Saigon Execution

A 1968 photograph by Eddie Adams showing South Vietnamese police chief Nguyễn Ngọc Loan shooting Nguyễn Văn Lém in Saigon. Its stark image became an enduring symbol of the Vietnam War.

Connect

Eddie Adams: An American photojournalist whose coverage of the Vietnam War included the photograph known as Saigon Execution. Adams made the photograph and later reflected on its effects on Loan.
Photojournalism: The practice of using photographs to report news and document public events. The image became news through its publication as photojournalism.
Vietnam War in the United States: The political, military, and social experience of the Vietnam War within the United States. The photograph entered American debate over the war’s conduct and credibility.
Eddie Adams’s reflections on Nguyễn Ngọc Loan: Adams’s later statements emphasizing the circumstances of the execution and the lasting harm to Loan’s reputation. Adams later argued that the photograph’s public meaning obscured the wartime context and damaged Loan.
Nguyễn Ngọc Loan: A South Vietnamese police chief who shot Nguyễn Văn Lém in Saigon on February 1, 1968. Loan is shown firing the pistol at the center of Adams’s image.
Framing (visual arts): The selection and arrangement of what appears within an image’s boundaries. The tight frame isolates the shooting from the surrounding street and battle.
Anti-war movement: A movement opposing the Vietnam War through protest, organizing, and public advocacy. The image was widely taken as evidence of the war’s brutality.
Moving picture: A sequence of still images displayed rapidly to create the perception of continuous motion. A filmed record of the shooting preserves movement and duration that the still photograph cannot show.
Nguyễn Văn Lém: A Viet Cong member captured and summarily executed by Nguyễn Ngọc Loan during the Tet Offensive. Lém is the prisoner pictured at the instant of his execution.
Decisive moment: A photographic idea that a brief instant can crystallize the meaning of an unfolding event. Adams captured the shot at the instant Loan fired.