This image, a colorized version of a photo originally taken by Eddie Adams in March 1965, shows a Vietnamese soldier punching a member of the Viet Cong. This, and other photos by Adams, captured the essence of the Vietnam War, and an unexpected moment. The photo, which shows the raw violence of the Vietnam War, did not become as well known or as incendiary as a photo Adams would take three years later. Both photos require an understanding of the full story, without which people rush to judgment.
Photo by Eddie Adams, colorized by Mads Madsen
In 1951, Eddie Adams joined the Marine Corps during the Korean War as a combat photographer. After the war, one of his assignments was to photograph the entire Demilitarized Zone after it was created as part of the Armistice Agreement of 1953 . He then covered the Vietnam War for the Associated Press.
American Forces Began To Arrive
Source: (Internet Archive).
Since the 1950s, the U.S. had been providing South Vietnam with aid and advisors. Starting around 1964, President Johnson told the public that Vietnam would be pacified soon, as the resistance was weakening. This was not true. The Viet Cong guerillas were entrenched in villages throughout South Vietnam, operating in the shadows, and American intelligence struggled to measure its strength or the locations of its forces.
Trying To Protect An American Airbase
Another photo taken on March 28, 1965. Source: (Pinterest).
In early 1965, the Johnson administration approved Operation Rolling Thunder, a major aerial bombardment to convince North Korea to stop its support of the Communist insurgency in the south; it began on March 2, 1965 and did nothing to stop North Vietnamese infiltration into South Vietnam, nor did it stop Communist attacks in the South. Because of this campaign, the U.S. also needed to provide heightened security for the American air base at Da Nang, which was in the northern region of South Vietnam. On March 8, the U.S. Marines’ Battalion Landing Team 3/9 made an amphibious landing close to Da Nang. That same day, Battalion Landing Team 1/3 started to arrive at the Da Nang airfield.
Overrunning A Viet Cong Camp
The photo was taken in Quang Nam Province, 10 miles southwest of Da Nang, where the Marines had landed. It was taken during an operation on March 28, 1965 when two Vietnamese battalions overran a Viet Cong camp. This would result in the South Vietnamese capturing 30 prisoners, of which 13 were described as hard-core Viet Cong. In addition to the prisoners, the South Vietnamese killed five others. One of the prisoners, a Viet Cong guerilla, with a Viet Cong made spear at his neck, was persuaded to reveal the location of a cache of Chinese grenades. Although the American troops began arriving in full force in March, the first major offensive, Operation Starlite, would occur in August 1965, and the fighting would continue to escalate.
An Accidental Photograph
The image Adams was best known for. Source: (Pinterest).
Three years after taking this picture, the U.S. was entrenched in the Vietnam War, and Adams took the photo he was best known for: the picture of Nguyễn Ngọc Loan executing Nguyễn Văn Lém on February 1, 1968 on a Saigon street during the opening stages of the Tet Offensive. He won the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography and a World Press Photo award for the photograph. Loan was highly regarded by his men and very good at his job. Loan was looking for at-risk civilians as well as Viet Cong. The photo does not show Nguyễn Văn Lém’s activites prior to his capture: he had killed 34 people, including seven police officers and two or three Americans. He bound their wrists and shot them in the head over a pit. Adams took the picture as he was wandering the streets looking for something interesting to capture.
His Photos Changed The Lives Of 200,000 People
Vietnamese boat people. Source: (Pinterest).
Adams eventually regretted the picture though, as Loan moved to America and opened a pizza restaurant; when people found out who he was, they harassed him, not understanding the background of the famous picture. Adams recognized his role in the treatment of Loan, advocating for him and apologizing for the harm it had caused. Adams said in Time in 1998: “Two people died in that photograph: the recipient of the bullet and General Nguyen Ngoc Loan. The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera. Still photographs are the most powerful weapons in the world. People believe them; but photographs do lie, even without manipulation.” Later, he would take a series of photographs of Vietnamese refugees who sailed to Thailand in a 30-foot boat, and the photographs, coupled with accompanying reports helped to convince President Carter to grant asylum to the nearly 200,000 Vietnamese boat people. As Adams once said, he would rather have been remembered for those photos.
Adams won more than 500 awards in addition to the Pulitzer Prize.
The image at the top of this post was colorized by Mads Madsen, a lover of historical images who is based in Denmark. You can see more of his work on his Flickr page.
