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Thread: General Loan and the execution of a Vietcong - Feb 1/68

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    General Loan and the execution of a Vietcong - Feb 1/68



    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

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  3. #3
    Kathyf Guest
    How terrible. I always will remember the picture but I never knew there was a video.

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    General Loan had just found out that his wife and daughter(s) had been brutally raped and murdered. So when they wheeled in this fella he had no hesitation in blowing out his brains.

    Every picture tells a thousand words, what it doesn't communicate is the back story.
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    Quote Originally Posted by neilmpenny View Post
    General Loan had just found out that his wife and daughter(s) had been brutally raped and murdered. So when they wheeled in this fella he had no hesitation in blowing out his brains.

    Every picture tells a thousand words, what it doesn't communicate is the back story.
    Neil, I never knew there was more to the story. I popped over to wikipedia (I know, not always the most authoritative source eh) and found this:

    South Vietnamese sources said that Lém commanded a Viet Cong assassination platoon, which on that day had targeted South Vietnamese National Police officers, or in their stead, the police officers' families; these sources said that Lém was captured near the site of a ditch holding as many as thirty-four bound and shot bodies of police and their relatives, some of whom were the families of General Loan's deputy and close friend. (In some accounts, the deputy was a victim as well; in others, the number of murdered relatives were as few as six.)

    From this account, it sounds as tho General Loan's family was ok.

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    Wow didn't know the back story to this. I remember seeing the picture on some website but never knew who the two men were or why he was shooting the other guy.

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    I remember seeing this photo as a child. I just did not understand, and the caption did not explain a lot.

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    Great thread. I show this picture (or did when I was teaching) to my students in high school. I have never shown the video. Too scared to do that in a public school. I explain the story behind it. I also showed them pics of the My Lai Massacre. They seemed shocked that things like this go on during war.

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    Quote Originally Posted by findadeathaddict View Post
    Great thread. I show this picture (or did when I was teaching) to my students in high school. I have never shown the video. Too scared to do that in a public school. I explain the story behind it. I also showed them pics of the My Lai Massacre. They seemed shocked that things like this go on during war.
    Next time tell them of operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of Russia during World War 2. How the Germans merrily raped, pillaged and murdered their way to Stalingrad. How the Russians turned the tide, and then paid the Germans back with interest. Untold tens of millions of people on both sides were affected. Vietnam is very small beer compared to this double atrocity.
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    Quote Originally Posted by neilmpenny View Post
    Next time tell them of operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of Russia during World War 2. How the Germans merrily raped, pillaged and murdered their way to Stalingrad. How the Russians turned the tide, and then paid the Germans back with interest. Untold tens of millions of people on both sides were affected. Vietnam is very small beer compared to this double atrocity.
    Germany (or Hitler rather) thought they could just stomp into Russia and take over. They were sadly mistaken. They completely underestimated the advantages the Russian army had on their own turf.

    We talk about Stalingrad as well. We spend much more time on WWII than Vietnam. Unfortunately, we only have 80 days to cover from Washington to George W. The sad part is when they are in class they are extraordinarily apathetic. When I covered the Holocaust they actually laughed at the pictures. They thought it was funny.

  11. #11
    Rosebud666 Guest
    So what's the consensus here? Loan denied or loan approved?
    Sorry, I just couldn't help myself.

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    Quote Originally Posted by findadeathaddict View Post
    Germany (or Hitler rather) thought they could just stomp into Russia and take over. They were sadly mistaken. They completely underestimated the advantages the Russian army had on their own turf.

    We talk about Stalingrad as well. We spend much more time on WWII than Vietnam. Unfortunately, we only have 80 days to cover from Washington to George W. The sad part is when they are in class they are extraordinarily apathetic. When I covered the Holocaust they actually laughed at the pictures. They thought it was funny.
    As the old saying goes, 'Those that are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it.' Hitler never learned from Napoleon's mistake. Russia was too damn big, the winter's brutal and there were just way too many Russians to overcome.

    Washington to George W is a big ask in 80 days. Irrespective of whatever else went on in the world during that period, what happened in America alone would not get full coverage in that short period.

    Personally, I love history and can't get enough of it. I don't get the kid's apathy.
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    Quote Originally Posted by neilmpenny View Post
    As the old saying goes, 'Those that are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it.' Hitler never learned from Napoleon's mistake. Russia was too damn big, the winter's brutal and there were just way too many Russians to overcome.

    Washington to George W is a big ask in 80 days. Irrespective of whatever else went on in the world during that period, what happened in America alone would not get full coverage in that short period.

    Personally, I love history and can't get enough of it. I don't get the kid's apathy.
    The cold alone knocked the breath out of the German Army.

    I don't get the apathy either. I taught US History, AP European History (black plague to present), Civics, and Economics. I LOVE history, which of course is why I majored in it. They all say it is boring. I can't get enough of it and they could care less. I could go on and on with my teaching stories. There should be a thread on public education.

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    Quote Originally Posted by findadeathaddict View Post
    The cold alone knocked the breath out of the German Army.

    I don't get the apathy either. I taught US History, AP European History (black plague to present), Civics, and Economics. I LOVE history, which of course is why I majored in it. They all say it is boring. I can't get enough of it and they could care less. I could go on and on with my teaching stories. There should be a thread on public education.
    Make one and put it in the real life section. I bet you would have a lot of contributors. Lots of mothers and fathers here.
    I am a sick puppy....woof woof!!!
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    Quote Originally Posted by neilmpenny View Post
    Hitler never learned from Napoleon's mistake. Russia was too damn big, the winter's brutal and there were just way too many Russians to overcome.
    The Germans had a bigger and more technologically advanced economy and a ten-to-one kill ratio into 1944. But they weren't fighting just the Russians, they were fighting the British Empire and the Americans as well, and the weight of all that combined firepower would overwhelm them.

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