This is one of the most infamous photographs ever taken. The photographer Eddie Adams would later regret being on the scene at the time, because his photograph would go on to destroy the lives of the gunman and his family. He is Nguyễn Ngọc Loan, a Major General in the South Vietnamese Army, and the National Chief of Police.What you don’t see in the photograph is the reason Loan was executing the prisoner.
That man is believed to be Nguyễn Văn Lém, a local Viet Cong officer who had been operating a gang of murderers bent on killing all the local police officers in that area of Saigon. He was responsible for arranging the drive-by shootings or hit-and-runs of dozens of policemen—and if they themselves could not be attacked, he targeted and murdered their families instead.So when he was finally caught and brought before Loan, the Chief of Police calmly unholstered his revolver and shot Lém in the temple, killing him instantly. Adams had no idea what he was about to photograph. He claimed that this picture destroyed all American pro-war sentiment.
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