Another Take on Big Mistake

[Timmyjoe]

I grew up in the States in the late 50's and 60's, hearing heroic tales of World War II from the dads in the neighborhood, and watching shows like Combat!! on TV. War seemed to be a heroic adventure. This was also at the time of Vietnam, but where I lived, Vietnam was a noble endeavor, the honest and true Americans fighting those Godless Communists, and winning. Then I remember seeing the Eddie Adam's photo in 1968 of the Vietcong prisoner being executed in Saigon in LIFE or TIME, I was 11, and I was horrified. That picture changed the way I viewed the Vietnam war, and most wars since then. That one picture changed everything about Vietnam for me. I think photos can have that power.

Best,
-Tim

 

[lukitas]

I was ten when I saw this photo. The cropped version, of course. Maybe the full frame is even more harrowing, with the journalist on the right reloading his camera. This is a photo that did change the world.

It is self-evident, that photo's such as these do not change the mind of the criminals who commit these atrocities. What they do change is public opinion, and public opinion does constrain the men in power, the men who take these terrible decisions.

At the very least, they now feel obliged to call these acts of barbarity 'humanitarian interventions', 'toppling brutal dictators', 'bringing freedom and democracy' and saving obscure tribes from certain extinction.

It really is like cleaning out a cesspit : as soon as you empty it, it fills up again. I can see how one can become desperate, or even bored and oblivious. And I quite agree that our lives should not be smothered in doom and gloom and guilt and terror. But some day, the toilet will push it's stink at you, and you'll have to clean it. That is the function of photographs like these : not works of art, but acts of piety.

 

[dasuess]

I grew up in the States in the late 50's and 60's, hearing heroic tales of World War II from the dads in the neighborhood, and watching shows like Combat!! on TV. War seemed to be a heroic adventure. This was also at the time of Vietnam, but where I lived, Vietnam was a noble endeavor, the honest and true Americans fighting those Godless Communists, and winning. Then I remember seeing the Eddie Adam's photo in 1968 of the Vietcong prisoner being executed in Saigon in LIFE or TIME, I was 11, and I was horrified. That picture changed the way I viewed the Vietnam war, and most wars since then. That one picture changed everything about Vietnam for me. I think photos can have that power.
-Tim

...and the Nick Ut photo, and the Kent State photo. Amen !!!