The World in Pictures - Evan Hays

On January 30th, 1968, Vietcong and North Vietnamese SGU's blew a whole in the protective wall of the US embassy to Saigon. After 3 days of close quarters bloodshed, in which multiple floors of the embassy had to be filled with riot gas, and the US ambassador himself had to kill 3 VC soldiers, it was announced that the embassy "was free and secure of Victor Charlie". Taken on the 3rd day, this photo shows South Vietnamese General, Nguyen Ngoc Loan, executing a Vietcong prisoner on the streets of Saigon. The prisoner was executed due to the wars culture in itself. with the first phase of the Tet offensive in full swing, there simply was no time for this prisoner to be tried and found guilty, guilt is attached on sight in war. Though this photograph shows the American brutality of the war, with the seemingly "good guys" executing unarmed prisoners in the streets, outside the frame the true viciousness of the war is swinging into place. In the north, a seventy day long siege is erupting at Khe Sahn, where whole brigades of American marines will be wiped out. In Retaliation, Operation Niagra II is authorized, allotting for the one of the most large scale bombings in world history to occure, with tremendous casualties both civilian and enemy. In Hue, North Vietnamese soldiers will execute civilians in the street if they worked for the South Vietnamese government.

This photo symbolizes the turning point of the Vietnam war and American war culture in general. The soldiers depicted are tired, sweaty, and beaten after a 3 day siege that is nowhere near its conclusion. Their apathy formulates itself into a brutal efficiency to conclude the war, and is manifested in executions of prisoners all across the country in 68' and 69'. The North Vietnamese soldier is ironically dressed in civilian clothing, and as such the American people begin to empathize with the civilians of Vietnam, and less with the soldiers in country. It paints a bleak, terrifying, and grim portrait of a war that could have been won, but fell victim to peace. A brutal war, that needed brutality, which was fought with the goals and weapons of a nation that had never truly been invaded. It speaks to any empathy a man may have.