Vietnam: The Real War (graphic images)

[Leon]

These pictures, and dozens of others, feature in a new book 'Vietnam: The Real War', which brings together images taken by photographers of the Associated Press. The pictures serve to underline the bravery of the photographers who were willing to get so close to the action. The conflict is known as the last 'newspaper war' - the incredible images printed in papers were the only way the outside world could know what was happening in Vietnam at the time.

Two marines, one carrying the American flag in his backpack, in December 1969.



An unidentified U.S. Army soldier wears a helmet with the slogan 'War is Hell' in Vietnam.



An American paratrooper sergeant shouts orders to his squad of the 2nd Battalion of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. The brigade charged across an abandoned road under heavy sniper fire, near Ben Binh, June 1, 1965.



The red smoke from a grenade is a shock of colour in the dull green jungle in Long Khanh Province, March 1966.



Weary after a third night of fighting against North Vietnamese troops, U.S. Marines crawl from foxholes located south of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) in Vietnam, September 1966. The helicopter at left was shot down when it came in to resupply the unit.



South Vietnamese forces escort suspected Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem on a Saigon street Feb. 1, 1968.



South Vietnamese troops, one with a bugle strapped to his pack, line up to board CH-21 Flying Banana helicopters, March 1963.



The grief and pain of a South Vietnamese woman is clear as she mourns over the body of her husband, found with 47 others in a mass grave near Hue, Vietnam. The image was taken by Horst Faas, a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize.



Perhaps the most famous image of the Vietnam War shows terrified children, including nine-year-old Kim Phuc (center), running down Route I after an aerial napalm attack, June 8, 1972. A South Vietnamese plane dropped flaming napalm onto what they thought was Viet Cong hiding places - but was actually South Vietnamese troops and civilians. The terrified girl had ripped off her burning clothes while fleeing. The other children are Kim Phuc's brothers and cousins. Behind them are soldiers of the Vietnam Army 25th Division. At the time editors from the 'New York Times' were initially reluctant to print the picture because of nudity but approved it and ran it on front page. The image, taken by Nick Ut, won a Pulitzer Prize.



The body of an American paratrooper killed in action in the jungle near the Cambodian border is raised up to an evacuation helicopter in War Zone C, Vietnam, 1966.



Smoke rises over battle-scarred Saigon during the Tet Offensive as the sun sets over the South Vietnamese capital on Feb. 8, 1968. The Tet Offensive was a campaign launched by Viet Cong and North Vietnamese combatants against South Vietnamese troops and their allies.



U.S. prisoners of war stand in the yard at Hanois Nga Tu So prison during an inspection visit by international observers and invited Western journalists, March 1973. The prison, surrounded by a high brick wall topped with barbed wire, had been a government building before the war. Each cell housed about a dozen POWs, and beds consisted of wooden platforms with mats.



A Vietnamese woman pleads with U.S. soldiers to allow her and her wounded husband, on the ground with his arm outstretched, onto the evacuation helicopter so they can escape a Viet Cong attack in Ba Gia, July 1965. The couple were left behind.



A U.S. soldier hits a Viet Cong prisoner in the face after the guerrilla had been discovered in his underwater hiding place near Bong Son, Feb. 19, 1967.



Suspected Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem, also known as Bay Lop, reacts as South Vietnamese Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan, chief of the national police, fires his pistol.



A U.S. air cavalryman helps an old Vietnamese woman up a hill, January 5, 1968. She had grown tired as she and her neighbours had to flee their village to a refugee camp. Other villagers had refused to assist her because, according to Vietnamese custom, they would then have borne responsibility for her for the remainder of her life.



With Saigon nightlife in full swing in the Cholon section, flares burst just two miles away as U.S. planes and helicopters attack Viet Cong guerrillas who were infiltrating two southern precincts of the capital, Sept. 9, 1966.



First Cavalry Division medic Thomas Cole, helps an identified soldier in a trench, despite wearing a bandage over the left side of his face.



A napalm strike erupts in a fireball near U.S. troops on patrol in South Vietnam, 1966.



Spc. Ruediger Richter, 4th Battalion, 173rd Airborne Brigade, gazes into the smoke of a directional grenade for the arrival of an evacuation helicopter in a jungle clearing on Long Khanh Province, South Vietnam, October 1966. Sgt. Daniel E. Spencer of Bend, stands by the poncho wrapped body of a dead comrade.



During an ambush near Saigon by Viet Cong guerrillas, an officer shouts orders as a wounded American soldier awaits evacuation near Saigon during the Vietnam War, 1969. The soldier is attended by a medic as they seek cover beside an armored troop carrier.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Brutal, but informative.

[Techno]

I think Lemmey says it all.
Cheers - Phil.