Big Mike 65
Gen Nguyen Ngoc Loan executes "Viet Cong Death Squad" Captain who was a mass murderer: Tet Offensive 1968
MOST PEOPLE DON'T KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT THIS PICTURE.
Gen Nguyen Ngoc Loan, South Vietnamese chief of the national police, fires his pistol into the head of Van Lem aka Bay Lop (Viet Cong death squad Captain), on a Saigon street early on in the Tet offensive on 1 February 1968.
Van Lem led a sabotage unit, with Viet Cong tanks alongside him, with the purpose of attacking the Armor Camp in Go Vap at approximately 4.30am. After his troops took command of the base, Van Lem arrested Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Tuan, along with his family and made him show him and his troops how to drive tanks. When Tuan refused to help, VAN LEM KILLED ALL MEMBERS OF TUAN'S FAMILY, INCLUDING HIS MOTHER WHO WAS 80 YEARS OLD. Only one member survived this slaughter, a 10-year-old boy who was seriously injured.
Van Lem was caught close to a mass grave that held 34 innocent bodies of civilians. He admitted that he was proud of killing these people, carrying out orders from his unit leader to do so. Loan had personally witnessed one of his officers being murdered, along with his three small children and wife in cold blood so when Van Lem was brought to him following his capture Loan executed him using his own sidearm (a .38 Smith & Wesson Model 38) right before the NBC News television Cameraman Vo Suu and AP photographer Eddie Adams. This meant the image and video of this execution was broadcast worldwide and bolstered the anti-war movement.
Photographer Eddie Adams reported that after the shooting, Loan approached him and said: “They killed many of my people, and yours too,” then walked away.
The photographic image enabled Eddie Adams to win the 1969 Pulitzer Prize in the category ‘Spot News Photography’ although Adams was later to regret the images impact (supposedly). The image went on to be used as an anti-war icon. Adams went on to write in Time Magazine ‘The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera. Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world. People believe them, but photographs do lie, even without manipulation. They are only half-truths. 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?”’
A few months after the execution picture was taken, Loan was seriously wounded by machine gun fire that led to the amputation of his leg. Again his picture hit the world press, this time as Australian war correspondent Pat Burgess carried him back to his lines. In addition to his military service, Loan was an advocate for hospital construction.
In 1975, during the fall of Saigon, Loan fled South Vietnam. He moved to the United States. When he arrived, the Immigration and Nationalization Services wanted to deport him partially because of the photo taken by Adams. They approached Adams to testify against Loan, but Adams instead testified in his favor and Loan was allowed to stay, and opened a pizza restaurant in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Burke, Virginia at Rolling Valley Mall called "Les Trois Continents". In 1991, he was forced into retirement when publicity about his past led to a sharp decline in business. Adams recalled that on his last visit to the pizza parlor, he had seen written on a toilet wall, "We know who you are, fucker".
Nguyễn was married to Chinh Mai, with whom he raised five children. Nguyễn Ngọc Loan died of cancer on 14 July 1998, aged 67, in Burke, Virginia.
Eddie Adams apologized in person at a later date to Loan and his immediate family for any damage the picture and his statements about it had done to Loan’s reputation. After Loan passed away of cancer in Virginia, Adams said of him ‘The guy was a hero. America should be crying. I just hate to see him go this way, without people knowing anything about him.’ Loan was married to Chinh Mai and together they raised 5 children, Loan succumbed to cancer and died on July 14th, 1998 aged 67 in Burke, Virginia.
Gen Nguyen Ngoc Loan executes "Viet Cong Death Squad" Captain who was a mass murderer: Tet Offensive 1968
MOST PEOPLE DON'T KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT THIS PICTURE.
Gen Nguyen Ngoc Loan, South Vietnamese chief of the national police, fires his pistol into the head of Van Lem aka Bay Lop (Viet Cong death squad Captain), on a Saigon street early on in the Tet offensive on 1 February 1968.
Van Lem led a sabotage unit, with Viet Cong tanks alongside him, with the purpose of attacking the Armor Camp in Go Vap at approximately 4.30am. After his troops took command of the base, Van Lem arrested Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Tuan, along with his family and made him show him and his troops how to drive tanks. When Tuan refused to help, VAN LEM KILLED ALL MEMBERS OF TUAN'S FAMILY, INCLUDING HIS MOTHER WHO WAS 80 YEARS OLD. Only one member survived this slaughter, a 10-year-old boy who was seriously injured.
Van Lem was caught close to a mass grave that held 34 innocent bodies of civilians. He admitted that he was proud of killing these people, carrying out orders from his unit leader to do so. Loan had personally witnessed one of his officers being murdered, along with his three small children and wife in cold blood so when Van Lem was brought to him following his capture Loan executed him using his own sidearm (a .38 Smith & Wesson Model 38) right before the NBC News television Cameraman Vo Suu and AP photographer Eddie Adams. This meant the image and video of this execution was broadcast worldwide and bolstered the anti-war movement.
Photographer Eddie Adams reported that after the shooting, Loan approached him and said: “They killed many of my people, and yours too,” then walked away.
The photographic image enabled Eddie Adams to win the 1969 Pulitzer Prize in the category ‘Spot News Photography’ although Adams was later to regret the images impact (supposedly). The image went on to be used as an anti-war icon. Adams went on to write in Time Magazine ‘The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera. Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world. People believe them, but photographs do lie, even without manipulation. They are only half-truths. 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?”’
A few months after the execution picture was taken, Loan was seriously wounded by machine gun fire that led to the amputation of his leg. Again his picture hit the world press, this time as Australian war correspondent Pat Burgess carried him back to his lines. In addition to his military service, Loan was an advocate for hospital construction.
In 1975, during the fall of Saigon, Loan fled South Vietnam. He moved to the United States. When he arrived, the Immigration and Nationalization Services wanted to deport him partially because of the photo taken by Adams. They approached Adams to testify against Loan, but Adams instead testified in his favor and Loan was allowed to stay, and opened a pizza restaurant in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Burke, Virginia at Rolling Valley Mall called "Les Trois Continents". In 1991, he was forced into retirement when publicity about his past led to a sharp decline in business. Adams recalled that on his last visit to the pizza parlor, he had seen written on a toilet wall, "We know who you are, fucker".
Nguyễn was married to Chinh Mai, with whom he raised five children. Nguyễn Ngọc Loan died of cancer on 14 July 1998, aged 67, in Burke, Virginia.
Eddie Adams apologized in person at a later date to Loan and his immediate family for any damage the picture and his statements about it had done to Loan’s reputation. After Loan passed away of cancer in Virginia, Adams said of him ‘The guy was a hero. America should be crying. I just hate to see him go this way, without people knowing anything about him.’ Loan was married to Chinh Mai and together they raised 5 children, Loan succumbed to cancer and died on July 14th, 1998 aged 67 in Burke, Virginia.