The Pulitzer Prize winning photographer
died today from Lou Gehrig's disease. His Feb. 1, 1968 photo of South Vietnam's Chief of Police Lt. Col. Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Vietcong prisoner was one of the most enduring images for my generation. And even though he later felt that his photo resulted in an unjust view of Loan's actions, it did encapsulate the fierceness and brutality of that war.
This photo and the one of 9 year old Kim Phuc running in flames from a US napalm attack did much to awaken America to the horrors and futility of the Vietnam war.
So, what will be the defining images of this war. Dismembered children? Weeping Iraqi parents? Sobbing US soldiers? What will our visual recollections of this tragedy be?