve always used it as per [definition #2 here](http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/factoid), but I see now that’s not really good to do. So I shall stop that. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-deadliest-war-since-the-big-one/660591/34 "2013-06-11T03:06:19Z")
I not only got it wrong, I misread the OP and guessed World War I. What’s the etiquette here? Oh yes. I was tired and/or I drank cough medicine for breakfast. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-deadliest-war-since-the-big-one/660591/35 "2013-06-11T03:16:11Z")
Didn’t know name of war, but knew which continent it was fought on. ---
**Author:** ![JohnnyMac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@JohnnyMac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnnyMac)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-deadliest-war-since-the-big-one/660591/36 "2013-06-11T19:05:56Z")
I was wrong. I guessed the Chinese Civil War. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-the-deadliest-war-since-the-big-one/660591.md?page=1)