Eddie Adams’ lasting legacy

40 years ago this month Eddie Adams took one of the most memorable war photographs ever – the execution of a Vietcong prisoner by General Nguyan Ngoc Loan.


A truly horrific picture. But ask many Americans today and, if they are on the right, will tell you that the General Nguyan Ngoc Loan did the right thing.

After all, the Geneva Convention specifically states that combatants not wearing uniforms are not subject to rules governing prisoners of war and can be shot - as the Vietcong man was.

And this was also the view of Eddie Adams (source: The Times):

What the photograph didn't say was, 'What would you do if you were the general at that time and place on that hot day, and you caught the so-called bad guy after he blew away one, two or three American soldiers?

When Loan died, Adams - who had called him many times to apologize for the damage done to Loan's reputation - sent a bunch of flowers with the inscription:
I'm sorry. There are tears in my eyes.

This is all very well of course.

But would we feel the same about the photo if the man being executed had been an undercover US special operations soldier captured in enemy territory in Iraq?

Somehow I think not.