Saigon Execution



Saigon Execution is a 1968 photograph by Associated Press photojournalist Eddie Adams, taken during the Tet Offensive of the Vietnam War. It depicts South Vietnamese brigadier general Nguyễn Ngọc Loan shooting Viet Cong captain Nguyễn Văn Lém near the Ấn Quang Pagoda in Saigon. The photograph was published extensively by American news media the following day, and would go on to win Adams the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography.

Background
Nguyễn Văn Lém was a captain in the Viet Cong (VC) and was known by the code name Bảy Lốp. He and his wife Nguyễn Thị Lốp lived as undercover arms traffickers in Saigon, trading tires as a front business. At the beginning of the Tet Offensive, he was instructed to assassinate prominent figures who stood opposed to the VC, including Loan, United States army general William Westmoreland, and South Vietnamese president Nguyễn Văn Thiệu.

Nguyễn Ngọc Loan was the chief of the Republic of Vietnam National Police (RVNP), and brigadier general of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). He had anticipated the Tet Offensive, and was responsible for coordinating the ARVN response in Saigon – including leading the RVNP to capture the Ấn Quang Pagoda, which the VC were using as a base of operations.

Eddie Adams was an Associated Press (AP) war photographer. Having worked previously as a US Marine, he had a reputation for being fearless, taking pictures close to danger, and for often being "in the right place at the right time". Adams was in Vietnam since 1965 to cover the war, and on February 1, 1968 he heard from the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) about fighting in Chợ Lớn. He met with NBC journalist Howard Tuckner, cameramen Võ Huỳnh and Võ Suu, and soundman Lê Phúc Đinh. They shared a car to Chợ Lớn to cover the conflict.

Execution
The NBC and AP crews arrived at the Ấn Quang Pagoda the same morning, and having seen nothing of interest by noon, were preparing to leave. A cameraman for the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) was also present. Meanwhile, Lém was captured by ARVN marines while wearing civilian clothing. The marines escorted him to where the journalists happened to be. The journalists noticed this; the NBC and ABC cameramen began filming. Loan instructed a marine to kill Lém, but he was reluctant, so Loan unholstered his gun, a .38 Special Smith & Wesson Bodyguard revolver. The ABC correspondent was spooked by Loan and stopped filming. Adams believed this was merely an intimidation tactic, but nonetheless prepared to take a photo. Loan then shot Lém. At the same time, Adams snapped the photo, capturing the moment the bullet was still inside Lém's head. Lém fell to the ground, blood spurting out of the wound. Loan then explained his actions to the journalists, citing the Americans and South Vietnamese that had died. A marine placed a VC propaganda leaflet on Lém's face. His body was left in the street and later taken to a mass grave.

Loan in interviews
When asked in 1972 why he killed Lém, Loan said to Tom Buckley of Harper's Magazine "When you see a man in civilian clothes with a revolver killing your people ... what are you supposed to do? We knew who this man was. His name was Nguyễn Tân Đạt, alias Hàn Sơn. He was the commander of a sapper unit. He killed a policeman. He spit in the face of the men who captured him."

Lém's previous actions
Lém was accused of having recently captured ARVN Lieutenant Colonel Nguyễn Tuấn and his family, and ordered Tuấn to show him how to use the tanks. Tuấn refused, and Lém cut each of their throats. Historian Ed Moise believes that story is South Vietnamese propaganda. Noting his position, historian Max Hastings said "the truth will never be known".

Reactions
The event received extensive attention in the US over the coming days; the photo was published on most American newspapers the following morning, and 20 million people saw the NBC's film of it on The Huntley–Brinkley Report that evening. Various other organizations and American politicians commented on the event.

The photograph is commonly characterized as having created a massive shift in American public opinion against the war. Historian David Perlmutter found little to no evidence to support this claim.

Photograph
The photo came to haunt Adams: "I was getting money for showing one man killing another. Two lives were destroyed, and I was getting paid for it. I was a hero." He elaborated on this in a later piece of writing: "Two people died in that photograph. The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera." Adams later stated he regretted he was unable to get a picture "of that Viet Cong [Lém] blowing away the [Tuân] family".

Ben Wright, associate director for communications at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, said of the photo: "There's something in the nature of a still image that deeply affects the viewer and stays with them. The film footage of the shooting, while ghastly, doesn't evoke the same feelings of urgency and stark tragedy."

Aftermath
In 1975, Nguyễn Ngọc Loan fled South Vietnam during the Fall of Saigon, eventually emigrating to the United States. Pressure from the U.S. Congress resulted in an investigation by the Library of Congress, which concluded that Lém's execution was illegal under South Vietnamese law. In 1978, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) contended that Loan had committed a war crime. They attempted to deport him, but President Jimmy Carter personally intervened to stop the proceedings, stating that "such historical revisionism was folly". Loan died on July 14, 1998, in Burke, Virginia, at the age of 67.

The sole survivor of Lém's alleged killing of Tuân's family was Huan Nguyen; aged nine at the time, he was shot three times during the attack that killed his family and stayed with his mother for two hours as she bled to death. In 2019, he became the highest-ranking Vietnamese-American officer in the U.S. military when he was promoted to the rank of rear admiral in the United States Navy.

In 2012, Douglas Sloan made a short film, Saigon '68, about Adams' photograph. This film details the influence it had on the lives of Adams and Loan, and on public opinion of the Vietnam War.