The surgery unknotting number of a Legendrian link is defined as the minimal
number of particular oriented surgeries that are required to convert the link into a
Legendrian unknot. Lower bounds for the surgery unknotting number are given in
terms of classical invariants of the Legendrian link. The surgery unknotting number
is calculated for every Legendrian link that is topologically a twist knot or a torus
link and for every positive, Legendrian rational link. In addition, the surgery
unknotting number is calculated for every Legendrian knot in the Legendrian knot
atlas of Chongchitmate and Ng whose underlying smooth knot has crossing number
or less. In all these calculations, as long as the Legendrian link of
components
is not topologically a slice knot, its surgery unknotting number is equal to the sum of
and twice the
smooth
-ball
genus of the underlying smooth link.