Death of Eddie Adams

[Matt. K]

Eddie Adams...the Vietnam war photographer died a couple of days ago. He took that famous pic of the Saigon police chief shooting a Vietcong with a pistol in the main street. The picture is nearly always shown heavily cropped, but the full frame shows a south Vietnamese soldier walking by in the background, slightly out focus. The full frame is actually a more satisfying image than the cropped version. (It annoys me when editors crop the crap out of a good pic).
So another great passes away. Goodbye eddie.

[birddog114]

I saw it yesterday on the front page of SMH with his famous & prized, but am not to impressed about it, coz:

That photo did not tell the truth of what was happened at that time and the General who shot his captor with his pistol got the right reasons to execute that guy without any hesitation, he done it coz his man + family were killed by the bad guy, finally Eddie had his regrets later.

General Loan passed away few years ago, he was one of our Commanding Officer of VNAF (VietNam Air Force) before he became Chief Of Police of Saigon City, was a fighter pilot trained by the French. He was one of our top Chief and his life is dedicated to his career and his nation. If I was him I'll do the same thing at that time.

The photo killed all his talents and all the remaining of his life while he was exiled in the US.

Anyway, Good bye both of them and RIP.

[Matt. K]

I knew the story and was making no judgement. Like you...I think I'd like to get even. I suppose the general did what generals do and the photographer did what photographers do. I believe there was also a film cameraman present who filmed the incident. I can't remember seeing it though.

[birddog114]

Actually, Eddie was on board of my aircraft about 6 months after that incident in an airlift into the AO (Area Operational) , I asked him personaly about his POV of that photo, that was just what he had to do as a War Correspondence, I respected his works and his talents. The last time I met him in the States at the General's funeral. We're getting old now!!!!!

[Matt. K]

Birddog
Thanks for the information. I have always been very interested in the photography of the Vietnam war and that's filled in a few blanks for me. It's a small world! I am actually sitting next to a guy here at work who spent some time in Cambodia and he has a picture of himself with Tim Page, another famous war photographer and the subject of the movie "Frankies War". Tim Page is now living in Australia and works at a university in Perth somewhere. I have a large library on the photography of the Vietnam war and the photographers...including some by Tim. It's a little known fact that over 116 civilian photographers and journalists were killed covering the conflict.