[DaGrimmReaper]

On February 1, 1968, during the first days of the Tet Offensive, South Vietnam national police chief Brig. Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan shot Nguyen Van Lem, a suspected Viet Cong officer and prisoner, on a street in Saigon. AP photographer Eddie Adams recorded the shooting in a still image that received the 1969 Pulitzer Prize, while NBC cameraman Vo Suu captured it on film. The images cover a wider frame sequence of the Saigon Execution, not only the well-known photograph.

[papa smurf]

Pol Pot ..

[ImAFuckHead]

Originally Posted by papa smurf ↗

Pol Pot ..

Indeed.

[DarwinsMistake]

For those who dont know what Pol Pot is ,was..

The enormity of what Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge party did in the latter half of the 1970s defies hyperbole. The only word for it: genocide. The death toll: certainly more than a million, perhaps twice that amount. Among the first evidence of the horror, this "killing field" was uncovered in 1980

[Gavlois]

No no! This set of pictures has nothing to do with Pol Pot. They were taken in Vietnam, by Eddie Adams, As Pol Pot's Khmer Rouges actions took place in Cambodia.

Here's the story:
Adams won the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography and a World Press Photo award for the photograph (captioned 'General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong prisoner in Saigon'), but would later lament its notoriety.

On Nguyen Ngoc Loan and his famous photograph, Adams wrote in Time:

“ The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera. Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world. People believe them; but photographs do lie, even without manipulation. They are only half-truths. ... What the photograph didn't say was, 'What would you do if you were the general at that time and place on that hot day, and you caught the so-called bad guy after he blew away one, two or three American people?'[3] ”

Adams later apologized in person to General Nguyen and his family for the irreparable damage it did to Loan's honor while he was alive. When Nguyen died, Adams praised him as a "hero" of a "just cause".[4]

[chris]

This is a great post, I never saw the full series.

[Bronte1068]

I've seen the original many times but not all of the pics. Awesome post.

[justthefacts]

My, how facts get twisted over time. It was never established that the person the general shot was Viet Cong. That individual was accused of being Viet Cong; big difference -- especially when that young man's "trial" was a summary .38 bullet to his head, no proof needed. Years later the general was still troubled by not knowing for sure, but it was after all a war zone.

[justthefacts]

And incidentally the Viet Cong had legitimate grievances against a dictatorial and corrupt South Vietnamese government, which the general served.

[chris]

^ You need an avatar =)