Saigon, 1968: General Hguyen Ngoc Loan executes Viet Cong suspect, Nguyen Van Lem.
Context of conflict
This image was captured during the Vietnam War, just days after the Tet Offensive began on January 30, 1968. The man being executed is a Viet Cong Lieutenant and the man executing him is General Hguyen Ngoc Loan.
The Vietnam war was a conflict waged between the United States against the Northern National Liberation Front, also known as the Viet Cong. The war resulted from the pursuit of Kissinger's containment policy in the context of the Cold War and the perceived threat of growing communist movements across the globe. The war was characterized by the success of the Vietnamese strategy of guerrilla warfare, the domestic anti-war protests in America, Nixon's Peace with Honor, the use of Agent Orange (Chemical warfare), the Mcarthy Era and the creation of the SE Asia Command.
The Tet offensive is viewed by many as a distinct turning point in the Vietnam war, in which American soldiers and high command realized that the war was not only far from over, but that the guerrilla fighters were capable of a prolonged, highly costly (in terms of both lives and economically) conflict. The Tet offensive consisted of Viet Cong soldiers infiltrating and implementing waves of attacks within 100 major Vietnamese cities, including the majority of each region's capital. Initially the Viet Cong were able to gain control of several cities, though they did not succeed in holding them for very long. However, the battle to win back the cities was long and bloody, exacting a major toll on US troops moral, despite the heavy casualties sustained by the rebel forces (Culbert 419-449). Although arguably the Tet offensive was a military failure, as the Viet Cong failed to capture the cities and the Southern population failed to rally in support of their cause, there are also those who view the event in hindsight somewhat of a success in that the Northern Vietnamese succeeded in shifting American perceptions of the war and ultimately began to chip away at both soldier morale and domestic support for an increasingly violent and costly war.
The context of the image specifically, as described by the photographer is one that captures the complexity and multi-faceted nature of war. On February 1st, 1968, fighting from the Tet Offensive reached the US embassy in Saigon. Eddie Adams was nearby when he witnessed two South Vietnamese soldiers lead a prisoner out into the street. Shortly after General Loan approaches and executes the man by a single shot to the head at close range. General Loan explains to Adams that he believed the man was a Viet Cong Lieutenant who had killed a South Vietnamese Colonel, along with his wife and six children. According to Adams, the general truly believed that the execution constituted justice. While the anti-war movement later appropriated the photo as an example of the brutality and injustice of war, the photographer feels that this is somewhat of a misrepresentation of the image.
“If you’re this man, this general, and you just caught this guy after he killed some of your people…How do you know you wouldn’t have pulled that trigger yourself? You have to put yourself in that situation…It’s a war.” (Adams)
It remains controversial as to whether the man should have been granted POW (Prisoner of War) status or whether his execution violated the Geneva Convention. Key points of concern include: that the man was not wearing a uniform at the time of his arrest, which could be interpreted as a reason to not grant him POW status or as an obligation to afford him civilian rights. Further, while Lem's wife confirmed that he was a member of the National Liberation Front, his exact position and crimes were only alleged, although his capture at a mass grave of South Vietnamese soldiers certainly could lead to assumptions (Kennedy).
Journalistic Context
Eddie Adams was a news photographer whose work spanned 4 decades, covered 13 wars and garnered over 500 awards. Saigon Execution was his most famous photograph, winning international acclaim and the Pulitzer Prize. As a combat photographer, Adams sought first and foremost to depict the struggle and pain of American and Allied troops in the war. However, though he aimed to portray a sympathetic image of the American cause, his image of the Saigon execution caused widespread disillusionment and domestic opposition to the war effort. Although he was undoubtedly biased against the Northern Vietnamese NLF, Adams was influential in exposing the plight of the Southern Vietnamese refugees attempting to flee the war, which resulted in a decision by US congress to allow approximately 200, 000 refugees to immigrate to the United States (Grundberg).
The Vietnam War was covered by full time journalists from reputable agencies such as The Associated Press, United Press International and news magazines such as Life, Time and Newsweek. That said, the were also many free lance journalists and photographers who came to Vietnam hoping that their coverage would gain them employment. Apparently, press passes were easy enough to access and these passes afforded the media enough support to move throughout the country relatively safely (Kennedy).
Common motifs in photographs included typical american military formations, helicopters (on which many photographers were reliant for travel) and patrols through paddy fields and wading through rivers. A key weakness of the majority of the photography of the Vietnam War is in its lack of a true Northern Vietnamese perspective, as photographers are limited in where they go by their reliance on american military accompaniment (Kennedy).
Significance/influence of the photo
Before Eddie Adams photo appeared on all three major American news channels covering the Vietnam War, footage of fighting was constrained by heavy equipment, maneuverability issues and general technological limitation of the time. As a result, film usually could not capture the most poignant, violent scenes of the war and instead, the 6 o'clock news featured long shots of helicopters landing and taking off, and news broadcasts were voiced over images of grassland and jungle. David Culbert argues that Adam's image changed American perception of the Vietnam war by providing a close up view of the violence that film and other images had failed to capture (Culbert 419-449).
Later, it is asserted by several scholars that Lyndon B. Johnson, or at least his advisors were influenced by the television broadcast of Adam's image, along with accompanying video footage of the incident. It is argued that in Johnson's withdrawal from a reelection bid, his subsequent change in stance on the war and the dramatic decrease in gallup poll approval ratings can all be linked to the "reification" of the war, through graphic imagery (Culbert 419-449). While it is unlikely that the photo was the only factor that influenced the drastic change in public opinion and policy towards the war, this image is certainly one of the most powerful photographs of the conflict.
The site on which I found the best quality image of Saigon Execution was a poster and print making site called Inspired By Design, which sells photography prints for home decorations. It is interesting to see the transition of what was once a powerful, sickening depiction of brutality transformed into "decoration" that someone would consciously chose to display in their living room. I have no idea what the justification of this would be, it seems to me almost akin to putting an image of the Holocaust above your bed. That said, the cultural permeation of the Vietnam War can be seen in film, tv, design mediums throughout modern America, for better or worse.
Works Cited
Adams, Eddie. "Briscoe Center For American History." The University of Texas at Austin. Dolph Briscoe Center for American
History. Web. 5 Apr 2014. <http://www.cah.utexas.edu/db/dmr/gallery_lg.php?gallery=eddie_adams&t=28&s=3>.
Culbert, David. "Television's Visual Impact on Decision-Making in the USA, 1968: The Tet Offensive and Chicago's Democratic
National Convention." Journal of Contemporary History. 33.3 (1998): 419-449. Print.
Grundberg, Andy. "Eddie Adams, Journalist Who Showed Violence of Vietnam, Dies at 71." New York Times [New York] 20
Sept 2004, n. pag. Web. 5 Apr. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/20/arts/20adam.html?_r=0>.
Kennedy, Liam. "Photojournalism and the Vietnam War." Photography and International Conflict. UCD Dublin. Web. 5 Apr 2014. <http://www.ucd.ie/photoconflict/histories/vietnamwarphotojournalism/>.
Image:
Adams, Eddie. Saigon Execution. N.d. Photograph. Inspired By DesignWeb. 5 Apr 2014. <http://wodumedia.com/vietnam-35-years-later/2-of-3-south-vietnamese-general-nguyen-ngoc-loan-chief-of-the-national-police-fires-his-pistol-into-the-head-of-suspected-viet-cong-officer-nguyen-van-lem-on-a-saigon-street-on-feb-1-1968-ap/>.
Context of conflict
This image was captured during the Vietnam War, just days after the Tet Offensive began on January 30, 1968. The man being executed is a Viet Cong Lieutenant and the man executing him is General Hguyen Ngoc Loan.
The Vietnam war was a conflict waged between the United States against the Northern National Liberation Front, also known as the Viet Cong. The war resulted from the pursuit of Kissinger's containment policy in the context of the Cold War and the perceived threat of growing communist movements across the globe. The war was characterized by the success of the Vietnamese strategy of guerrilla warfare, the domestic anti-war protests in America, Nixon's Peace with Honor, the use of Agent Orange (Chemical warfare), the Mcarthy Era and the creation of the SE Asia Command.
The Tet offensive is viewed by many as a distinct turning point in the Vietnam war, in which American soldiers and high command realized that the war was not only far from over, but that the guerrilla fighters were capable of a prolonged, highly costly (in terms of both lives and economically) conflict. The Tet offensive consisted of Viet Cong soldiers infiltrating and implementing waves of attacks within 100 major Vietnamese cities, including the majority of each region's capital. Initially the Viet Cong were able to gain control of several cities, though they did not succeed in holding them for very long. However, the battle to win back the cities was long and bloody, exacting a major toll on US troops moral, despite the heavy casualties sustained by the rebel forces (Culbert 419-449). Although arguably the Tet offensive was a military failure, as the Viet Cong failed to capture the cities and the Southern population failed to rally in support of their cause, there are also those who view the event in hindsight somewhat of a success in that the Northern Vietnamese succeeded in shifting American perceptions of the war and ultimately began to chip away at both soldier morale and domestic support for an increasingly violent and costly war.
The context of the image specifically, as described by the photographer is one that captures the complexity and multi-faceted nature of war. On February 1st, 1968, fighting from the Tet Offensive reached the US embassy in Saigon. Eddie Adams was nearby when he witnessed two South Vietnamese soldiers lead a prisoner out into the street. Shortly after General Loan approaches and executes the man by a single shot to the head at close range. General Loan explains to Adams that he believed the man was a Viet Cong Lieutenant who had killed a South Vietnamese Colonel, along with his wife and six children. According to Adams, the general truly believed that the execution constituted justice. While the anti-war movement later appropriated the photo as an example of the brutality and injustice of war, the photographer feels that this is somewhat of a misrepresentation of the image.
“If you’re this man, this general, and you just caught this guy after he killed some of your people…How do you know you wouldn’t have pulled that trigger yourself? You have to put yourself in that situation…It’s a war.” (Adams)
It remains controversial as to whether the man should have been granted POW (Prisoner of War) status or whether his execution violated the Geneva Convention. Key points of concern include: that the man was not wearing a uniform at the time of his arrest, which could be interpreted as a reason to not grant him POW status or as an obligation to afford him civilian rights. Further, while Lem's wife confirmed that he was a member of the National Liberation Front, his exact position and crimes were only alleged, although his capture at a mass grave of South Vietnamese soldiers certainly could lead to assumptions (Kennedy).
Journalistic Context
Eddie Adams was a news photographer whose work spanned 4 decades, covered 13 wars and garnered over 500 awards. Saigon Execution was his most famous photograph, winning international acclaim and the Pulitzer Prize. As a combat photographer, Adams sought first and foremost to depict the struggle and pain of American and Allied troops in the war. However, though he aimed to portray a sympathetic image of the American cause, his image of the Saigon execution caused widespread disillusionment and domestic opposition to the war effort. Although he was undoubtedly biased against the Northern Vietnamese NLF, Adams was influential in exposing the plight of the Southern Vietnamese refugees attempting to flee the war, which resulted in a decision by US congress to allow approximately 200, 000 refugees to immigrate to the United States (Grundberg).
The Vietnam War was covered by full time journalists from reputable agencies such as The Associated Press, United Press International and news magazines such as Life, Time and Newsweek. That said, the were also many free lance journalists and photographers who came to Vietnam hoping that their coverage would gain them employment. Apparently, press passes were easy enough to access and these passes afforded the media enough support to move throughout the country relatively safely (Kennedy).
Common motifs in photographs included typical american military formations, helicopters (on which many photographers were reliant for travel) and patrols through paddy fields and wading through rivers. A key weakness of the majority of the photography of the Vietnam War is in its lack of a true Northern Vietnamese perspective, as photographers are limited in where they go by their reliance on american military accompaniment (Kennedy).
Significance/influence of the photo
Before Eddie Adams photo appeared on all three major American news channels covering the Vietnam War, footage of fighting was constrained by heavy equipment, maneuverability issues and general technological limitation of the time. As a result, film usually could not capture the most poignant, violent scenes of the war and instead, the 6 o'clock news featured long shots of helicopters landing and taking off, and news broadcasts were voiced over images of grassland and jungle. David Culbert argues that Adam's image changed American perception of the Vietnam war by providing a close up view of the violence that film and other images had failed to capture (Culbert 419-449).
Later, it is asserted by several scholars that Lyndon B. Johnson, or at least his advisors were influenced by the television broadcast of Adam's image, along with accompanying video footage of the incident. It is argued that in Johnson's withdrawal from a reelection bid, his subsequent change in stance on the war and the dramatic decrease in gallup poll approval ratings can all be linked to the "reification" of the war, through graphic imagery (Culbert 419-449). While it is unlikely that the photo was the only factor that influenced the drastic change in public opinion and policy towards the war, this image is certainly one of the most powerful photographs of the conflict.
The site on which I found the best quality image of Saigon Execution was a poster and print making site called Inspired By Design, which sells photography prints for home decorations. It is interesting to see the transition of what was once a powerful, sickening depiction of brutality transformed into "decoration" that someone would consciously chose to display in their living room. I have no idea what the justification of this would be, it seems to me almost akin to putting an image of the Holocaust above your bed. That said, the cultural permeation of the Vietnam War can be seen in film, tv, design mediums throughout modern America, for better or worse.
Works Cited
Adams, Eddie. "Briscoe Center For American History." The University of Texas at Austin. Dolph Briscoe Center for American
History. Web. 5 Apr 2014. <http://www.cah.utexas.edu/db/dmr/gallery_lg.php?gallery=eddie_adams&t=28&s=3>.
Culbert, David. "Television's Visual Impact on Decision-Making in the USA, 1968: The Tet Offensive and Chicago's Democratic
National Convention." Journal of Contemporary History. 33.3 (1998): 419-449. Print.
Grundberg, Andy. "Eddie Adams, Journalist Who Showed Violence of Vietnam, Dies at 71." New York Times [New York] 20
Sept 2004, n. pag. Web. 5 Apr. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/20/arts/20adam.html?_r=0>.
Kennedy, Liam. "Photojournalism and the Vietnam War." Photography and International Conflict. UCD Dublin. Web. 5 Apr 2014. <http://www.ucd.ie/photoconflict/histories/vietnamwarphotojournalism/>.
Image:
Adams, Eddie. Saigon Execution. N.d. Photograph. Inspired By DesignWeb. 5 Apr 2014. <http://wodumedia.com/vietnam-35-years-later/2-of-3-south-vietnamese-general-nguyen-ngoc-loan-chief-of-the-national-police-fires-his-pistol-into-the-head-of-suspected-viet-cong-officer-nguyen-van-lem-on-a-saigon-street-on-feb-1-1968-ap/>.