Nichols 1

Chad Nichols
Dr. Clarke
English 300 (online)
16 March 2013
Snapshots of Horror: Controversial Images from the Vietnam Era
Photojournalists are always on the lookout for one image: that award-winning image that
can catapult them to fame and international acclaim in their field. However, do they go too far?
Are there some pictures that just should not be published for public consumption? It seems that
every generation has a few that arguably fit the bill. The pictures from Perlmutter and Major's
Images of Horror from Fallujah fall into this generation's allotment, and I believe that many
would feel that the following photos (see appendices B and C) would fall into that category in
their own generation, the Vietnam era. I, on the other hand, am of the opinion that, disturbing as
these photos are, they were of such national and international importance at the time that to not
publish them would have been nearly criminal in itself.
There are a number of philosophies of publishing when it comes to controversial
images. The one that several people feel should be the most important is named after the Golden
Rule, and suggests that photojournalists should be as humane as possible to try to protect
subjects from harm inflicted by photographic coverage (Lester). The Hedonistic philosophy, in
contrast, is very much driven by one particular peculiarity of human nature: we have a
fascination with the macabre. Grieving mothers, bloody cadavers and gruesome accidents sell
papers and magazines, and many photojournalists claim I'm only doing my job when called on
the sensationalism of their shots. Somewhere between these two is a third philosophy, called
Utilitarianism. In Paul Lester's book Visual Communication, Utilitarianism is defined as ...the
belief in the greatest good for the greatest number of people (16). However, this philosophy,
too, can be misused: when an editor claims that gruesome accident scenes draw awareness to a

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dangerous driving practice, for example. In the case of many photos of national and
international import, Utilitarianism is probably the best approach to take.
Over the last week, I have prepared and administered a survey designed to get opinions
from a small but varied sample of Americans in a number of age groups (Appendix A): the
response has been overwhelmingly in favor of publishing photos of this degree of importance,
although not unilaterally so: Hannah, a forty-year-old photographer from Ohio, believes that
Both [photosets] fundamentally altered the way Americans perceived, considered, and
responded to the concept and reality of war. In contrast, Eric B., a forty-one-year-old sales
manager also from Ohio said These pictures show war crimes, nothing more, and feels that
they should never have been published. Eric is in the minority, however: only one person in the
18-24 age group had no opinion on publishing themthe others all felt they should have been
published, even though they were somewhat disturbing. This trend was continued across all age
groups and regions I surveyed.
The specific photosets I've chosen are historic images from the Vietnam era: the summary
execution of a VC infiltrator; and images of (then) nine-year-old Kim Phuc, running down the
road toward friendly lines after narrowly escaping a napalm strike. The photos of the execution,
while bloody, are not exactly indecent. I chose them because of the controversial nature of the
event. The shots of Phan Thi Kim Phuc, however, could be called indecent by those of a
puritanical mindset, which is part of the reason I chose them: the horror of a napalm attack
combined with a nude, burned child hits the heart like the kick of a mule.
The VietCong infiltrator was discovered in the chinese sector of Saigon on the second day
of the Tet Offensive (a series of North Vietnamese surprise attacks that violated a cease fire
agreement), 2 FEB 1968. It was discovered later that he had murdered a South Vietnamese
colonel along with the colonel's wife and their six children the day before. The man holding the
pistol is Lt. Col. Nguyn Loan, then the police chief of South Vietnam, and upon hearing the

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reports of his men calmly walked up to the insurgent and executed him on the spot. Even today
there are arguments as to whether that was a violation of the Geneva Convention, and the photo
eventually ruined Loan's career. The photographer, Eddie Adams, caught the shot purely by
accident, having assumed that the pistol would be used for intimidation. The second photo
shows the lifeless body of the insurgent laying in a pool of his own blood while the official
police photographer examines the scene.
Kim Phuc was born in Trang Bang, some 30 miles from Saigon in South Vietnam to Phan
Tung and his wife Phan Nu, on April 6, 1963 (Chong 8). In 1972, North Vietnamese had
captured and occupied the village, and the day of the photo found Kim Phuc and several South
Vietnamese soldiers and villagers fleeing towards friendly lines. A South Vietnamese pilot saw
the group and assumed they were VietCong, and made a bombing run on the group, killing four
villagers and burning Phuc bad enough that she tore off her clothes and continued running naked,
screaming Nng qu, nng qu ("too hot, too hot"). The photographer, Nick Ut, captured the
photos as he was running to help the kids, then took Phuc and the other children into Saigon to a
hospital (Buell).
These photosets, gore-filled or prurient though they might be percieved, are a critical part
of the coverage of one of the most unpopular conflicts in American history. The images were
necessary at the time to explain what was going on in Vietnam to those that were safe at home,
and they continue to be necessary for generations such as my own, who may otherwise never
understand what our fathers, uncles, or older brothers had to go through. Are there photos that
should not be published? Almost certainly. If the only defence of a disturbing image is that it
will sell copy, then it would probably be best to leave it out, or at the least bury it deep inside the
publication; but if a picture tells a valid, important story in its thousand words, then the front
page is where it belongs.

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Works Cited
Adams, Eddie. General Nguyen Ngoc Loan Executing a Viet Cong Prisoner in Saigon. 1968.
Photograph. Military Photos.net. 23 Mar. 2008. Web. 13 Apr. 2013.
Adams, Eddie. Official Photographer Looks over the Scene after Loan Has Gone. 1968.
Photograph. Military Photos.net. 23 Mar. 2008. Web. 13 Apr. 2013.
Chong, Denise. The Girl in the Picture: The Story of Kim Phuc, the Photograph, and the
Vietnam War. New York: Viking, 2000. Print.
Lester, Paul Martin. "Photojournalism An Ethical Approach." Photojournalism An Ethical
Approach. CSU: Fullerton, 1999. Web. 14 Apr. 2013.
Lester, Paul Martin. Visual Communication: Images with Messages. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth
Pub., 1995. Print.
Perlmutter, David D., and Lesa Hatley Major. Images of Horror from Fallujah. The Curious
Reader: Exploring Personal and Academic Inquiry. By Bruce P. Ballenger and Michelle
Payne. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2006. 438-46. Print.
Ut, Nick. Journalist Christopher Wain Tries to Help Phan Thi Kim Phuc. 1972. Photograph. The
Dickenson Press: Kim Phuc. Forum Communications Co., 04 June 2012. Web. 13 Apr.
2013.
Ut, Nick. Terrible War. 1972. Photograph. Interview with Nick Ut, the Photojournalist Who Shot
the Iconic Napalm Girl Photo. PetaPixel, 19 Sept. 2012. Web. 13 Apr. 2013.