ABSTRACT
FATALITIES Americans deaths in World War I were very small compared with the sufferings of others. Historians estimate that about 50 million people worldwide died because of the war and its immediate aftermath-more than half of them civilians. American fatalities were much lower: of some 16 million men who served in the wartime military, about 292,000 died. Russia, an American ally, lost by far the most, with estimates as high as 39 million people, more than half of them civilians. Among Soviet soldiers there was approximately 1 death for every 22 people in the population (compared with 450 in the U.S. population). In this context, the United States did not suffer signifi cantly-but every death matters.
