U.S. Deaths from Armed Conflicts. It is estimated that the total number of deaths from the Vietnam Conflict was around two million(Spector).
This disaster creates an interesting dichotomy between spectacle and slow disasters, especially considering the way that the U.S. and other foreign entities view the ongoing disaster in Vietnam compared to the reaction of the combat during the war. The existence of the Vietnam War is not an unheard-of disaster that was sheltered from the eyes of the public or ignored by the media. A vast majority of the U.S. population at least know that the war happened and know that the United States involvement was incredibly controversial. The war clearly reached the news and had a major impact on U.S. society – clearly observable through the mass anti-war protests of the 60s and 70s. These things I would argue reflect the typical features of a spectacle: media attention, mass awareness by the public, and influence on society at large. What seems more forgotten and less talked about, however, is the aftermath. In the wake of the war, and even three decades later, the U.S has recovered in part, likely because no combat took place on U.S. soil. Vietnam has not experienced the same easy recovery from the war. The toxic chemicals have remained in the water, in the soil, and in the bodies of the people of Vietnam since the U.S. soldiers left in 1975. The economy has remained stationary, and people continue to suffer huge physical consequences of the war (Timeline). The United States is largely unaffected by the current situation in Vietnam, despite the overshadowing facts that the U.S is at fault, or at very least a contributor, for much of the suffering. If a person wants to find information on the aftermath of the war and specifically of the Agent Orange chemicals, you have to look for it. The media does not simply display images of sick kids and contaminated forests all these years after the war. Vietnam has become to some degree forgotten by the international world, while rural communities and ethnic minorities, especially, continue to face the harsh repercussions from the war.