| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
Eddie Adams ( June 12, 1933 - September 19, 2004) was an American photographer.
Eddie is known for taking portraits of celebrities and politicians. As a photojournalist, he covered thirteen wars.
It was while covering the Vietnam War for Associated Press that he took his most famous photograph: the picture of police chief General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Vietcong prisoner Nguyen Van Lem on a Saigon street, in February 1, 1968.
Nguyen Van Lem, a Captain of a Viet Conginterrogation following capture in the attacks on Saigon during the festive Tet holiday period of 1968. Tng tin cong Tt Mu Than) Viet Cong (Vit Cng) was a name used by American and allied soldiers in Vietnam, as well as by much of the English language med assassination and revenge platoonSee also Platoon (movie) and platoon (automobile) for the concept for reducing traffic congestion. Platoon is a term from military science. In an army, a platoon is a unit of thirty to forty soldiers typically commanded by a First Lieutenant who is assist and his men had just finished executing the wives, children and relatives of South Vietnamese police officers. Thirty-four bound and murdered civilians were found in one ditch. He was proud of having done this and boastful of his commitment to the Communists' goals and successfully completing his orders to liquidate all persons on his assignment lists.Adams won the Pulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a United States literary award given out each April. Recipients of the award are chosen by an independent board and officially administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in the United States. The prize was for the picture, but he would later lament its notoriety.
On Nguyen Ngoc Loan and his famous photograph, Eddie Adams wrote 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 people?'"
He later apologised in person to General Loan and his family for the irretrievable damage it did to his honor when he was alive. When General Loan died, he praised him as a hero of a just cause.
Adams remarked that he would have rather been known more for the series of photographs he shot of 48 Vietnamese refugees who managed to sail to ThailandThe Kingdom of Thailand is a country in southeast Asia, bordering Laos and Cambodia to the east, the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia to the south, and the Andaman Sea and Myanmar to the west. Thailand is also known as Siam which was the country's official n in a 30ft boat, only to be towed back to the open seas by Thai marines. The photographs, and accompanying reports, helped persuade then President Jimmy CarterJames Earl Carter, Jr. born October 1, 1924) was the 39th ( 1977 1981) President of the United States. He had previously served one term as Governor of Georgia. Carter's administration marked the decline of U. power overseas and an economic recession. to grant the nearly 200,000 Vietnames boat people asylumUnder international law, a refugee is a person who is outside his/her country of nationality or habitual residence; has a well-founded fear of persecution because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political. Adams remarked that "It did some good and nobody got hurt."
Eddie Adams suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ( Lou Gehrig's disease), and died in New York City from complications of the disease.