User:Snowmanonahoe/Saigon Execution



Saigon Execution, also called Street Execution of a Viet Cong Prisoner, is a 1968 photograph by Associated Press photojournalist Eddie Adams. Taken during the Tet Offensive, it depicts South Vietnamese brigadier general Nguyễn Ngọc Loan executing 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 VC captain. He and his wife Nguyễn Thị Lốp lived as undercover arms traffickers in Saigon, trading tires as a front business. He went by the code name Bảy Lốp. At the start 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 Saigon to cover the Tet Offensive, and on February 1, 1968, he heard about fighting in An Quang. He met with National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) journalist Howard Tuckner, along with cameramen Võ Huỳnh and Võ Suu, and soundman Lê Phúc Đinh. They shared a car to Chợ Lớn to cover the conflict.

Execution and photograph
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. Then, they saw Lém, captured by ARVN marines, being walked up the street. The NBC cameramen began filming. The Marines stopped at the Pagoda, where they presented Lém to Loan. Loan instructed a marine to shoot him. The marine was reluctant, so Loan unholstered his gun. Adams believed Loan only did so to intimidate Lém, but nonetheless prepared to take a photo. As Loan fired his gun, Adams took the picture. Suu's video camera followed Lém as he dropped to the ground, blood spurting out of his head. Loan addressed the journalists: "Many Americans have been killed these last few days, and many of my best Vietnamese friends. Now do you understand? Buddha will understand."

Effects
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.