Photographs Do Lie

**Bigfella** · 29 Jan 11,, 01:00

Originally Posted by Red Seven

Okay, I'm biased and anti-media. I've been burned before. And no, the general was not ARVN. And the mistake he made perhaps was not taking the time to mull on the long-term consequences. My point is that what was conceived as an atrocity in the United States was not necessarily considered an atrocity among the South Vietnamese, and I know this by having lived among them and having fought beside them.

And this was not just a photograph. It was also captured on film.

Fair enough.

**Bigfella** · 29 Jan 11,, 01:20

Originally Posted by bigross86

I just finished a course in visual communications and how to analyze pictures, so if you're thinking of incorporating some stuff like that into your next draft, drop me a PM.

What would you say about this one? Could it have some measurable effect, or did it come too late (1972) to make much of a difference?

Thanks for the offer mate, might just take you up on that.

As for the photo, yes, much too late to have any significant impact on events. I'll do some digging & post again with more on this & some other photos.

**Chogy** · 29 Jan 11,, 15:10

Errant napalm, I believe. Helped promote the "baby killer" sloganry popular among the anti-war crowd.

The girl survived. But I'm sure the story is much deeper. And the crying boy in the foreground is like Munch's "Scream" paintings, adding massively to the picture.

**Bigfella** · 30 Jan 11,, 01:28

Originally Posted by Chogy

Errant napalm, I believe. Helped promote the "baby killer" sloganry popular among the anti-war crowd.

The girl survived. But I'm sure the story is much deeper. And the crying boy in the foreground is like Munch's "Scream" paintings, adding massively to the picture.

True, but they were running out of war to be 'anti' about by then. Only 60,000ish troops in country when this was taken & very few of them combat personnel. Only 25,000 left by year's end. The only big stuff left to protest was Nixon trying to plough laos & Cambodia from the air & his attempt to bomb the DRV into accepting only 10% of the Sth & a winning position for the final round.

**Ironduke** · 30 Jan 11,, 08:52

Word on the street (from a well-placed source who was in the know in Vietnam) is that the man being executed was a Viet Cong irregular who had murdered/raped the family of either the General pulling the trigger, or another senior ARVN officer.

Again, straight from a very reliable source who had direct knowledge of the event:

**Bigfella** · 30 Jan 11,, 10:17

Originally Posted by Ironduke

Word on the street (from a well-placed source who was in the know in Vietnam) is that the man being executed was a Viet Cong irregular who had murdered/raped the family of either the General pulling the trigger, or another senior ARVN officer.

Again, straight from a very reliable source who had direct knowledge of the event:

That is how it was reported at the time in a good many publications. We know he was an officer. I'm not sure we will ever be able to 'prove' that the did what he was accused of, but a lot of people present at the time believe he did it. It wasn't the family of Loan but of another police officer. Remember that he wasn't an ARVN general, but a police one (via the RVNAF - convoluted I know).

**Ironduke** · 30 Jan 11,, 10:29

There actually were concentration camps in Bosnia.
These people suffered immensely at the hands of Serbian irregular forces in Bosnia.

However, the photo is the reverse of what it was portrayed to be. Those are interested onlookers, looking inward on a concentration camp that I believe was shut down and brought under the control of UN forces:

**FJV** · 30 Jan 11,, 20:35

If I'm not mistaken that photo was of a refugee camp or so is claimed.

There was a fenced in enclosure there that the photographer got inside of and took the photo outwards of the enclosure.

The detail that raised suspicions was the fact that the barb wire is fastened to the wrong side of the post.

The source for that story is here:
The picture that fooled the world

Now here is where it gets interesting:

The source that broke this story is living Marxism, which cannot called unbiased.
Living Marxism - Festering Fascism?

In any conflict it would be reasonable to expect large scale manipulation of the media, by both sides.