This famous photo taken on Feb 1/68 in Saigon during the Tet Offensive. The guy on the left is General Loan, the National Police Chief of Vietnam. The guy getting shot is Nguyen Van Lem, a Vietcong operative who was accused of killing 34 police officers and their families. Apparently, such executions were allowed under Vietnamese law and the Geneva Conventions did not apply as Lem was not wearing a uniform.
The execution was captured by AP photojournalist Eddie Adams and by a NBC cameraman. The images were broadcast around the world, galvanizing the anti-war movement.
General Loan would later be injured in the war losing a leg. He later settled in Virginia and operated a pizza restaurant. He died of cancer in 1998.
Eddie Adams would later say that General Loan was a hero and apologized to him personally for the damage it did to his reputation. Adams went on to say that he killed General Loan with his camera.
Lem's body has never been found according to his widow who was interviewed in 2000.
Here is the picture and the VIDEO - a split second which changed the course of a war. ( click on the CBS video several times to see)
http://www.wellesley.edu/Polisci/wj/Vietimages/vcexec.htm