Nguyen Van Lem During The Vietnam War
This photograph taken by Eddie Adams on 1st February 1968 during the Vietnam War shows the execution of Vietcong officer Nguyen Van Lem, also known as Bay Lop by South Vietnamese Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan, chief of the national police. The prisoner’s hands are tied as “Colonel” is about to pull the trigger. This picture was taken in the city of Saigon on the second day of the Tet Offensive; a series of attacks on all of South Vietnam’s major cities by the communist North Vietnamese and Vietcong rebels. The offensive was carried out on Tet, the Vietnamese New Year and took the anti-communist American troops and South Vietnamese government completely by surprise. Nguyen Van Lem was the captain of a Vietcong “revenge squad” and was responsible for
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This photograph has value as it documents an event in the Vietnam War and is an accessible medium for all people. It shows the period and we are able to gain information and an understanding about the people and time through visual clues. The photograph does depict an act of violence and is an example of the terrible acts of the Vietnam War. This photograph is also extremely limited as, like all historical photographs, it shows one moment and often does not provide context of the situation. Adams’ photograph made the official pulling the trigger – General Nguyen Ngoc Loan – look like a villain; however the situation was not as black-and-white as it appears to be in the picture. The man being shot - Nguyen Van Lem - was the captain of a Vietcong “revenge squad” which was targeting South Vietnamese National Police officers and their families had executed dozens of unarmed civilians earlier the same day. He was captured at the site of a mass grave that included the bodies of at least seven police family members. In fact the photographer, Eddie Adams felt that the photograph was misunderstood and said, ”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
This photograph has value as it documents an event in the Vietnam War and is an accessible medium for all people. It shows the period and we are able to gain information and an understanding about the people and time through visual clues. The photograph does depict an act of violence and is an example of the terrible acts of the Vietnam War. This photograph is also extremely limited as, like all historical photographs, it shows one moment and often does not provide context of the situation. Adams’ photograph made the official pulling the trigger – General Nguyen Ngoc Loan – look like a villain; however the situation was not as black-and-white as it appears to be in the picture. The man being shot - Nguyen Van Lem - was the captain of a Vietcong “revenge squad” which was targeting South Vietnamese National Police officers and their families had executed dozens of unarmed civilians earlier the same day. He was captured at the site of a mass grave that included the bodies of at least seven police family members. In fact the photographer, Eddie Adams felt that the photograph was misunderstood and said, ”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