This is the most famous photo of the Vietnam War. It shows the chief of police executing a Viet Cong in cold blood with a bullet in the head.
Taken on 1 February 1968 in Saigon by Associated Press photographer Eddie Adams, it went around the world, stirring up the anti-war movement in the US and around the world.
In the photo, General and police chief, Nguyen Ngok Loan, shoots South Vietnamese communist Nguyen Van Lem in the head.
He later claimed, speaking to members of the press, that it was an act of indignation because earlier Lem and his comrades had carried out a raid killing dozens of police officers. Among them were his relatives. None of the journalists present justified his action.
The photo was published and went around the world. Before long, it had become a symbol of the brutality of the war in Vietnam. The damage to the image of the Americans, especially at home, was enormous, since they had borne the brunt of the civil war, being on the side of the South Vietnamese fighting against the Northern Communists.
The photographer became famous and famous, and in 1969, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Later, however, he seemed to regret what the photograph had caused, and in a letter to TIME magazine he tried to excuse General Loan.
The letter read: "The General killed a Viet Cong and I killed him with my camera. Photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world. People believe them, but photographers often lie, even if without malice. Photographs often tell half the truth, as in the case of Loan."
When General Loan died in exile in the US in 1998, Adams called him a "hero of a just cause". Eddie Adams, the photographer who took the most famous photograph of the Vietnam War, died on September 18, 2004, at the age of 71.
Source.gr
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs Cyprus Times
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Times
Source
