Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/13

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Subject: RE: [Leica] Re: E. Adams & Vietnam Photo
From: "Stewart, Alistair" <AStewart@gigaweb.com>
Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1999 10:17:41 -0400

BD,

have you seen the PBS two-part series "dying to get the picture"? It has a
large segment on Dan Eldon ("the journey is the destination"), whose story
had some EA involvement.

I think there are a lot more interesting stories that could have been
covered other than his, but his family did a great memorial job with the
book. There's a great quote from Plato: "only the dead have seen the end of
war".

best of peaceful light,

Alistair

- -----Original Message-----
From: B. D. Colen [mailto:bdcolen@earthlink.net]
Sent: Monday, September 13, 1999 4:32 AM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: RE: [Leica] Re: E. Adams & Vietnam Photo


Subject: RE: [Leica] Re: E. Adams & Vietnam Photo


Anyone know the full story on what happened afterwards?

I believe it goes something like this:

Gen. Loan moved to the US (NYC?) and opened up a restaurant. He was vilified
in the US because of the picture, and Eddie helped him out. How quickly our
loyalties and sensitivities change.
- -------

Actually, it was Arlington, Va., which had and has a large Vietnamese
community. And it's not a question of loyalties changing. Adams' Pulitzer
Prize-winning photo caught a moment of ugliness in the heat of a
particularly ugly war. At the time of the photo, Saigon was in chaos, Loan
had just lost someone he was particularly close to, and the "suspect" was
indeed a VC terrorist.

Adams has said since that he regretted having made the photo because of the
impact its publication had on Loan's life.

Bottom line - War is hell. Always has been, always will be.