Vietnam photographer dies

www.eddieadamsworkshop.com/

Eddie Adams, a former Marine combat correspondent who shot one of the most famous photographs of the Vietnam War, died Sept. 19 of complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, which he was diagnosed with in May, his assistant said. He was 71.

Adams was a Marine combat photographer during the Korean War before becoming one of the nation’s top photojournalists, covering 13 wars and photographing world leaders for decades. But it was a single photo taken Feb. 1, 1968, the second day of the communists’ Tet Offensive in South Vietnam that became his most famous image — and one that defined the war.

Drawn by gunfire, Adams and an NBC film crew watched South Vietnamese soldiers bring a handcuffed Viet Cong captive to a street corner, where South Vietnam’s national police chief, Lt. Col. Nguyen Ngoc Loan, wordlessly drew a pistol and shot the man in the head.

Adams caught the instant before death in a photo that made front pages around the world and earned him a Pulitzer Prize. In later years, Adams found himself so defined — and haunted — by the picture that he would not display it at his studio. He also felt it unfairly maligned Loan, who lived in Virginia after the war and died in 1998.

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=1-MARINEPAPER-356964.php

I remember reading that the soon-to-be late Mr. "Phred" had been captured immediately after hacking to death the wife and children of a South Vietnamese Air Force officer. Can anyone confirm or deny this and furnish documentation to either effect? Snopes data need not apply.

I remember seeing film footage of this on the network news at the time of the '68 Tet Offensive.  I was 12-years-old and my Dad had just retired from the USA.  It was the first time I saw someone die....granted it was from film footage shot the day before, if not a couple of days before.  I vividly recall seeing the VC collapse and blood come out the side of his head like a water fountain.  I was somewhat stunned, but didn't see anything wrong with killing a VC.  I had read about the actions of the VC in such things as Readers' Digest.  They murdered women and children.  It is now 36 years later and I have never changed my attitude.  The VC was little more than an animal caught in the act of killing.

That guy that pulled the trigger moved to the US and ran a pizza joint somewhere in the midwest.

You would think that after I go through the trouble of posting the story (you know, the words that are put together) that tells what happened to Lt. Col. Nguyen Ngoc Loan after he moved to the USA you would have read it....

Quoted: That guy that pulled the trigger moved to the US and ran a pizza joint somewhere in the midwest.

Where's the other pics in the string? You know, the ones that show the aftermath of the shooting? They do exist...I've seen them before.

Google?

Quoted: Where's the other pics in the string? You know, the ones that show the aftermath of the shooting? They do exist...I've seen them before.