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In 1968 photojournalist Eddie Adams followed a group of South Vietnamese soldiers who had just captured members of the Viet Cong during the first days of the deadly Tet Offensive. While only expecting to see the soldiers load the guerrillas onto a truck, Adams captured images of a South Vietnamese officer executing a prisoner. The photograph was widely seen as the perfect representation of the brutality of the Vietnam War and made many Americans reconsider whether or not the military campaign was worth the human suffering.

After taking the photo, Adams followed the South Vietnamese officer, Nguyen Ngoc Loan, for quite some time. Loan’s life was destroyed by the image, and he eventually moved to Virginia after the war. Expressing some guilt about the picture later in his life, Adams stated: “Photographs, you know, they’re half-truths … that’s only one side. [Loan] was fighting our war, not their war, our war, and … all the blame is on this guy.”

Discussion Questions:

1. Some say that pictures speak louder than words. Why is this so?

2. Photographs similar to the one taken by Adams have surfaced during America’s recent war in Iraq. Which ones stand out as the images that have had a remarkable impact on public opinion?

3. After the photographs of American soldiers returning from Iraq in caskets appeared in the news, the Bush administration pushed for tighter control of media coverage of the war. Was this justified? Does a free press pose a danger to the country and its troops during a time of war?