Skip to main content

Saigon Execution


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.

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.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

"Sims acquired a total of eleven women slaves with vesicovaginal fistula from their masters by promising to lodge, board, and treat them, and he built a spartan wooden building, where he conducted surgical experiments on them for the next four years.

"Sims acquired a total of eleven women slaves with vesicovaginal fistula from their masters by promising to lodge, board, and treat them, and he built a spartan wooden building, where he conducted surgical experiments on them for the next four years.  During the Victorian period, layers of dress signaled sexual chastity, and doctors were not in the habit of viewing women's unclothed bodies; not even their professional stature gave them license to gaze at women's genitalia. When Sims undertook his fistula experiments, even the term 'gynecology' was a few years in the future. Instead, 'women's doctors' averted their eyes in a chivalrous fashion as they knelt to tend to the modestly clothed ladies of their class, relying upon their sense of touch beneath voluminous Victorian skirts.  However, Sims, working with enslaved blacks, was constrained by no such delicacy. He made the women undress completely, then kneel on hands and knees while he and several phys...

A graduate in Biology was having difficulty in finding a job. He saw an advert in one of the daily newspapers for a job at a zoo.🗞️👀

  A graduate in Biology was having difficulty in finding a job. He saw an advert in one of the daily newspapers for a job at a zoo.🗞️👀 In the interview, the manager told him that their gorilla🦍, which had been a tourists attraction has died so they needed someone to dress up and pretend as a gorilla🦍.  The graduate was embarra$$ed, but since the salary was okay, he accepted the job. The first day, he put on the gorilla skin and entered the cage, he started jumping up and down, beating his chest and roared like a gorilla.  The next day, he put on a gorilla skin and started moving around the zoo again and mistakenly entered another cage and found himself staring at a lion🦁.  The lion r0ared and rushed towards him. The scared graduate quickly forgot that he is a g0rilla and started shouting like a human, 🗣️"Help! Help!" The lion leaped onto him, knocked him to the ground and whispered in his ear👂*Dennis*, it's me Mike, your course mate." My brother, No job in thi...

BBC Uncovers Details Of Crude Torture Techniques Used By Nigerian Police, Army On Citizens

  BBC Uncovers Details Of Crude Torture Techniques Used By Nigerian Police, Army On Citizens LAGOS FEBRUARY 11TH (NEWSRANGERS)- The BBC Africa Eye has uncovered shocking video evidence that torture is being used by multiple branches of the Nigerian Police and armed forces. This evidence of torture by the Nigerian Police came to light; after the BBC released the report on Monday, February 10, via its verified YouTube page. Torture is illegal in Nigeria. But images from social media show that a particular form of torture—a technique known as ‘tabay’—is widely used in the interrogation and punishment of detainees, including children. This is a form of torture in which a person’s elbows are tied together behind his back, and the rope is pulled tighter and tighter until his rib cage separates Origins of ‘tabay’ were explored in the investigative piece which further revealed that in 2014; a senior police officer serving with the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) was involved in the tortu...

World War II as you've NEVER seen it before! Light-hearted photos of nude British and Allied soldiers revealed in eye-opening new book

  World War II as you've NEVER seen it before! Light-hearted photos of nude British and Allied soldiers revealed in eye-opening new book From the horrors of the Blitz to kamikaze attacks in the Pacific, World War II inflicted terrible suffering on troops and civilians alike. But as these photos reveal, soldiers fighting the war, whether in the Far East or Europe, did enjoy some more light-hearted moments. Hidden away in the attics of former servicemen for more than 60 years, the pictures, which show soldiers from the UK, Australia and the USA among others, shed fresh light on the friendships fostered between the men who fought. His extensive collection includes snapshots of soldiers and sailors from Australia, the UK, France, Italy, Poland, Russia, and the USA, cavorting on the sand in the South Pacific, shivering in the snow of Eastern Europe, posing solo in the barracks, and in great happy groups. Many are barely out of boyhood, at their physical peak and are responding to...

Grunt

 "Grunt" -  The term gained widespread usage during the Vietnam War and has since become synonymous with the common foot soldier who bears the brunt of ground combat operations. Grunts are typically involved in the most physically demanding and dangerous aspects of military operations, including patrolling, engaging enemy forces, and conducting direct combat missions. The term reflects both the hardships and the camaraderie shared by these soldiers. In popular culture and military vernacular, "grunt" embodies the resilience, toughness, and essential role of infantry soldiers within the broader framework of military operations. These soldiers are often depicted as the backbone of the armed forces, enduring harsh conditions and significant risks to accomplish their missions.

DOZENS OF MEN SAY SRI LANKAN FORCES R*P£D AND TORTURED THEM – ABC NEWS

  DOZENS OF MEN SAY SRI LANKAN FORCES R*P£D AND TORTURED THEM – ABC NEWS One of the men tortured in Sri Lanka said he was held for 21 days in a small dank room where he was raped 12 times, burned with cigarettes, beaten with iron rods and hung upside-down. Another man described being abducted from home by five men, driven to a prison, and taken to a “torture room” equipped with ropes, iron rods, a bench and buckets of water. There were bl00d splatters on the wall. A third man described the prisoners as growing accustomed to the sound of screaming. “It made us really scared the first day but then we got used to it because we heard screaming all the time.” R*ped, branded or beaten repeatedly, more than 50 men from the Tamil ethnic minority seeking political asylum in Europe say they were abducted and tortured under Sri Lanka’s current government. The previously unpublished accounts conjure images of the country’s bl00dy civil war that ended in 2009 — not the palm-fringed paradise...

See the terrible thing done to a female medical doctor.

THIS IS EVIL! See the terrible thing done to a female medical doctor. Outrage as medical doctor is brut@lly gang r@p£d and m*rd£red A 31-year-old trainee doctor named Moumita Debnath was m*rd£red in a brutal way and this has shocked the whole of India and the international community. On 9 August 2024, Dr. Moumita Debnath, a second-year postgraduate trainee (PGT) doctor at R.G. Kar Medical College in North Kolkata, was reported missing by her colleagues. At about 11:30 am, the trainee doctor’s body was discovered in one of the college’s seminar rooms in an almost n@ked state with her eyes, mouth and genitals bleeding. She was later declared d£@d. Police initially told the victim’s father she had d!ed by su!cide. But an autopsy later confirmed the victim had been r@p£d and s*xually ass@ulted before being k!lled via strangulation. The victim’s parents believe multiple people were involved based on the postmortem. Yet, police have not made arrests beyond a man named Sanjay Roy, whose b...

FORGOTTEN HORROR

 After more than 60 years of silence, World War II's most enduring and horrible secret is being nudged into the light of day. One by one the participants, white-haired and mildmannered, line up to tell their dreadful stories before they die. Akira Makino is a frail widower living near Osaka in Japan. His only unusual habit is to regularly visit an obscure little town in the southern Philippines, where he gives clothes to poor children and has set up war memorials. Mr Makino was stationed there during the war. What he never told anybody, including his wife, was that during the four months before Japan's defeat in March 1945, he dissected ten Filipino prisoners of war, including two teenage girls. He cut out their livers, kidneys and wombs while they were still alive. Only when he cut open their hearts did they finally perish. These barbaric acts were, he said this week, "educational", to improve his knowledge of anatomy. "We removed some of the organs and amputate...

Cynthia Rothrock as Terry:

In No Retreat, No Surrender 2 (1987), Cynthia Rothrock plays a significant role, adding her martial arts prowess to the film’s dynamic action sequences. Character and Role: • Cynthia Rothrock as Terry: • Cynthia Rothrock portrays Terry, a tough and skilled martial artist who teams up with Scott Wylde (played by Loren Avedon) and Mac Jarvis (played by Max Thayer) on their mission to rescue Scott’s kidnapped girlfriend. Terry is not only a fierce fighter but also a loyal and dependable friend, contributing significantly to the team’s efforts throughout the film. Rothrock, a real-life martial arts champion, brings authenticity and intensity to the role, with her fight scenes being some of the most memorable in the movie. Cynthia Rothrock’s Impact: Cynthia Rothrock was one of the few female action stars in the 1980s to gain recognition in a genre dominated by male leads. In No Retreat, No Surrender 2, she showcases her exceptional martial arts skills, particularly in hand-to-hand combat sc...

GEORGE SEGAL: THE HOLOCAUST, 1984.

GEORGE SEGAL:  THE HOLOCAUST , 1984 . Was the Holocaust “special”? George Segal’s extraordinary memorial proposes a line of inquiry strikingly different from the familiar exercise—at once useless and obscene—of comparing the Nazi murder machine to other mass exterminations in order to establish a hierarchy of historical horrors. Appropriately, the artist’s investigation takes the form of a perceptual itinerary: To see his work would seem to involve entering a private and protected area within a public space. The eleven figures in Segal’s tableau, surrounded on three sides by a poured-concrete palisade, have been installed on the summit of a slope in Lincoln Park in San Francisco, slightly below a parking area and just to the side of a road leading to the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. From the road we can see only a solitary standing figure. The work in its entirety is usually first viewed from the walkway above, a position from which, however, the whole group, though...