The other day I had come across one of the most famous Vietnam War photos there are, the execution of "a suspected Vietcong". I initially saw the picture again because something like that reminds me of some of the more voyeuristic things we now see today of filming people that need help. Obviously war photography is a bit different, but seeing someone just take a picture of someone being executed reminded me of the bystander effect of today.
Realizing I really didn't know the history behind the picture and who was actually in the photo, I looked into it.
The photo was sent west and used in the anti-war movements in the US as an example of innocent people being rounded up as being suspected of being Vietcong and executed. The photographer won a Pulitzer prize and that narrative had stayed for a long time.
The real story is that on the left that is General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan who was chief of the national police and on the right is Nguyễn Văn Lém. Lém, a commander of a Vietcong unit, attacked a south Vietnamese military outpost. Lém captured a Lieutenant Colonel with his family and forced the Colonel to show them how to drive tanks. When Lieutenant Colonel Tuan refused to cooperate, Lém killed Tuan, his wife and six children and his 80-year-old mother by cutting their throats. There was only one survivor, a seriously injured 10-year-old boy. Lém was captured near a mass grave with 34 civilian bodies. Lém admitted that he was proud to carry out his unit leader's order to kill these people. When Lém was captured and brought to him, General Loan summarily executed him using his sidearm, a .38 Special Smith & Wesson Bodyguard revolver
I can't condone that an execution outside of international conventions and due process was done, but at the same time this changes my whole perception of the photograph. The pulitzer prize winning photographer regrets ever taking the photo because of how it was used.
Even modern reshowings of the photograph can't even put in an effort to correct the record. CNN in 2014 described the photo as "Eddie Adams photographed South Vietnamese police chief Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan killing Viet Cong suspect Nguyen Van Lem in Saigon in 1960.
Realizing I really didn't know the history behind the picture and who was actually in the photo, I looked into it.
The photo was sent west and used in the anti-war movements in the US as an example of innocent people being rounded up as being suspected of being Vietcong and executed. The photographer won a Pulitzer prize and that narrative had stayed for a long time.
The real story is that on the left that is General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan who was chief of the national police and on the right is Nguyễn Văn Lém. Lém, a commander of a Vietcong unit, attacked a south Vietnamese military outpost. Lém captured a Lieutenant Colonel with his family and forced the Colonel to show them how to drive tanks. When Lieutenant Colonel Tuan refused to cooperate, Lém killed Tuan, his wife and six children and his 80-year-old mother by cutting their throats. There was only one survivor, a seriously injured 10-year-old boy. Lém was captured near a mass grave with 34 civilian bodies. Lém admitted that he was proud to carry out his unit leader's order to kill these people. When Lém was captured and brought to him, General Loan summarily executed him using his sidearm, a .38 Special Smith & Wesson Bodyguard revolver
I can't condone that an execution outside of international conventions and due process was done, but at the same time this changes my whole perception of the photograph. The pulitzer prize winning photographer regrets ever taking the photo because of how it was used.
Even modern reshowings of the photograph can't even put in an effort to correct the record. CNN in 2014 described the photo as "Eddie Adams photographed South Vietnamese police chief Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan killing Viet Cong suspect Nguyen Van Lem in Saigon in 1960.
