Vietnam Execution
From FamousPicturesMagazine
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| Picture Taken On: Feb 1, 1968 |
Place: In Cholon, the Chinese section of Saigon, Vietnam |
Behind the Camera: Eddie Adams |
Picture Summary: General Nguyen Ngoc Loan killing Vietcong operative Nguyen Van Lem |
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| First Posted:2007-02-17 Last Updated on 2012-5-01 by Dean Lucas |
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Nguyen Ngoc Loan
“Two people died in that photograph: the recipient of the bullet and General Nguyen Ngoc Loan” - Eddie Adams. Nguyen Ngoc Loan was one of 11 children born to an affluent family in the ancient city of Hue. He finished university at the top of his class and trained as a jet pilot in the South Vietnamese Air Force. It was in the air force that he meet, Nguyen Cao Ky, the flamboyant pilot who once flew a helicopter into the courtyard of his girlfriend's house to impress her. Ky would later become Prime Minister of South Vietnam from 1965 to 1967, and then Vice President until his retirement from politics in 1971. When in power Ky Surrounded himself with trusted men including his friend, Nguyen Ngoc Loan who he put in charge of the national police. As police chief Loan immediately gained a reputation among reporters for his anger and hair-trigger temper when the Vietcong struck civilian targets.
Nguyen Van Lem
| the guy killed one of ... Loan’s officers and wiped out his whole family | 
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| —Eddie Adams | ||
The prisoner whose last instant is captured in Adam’s shot was Nguyen Van Lem. A Viet Cong operative, who like other Viet Cong agents went by the secret name of Captain Bay Lop (Lop was his wife’s first name). His wife, who still lives in Saigon (Now Ho Chi Minh City), confirms that Lem was a member of the Vietcong and that he disappeared shortly before the Tet Offensive never to return. Lem’s role in the Viet Cong is murky. Most reports give him the role of a Captain in a Viet Cong assassination and revenge platoon responsible for the killing of South Vietnamese policemen and their families. Eddie Adams was told by Loan that Lem had killed one of Loan’s friends and his family, "They found out that [Lem] was the same guy who killed one of his ---uh---Loan’s officers and wiped out his whole family." Yet facing international pressure when the picture and footage aired Vice President Ky, said the prisoner had not been in the Viet Cong but was "a very high ranking" communist political official. History hasn’t clarified Lem’s role in the Vietcong and the Vietnamese government has never acknowledged his role in the war. Lem's widow and children lived in poverty for years before being discovered by a Japanese TV crew living in a field. It was only then that the Vietnamese government provided her shelter.
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Taking the picture
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| He was a hero ... very well loved by the Vietnamese |
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| —Eddie Adams on General Loan | ||
Adams, the man who captured Lem’s final instant was a former Marine photographer in the Korean War. Working for AP, he had arrived in Vietnam a few weeks before the Tet Offensive. This was his third tour; the first was when marines initially touched down in Vietnam in 1965. On the second day of the Tet Offensive Eddie heard reports of fighting near the Cholon, the Chinese section of the capital. The AP and NBC were office neighbors and often pooled resources when reporting the war. So Eddie teamed up with one of NBC's cameramen, Vo Su, and went to check out the location were the fighting was reported.
The two shared a vehicle but as they got closer started to proceed on foot. Hal Buell, Eddie's boss, tells what happened next:
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| Adams watched as two Vietnamese soldiers pulled a prisoner out of a doorway at the end of the street. The soldiers then pushed and pulled what appeared to be a Viet Cong in a plaid shirt, his arms tied behind his back. They escorted the man toward the spot where Adams and Vo Su were located.
"Eddie Adams said, 'I just followed the three of them as they walked towards us, making an occasional picture. When they were close - maybe five feet away - the soldiers stopped and backed away. I saw a man walk into my camera viewfinder from the left. He took a pistol out of his holster and raised it. I had no idea he would shoot. It was common to hold a pistol to the head of prisoners during questioning. So I prepared to make that picture - the threat, the interrogation. But it didn't happen. The man just pulled a pistol out of his holster, raised it to the VC's head and shot him in the temple. I made a picture at the same time.' "The prisoner fell to the pavement, blood gushing," Buell, quoting Eddie. "After a few more pictures of the dead man, Adams left. |
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Video Footage
NBC also acquired film footage of the incident, thanks to the South Vietnamese journalist with Adams, Vo Suu, a cameraman for NBC correspondent Howard Tuckner. The color footage of the execution filmed by Vo Suu was shown to a stunned America already shocked by images of a supposed “defeated” on the offensive during the Tet attack.
After the picture and footage flashed across the world there were cries for Loan to be charged with War Crimes for his summary execution of Lem. Loan's execution would have violated the Geneva Conventions for captured soldiers or Prisoners of War (POWs) if Lem had been wearing a military uniform. Since Lem was caught wearing civilian clothes, plaid shirt and black shorts, Loan was only restricted by the laws of the South Vietnamese government, which allowed the use of such harsh measures.
After the War
His Vietnam execution shot won Eddie Adams the Pulitzer Prize for the Associated Press in 1969. He has always felt guilty over his role in demonizing Loan. After the picture was released in 1969 the AP assigned Adams to follow Loan around Vietnam. In this time Adams remembers, "I . . . found out the guy was very well loved by the Vietnamese, you know. He was a hero to them . . . and it just saddens me that none of this has really come out."
Adams would later do a series of shots of 48 Vietnamese boatpeople who had managed to get to Thailand in a small 30ft boat, only to be towed back out to sea by Thai military officials. His reports and picture convinced President Jimmy Carter to grant asylum to over 200,000 Vietnamese boat people. "I would have rather won the Pulitzer for something like that. It did some good and nobody got hurt."
General Loan Taken out of Action
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| The guy was a hero. America should be crying |
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| —Eddie Adams on hearing of Loan's death | ||
In May 1968 only a few months after the execution picture, now, Brigadier General Loan was seriously wounded. While leading charge against a Viet Cong strong point a machine gun burst had ripped off his leg. Once again a photograph captured Loan. This time the general was bleeding profusely while the broad-shouldered Australian war correspondent, Pat Burgess, carried him back to his lines.
Loan was taken to Australia for treatment but when it was discovered who he was there was such an outcry from the Australian public he was moved to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. After recovering from his injuries the one legged Loan returned to Saigon where because he had been relieved of his command due to his injuries devoted his time to setting up hospitals and the helping Vietnamese war orphans.
General to Pizza Cook
When the South Vietnam fell to the north in 1975, Loan at almost the last moment made it out of the country on a South Vietnamese plane after being denied help by the fleeing Americans. He settled in the United States eventually opening a pizzeria in northern Virginia. He lived a quite life until he was forced to close his restaurant in 1991 when his identify was discovered. In 1998, at 67, he died of cancer but is survived by his four children his wife, Chinh Mai; and nine grandchildren. "The guy was a hero. America should be crying," Eddie Adams response when he learned of Loan’s death.
Eulogy
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| I won a Pulitzer Prize in 1969 for a photograph of one man shooting another … 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 soldiers?" General Loan was what you would call a real warrior, admired by his troops. I'm not saying what he did was right, but you have to put yourself in his position.
…This picture really messed up his life. He never blamed me. He told me if I hadn't taken the picture, someone else would have, but I've felt bad for him and his family for a long time. I had kept in contact with him; the last time we spoke was about six months ago, when he was very ill. I sent flowers when I heard that he had died and wrote, "I'm sorry. There are tears in my eyes." --Eddie Adams |
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Life After the Picture
Eddie Adams born on June 12, 1933, in New Kensington, Pennsylvania has covered 13 wars but has also become famous as a magazine cover photographer. His pictures have been seen on magazines and newspaper covers around the world including Time, Newsweek, Life, Paris Match, Parade, Penthouse, Vogue, The London Sunday Times Magazine, The New York Times, Stern and Vanity Fair. (Yes Penthouse! He shot a number of “Pets” in the 70s) He has shot cover shots for some of the most famous people in the world, presidents Richard Nixon to President Bush, Mikhail Gorbachev, Anwar Sadat, Deng Xiaoping, Fidel Castro and Pope John Paul II. In 1988 he started an annual photo event, Barnstorm: The Eddie Adams Photojournalism Workshop. For four days the workshop brings together newbies and seasoned pros in the Photojournalism field for photography, editing tips and networking.
Eddie Adams himself lived to 71 when on September 18, 2004 he died from complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease. The Vietnam war correspondent who carried the wounded Loan to safety, Pat Burgess, also died from a painful sclerosis of the nervous system, similar to the type Eddie Adams had.
The North Vietnamese failed to achieve any of their goals with the Tet Offensive. The attack was a military disaster for the Vietnamese and Vietcong forces where never able to return to the pre-Tet strength. However in the eyes of the American pubic it seemed like America had been the one that had been dealt a serious blow. The Offensive contradicted the message from the White House that the USA was winning. The execution photograph was a part of the media presentation of the Tet Offensive and seemed to present a battle that had been reduced to desperation and savagery. Yet for all the emotional impact that the film and picture had, the event had little effect on the presence of American soldiers in Vietnam. American G.I.s stayed for another five years. The American government still continued funding the South Vietnamese for another seven years, until 1975; the same year South Vietnam fell.
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Feb 25 2010 3:49 pm
Congress cut off the money to the Republic of Vietnam. This will ever stand as a spot upon the honor of the United States of America. .
Mar 04 2010 12:14 pm
Great Site. Was added to mybookmarks. Greetings From USA.
Mar 04 2010 6:22 pm
So sad for the Brig Gen Nguyen Ngoc Loan who was and remains a hero to many South Vietnamese people. Who can judge when they are not in the same position as Brig Gen Nguyen Ngoc Loan? What would you do if your family, friends, soldiers and comrades were being brutally killed around you . . . and all you had on your side was the press so keen on demonizing everything about the South Vietnamese government? It is shameful what the USA (e.g., Kennedy) did to President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu . . . including leaving all the South Vietnamese govenment and people in April 1975. Where was the Geneva Conventions in these travesties? P.S. What goes around, comes around. Kennedy ordered the brutal and heartless execution of President Diem and his brother, and 3 weeks later on November 22, 1963, Kennedy paid for his sins in a widely publicized assassination. Karma.
Jun 15 2010 6:32 am
i saw that picture so many times and my heart went out to the guy being shot in the head. just today, june 14, 2010 i found out what that picture was all about. general loan was a real hero. i hope his family is doing well. i love this country and i enjoy my freedom. i thank all the men and women who have served and are serving in the military that we, americans , can continue to be free.
Jun 18 2010 8:20 am
The man that fired the gun was just as criminal as the person whose life he took. That was not justice at all. An honorable general is not the law. He overstepped his boundary, boasting, and showing off his kill. People who have no respect for the law do things like the general have no concept of law and neither does the criminal he killed. But it is innocent good moral people that are caught in between such people
Jun 20 2010 4:24 pm
As a kid in the 60s I remember seeing some Vietnam footage but didn't see this until I was older. It was interesting to read the story behind it. A new generation is now seeing a version of it placed over top of a BP logo and the pistol replaced with a gas nozzle. It still brings out a message, but this time that everybody using gasoline killed the 11 men on the rig
Jun 24 2010 8:57 pm
Under the same circumstances I would have done the same if I were there. Further proof that "War is Hell."
Jun 24 2010 8:59 pm
Add to above post: VC showed no mercy when they shot my chopper down over Da Nang that same year.
Jul 02 2010 11:57 pm
R.I.P. General
@Seardeli It's war. There are no rules, no one is innocent. Morals change over time by society (FYI).
And Law is made by MAN.Jul 06 2010 7:13 am
Seardeli:
Moral and high standard are so black and white in time of peace isn't it?
But in times of war, guess what? it gets thrown out of a window, gets stomped on, and then flamed to pieces! Hence the phrase, war is hell!
Now, if you were the general, and you found the guy digging a mass grave for the victims he just killed, several of which are women and 6 are children. And let's say you know 2 of the guys he killed as your best friends, your subordinates, some of the women are their wives, and some of the children are your godchildren, what would you do? Will you still stand on your "Ima high moral guy, I despise anyone who isn't" soap box and scream how unethical it is to kill POW and not to violate the Geneva convention (which btw, does not apply in this case since it only govern soliders in uniforms, not spies or assasins, as was the guy who was being shot), or will you go run at his face and choke the life out of him? If you say I can keep my emotions cool and don't do anything stupid, then I will consider you a cold person and a non human without any feelings what so ever. A picture is worth a thousand words, but before we jumped to conclusion, look at it in context please......Loan got his life wrecked because the world took it completely out of context and didn't even try to understand the story behind the photograph.Sep 16 2010 3:20 am
it would be a good idea to have more then one picture on your websit, just to give people an idea about what it was really like in vietnam, people want to see the types of violence that really did happen.
Sep 16 2010 6:47 am
There are other famous Vietnam War pictures on this website here. But I can't post a lot because they are copyrighted images.
Oct 27 2010 5:27 pm
There are other facts surrounding this photo worth noting. This took place during Tet, the lunar new year, a traditional cease fire by the vietcong and the South Vietnam forces. The North Vietnam General Giap who planned and was responsible for this attack did so with the purpose of mass killings as was witnessed in the major towns of Siagon, Da Nang and Hue. His hope was to cause mass uprising in South Vietnam, that did not happen. If not for that photo and Uncle Walter declaring we could not win the war, American sentiment would not have shifted to defeatism. The fact is that North Vietnam General Giap later admitted what a total failure Tet was militarily and the terrible losses they took. That war was was winnable at any time, all ya had to do was take Johnson and McNamara out of the equation. As Nixon showed in December '72 when he got mad and ordered SAC unleashed on the north. Two weeks of overwhelming air strikes brought the north to their knees. A third week could quite arguabably won the war. The North Vietnamese returned to the peace talk and concluded a treaty with the U.S.
Nov 05 2010 3:10 pm
BOOM HEADSHOT!
Nov 19 2010 2:05 pm
It's not good in anyway. He's a murder
Dec 27 2010 2:53 am
i have never been in war but our boys all ways get a bumb rap from these pease loving comminust and that pease symble is nothing more than a foot print of and american chicken. gen. loan was a hero and i wish i could have shaken his hand. i wish he would have killed many more of those piceses of trash . our sorry ass government held our boys back and got many killed with their stupped rules for fightning.
Feb 21 2011 1:33 pm
As the son of an American special forces veteran of the Vietnam war, Pictures like the one we're talking about here drove home the reality of warfare. I have heard my dad talk about this picture with alot of compassion for the situation. It's hard for a 40 year old American to understand what it's like to have your entire family killed by people like the Vietcong. Or to have your family carted off to "Re-education camps". When I see this picture, I see alot of hurt. A hurt not only for the people in the picture, But also a hurt for the American men & women who actually lived pictures like that. Just for the record, I believe the guy with the gun was and still is the hero in that photograph.
Mar 02 2011 10:20 pm
Wait, this guy is a 'hero' for shooting a bound, unarmed man through the head? :/ Very few of the corrupt and perverted South Vietnamese government were 'heroic'. It takes more to sit down and set yourself on fire than it takes to shoot someone through the head who has no chance of escape. There is very little that is heroic about this picture.
People talk about having their entire families killed by the Vietcong and that makes them the 'monsters' in that war. I'm sorry, but if napalming entire villages of innocent people, burning down villages, killing livestock and poisoning water supplies of completely innocent Vienamese who happened to live on the wrong side of the border isn't monstrous, then I frankly don't know what is. Nothing the Vietcong did in that war is even close to the monstrosities commited by the puppet regime in the South and the zippo raids of racist, violent yanks, all in the names of "capitalism" and "freedom".
Is this really the way that the Vietnam war is taught in US schools? What an absurd, twisted telling of events. I'm only glad I'm not educated in such a hilariously backward manner.Mar 06 2011 6:04 pm
I'm a veteran and I'll back the United States no matter what decision is made.
Mar 12 2011 12:35 pm
David, I can only assume you're not from the states. I agree the war never should have happened,but it did. Yes, our foreign policy needed some improvements. However, guys like my Dad got drafted and did the best they could to make it back home. I've heard him talk about Vietnam my whole life and you're not seeing the whole picture. It was not the combatants who made all the big decisions. That was the administrations of BOTH North Vietnam and the United States. The North Vietnamese government used alot of cowardly battle field tactics. Placing guns in the hands of children, using children for a shield becouse the cowards loved to kill but not to die,etc. All the United States did was adjust it's tactics to deal with it. Innocent people have died in every major war this world ever spawned. It happens. I'm just not sure why you choose to blame the United States for the absolute murderous,ungodly,ragime of the North Vietnamese Government.
Apr 27 2011 1:14 am
Hi, well is hard to explain to all you guy what is going on in vietnam by more than 36 years ago because I was there live in saigon, anyway if the war been going in the usa itself and then drag on for years then all of you will understand the situation. What happend to those U.S.army guys kill those innocent people in My-Lai province in central vietnam back about more than 40 years ago ( 200 to 400 lives estimated) and they all free to go after the US president sign and let them go FREE ( do that FAIR - well that some vietnamese live anyway, right ). How about millions south vietnamese left behind to feed the north vietnamese army in 1975 and for another 36 years ( 2011 )the millions south vietnamese still hungry, jail, no job, died, no benefits and specially no LEVEL at all in the eye of most north vietnamese people and number #1 concern me is a thousands and thousands south vietnames soldier still live very under worst,bad conditions in vietnam thanks to the us government and I said they do not have any help at all from alot of friend around the world in the 60's and 70's where are they? We used to be FRIEND & SOLDIER. And people should look for more informations about the North Vietnamese (bad or good) before 1975, specially in 1968 and 1972. Like President of South Vietnam has said : " Do not believe what the VC said but must see what they done ". Thank you.
Jun 13 2011 11:05 am
The war in Vietnam was one that was started before the US became involved and began with the French government just plain walking off and leaving the South Vietnamese to fend for themselves. We, the US, had "advisors" there at the time, but were not yet involved in combat. That began during the Eisenhower administration, and was continued under Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and was finally ended by Nixon in 1975. At that time, my husband was stationed on Guam and a lot of the fleeing refugees came there prior to relocation to other locations. At the time, the cold war was at it height. The cold war is now ended (or so everyone would like to think) and we are all viewing this from an aspect of history, but the perspective is tilted because the rules of engagement have changed. How does anyone send a soldier to war and instruct him not to kill or hurt anyone who might be innocent? How does a combat soldier make that determination in the field and under fire? Unless we have been in that situation, we have no concept of what it was like. Brig. Gen. Loan did what he felt was necessary at the time. The North Vietnamese man knew what kind of chance he was taking when he accepted the assignment from his superiors. He would not have identified himself as a soldier because he had no proof of that on him at the time, and, being out of uniform made it inmpossible to determine his status. The problem with a real war is that it is not handled like the card game. Innocent people are injured and killed. that is the nature of war. If you doubt that, ask any military service member who has been to Iraq, Pakistan, or Afghanistan. Unless you have been to wqr, you have no idea what it is really like. War is Hell no matter how it is fought. In the case of Vietnam, it was not hndled as a war. It was handled like a political problem first with military applications used inconsistently. We coudl have ended the war sooner and defeated the north in doing so, but that was not politically expecient at the time, nor was North Vietnam willing to negotiate with the south and her allies. It took a very long time to bring them to the negotiating table at all. It is a sad commentary on the North Vietnamese that they cannot find it in their hearts and minds to let go of the past and simply build a nation that allows for human dignity and enterprise to build what would benefit everyone living there.
Jun 01 2012 4:59 am
My family used to eat at his pizza place in Burke...it was the best pizza, especially when the alternative was Pizza Hut or Domino's. Rectangular, instead of round....dark, leather seated booths....super nice family run business....I was sad when it shut down, but it was not an unusual occurance at Rolling Valley Mall...they can never seem to hold any businesses....sad. Then I found out it was owned by the same General who's 'assasination of another' photo was so famous. It bothered me until I actually read the story....now it sort of gives me shivers to think I crossed paths with this man....in a good way.
Jun 04 2012 1:24 am
Viet Cong Lem deserved to death because he killed the whole family of 6 peoples including elderly couple and 5 year old kid and 3 other family members. That why General Nguyen Ngoc Loan shot him. Viet Cong killed many Vietnamese patriots and innocents people in the dark but the world didn't even know that. So if this evil Viet Cong guy got killed . It' not a big deal.
Jun 04 2012 1:36 am
Anyone favor to Viet Cong should go there and stay with them for awhile. Then you will know how good they are. Viet Nam now is a big jail and Viet Cong leaders is Mafia gangs
Mar 28 2013 7:27 pm
As a Nam vet Gen Loan was a very admired and respected man....the Vietcong killed without mercy., entire families if their father , son or brother was a police officer or soldier...That man sot...got what he deserved may he suffer in hell........I hope Buddha forgave Gen Loan for all sins.... He lived and died in Virginia until he was 67 and raised a fine family of Americans
Apr 04 2013 1:25 am
If Lyndon Johnson hadn't fabricated the "Gulf of Tonkin Incident," and the US Congress hadn't perpetrated the "Gulf of Tonkin Resolution," then none of this would have happened in the first place. Go back to the source. How do you get to the source? Follow the money trail!