Tides of War

The Associated Press photographer Huynh Thanh My covers a Vietnamese battalion pinned down in a Mekong Delta rice paddy about a month before he was killed in combat on Oct. 10, 1965. (AP Photo; Denver Post pLOG caption)

The Denver Post's pLOG has an extensive, excellent, and encompassing look back at many of the best pictures of the Viet Nam war, to commemorate 35 years after the fall of Saigon—the picture above of Huynh Thanh My at work prior to his death is one of 141 pictures in the presentation. Many of the pictures are famous, but some of them I probably haven't seen once in the intervening three and a half decades. Seeing them again elicits a strange sense of the past returning.

It's a lot, but take some time with this set if you can; some of the photos are remarkable.

Self-portrait of Tim Hetherington (right) with Sebastian Junger at
the Restrepo Outpost in Afghanistan

...And just as I was preparing this post I was reached with the very bad news that Tim Hetherington has been killed today in Libya. Three other photographers were wounded in the same attack, two of them, Chris Hondros and Guy Martin, severely.

Photographer, filmmaker, and activist Hetherington, a British citizen who lived in New York, won three World Press prizes including World Press Photo of the Year for 2007, and with the writer Sebastian Junger directed the film Restrepo, nominated for an Academy Award this year. His latest book of photographs is called Infidel, "an intimate portrait of a single U.S. platoon, assigned to an outpost in the Korengal Valley—an area considered one of the most dangerous Afghan postings in the war against the Taliban." The Times quotes Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, who called Tim's death today "a devastating loss to the human rights community."

Our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to his colleagues who were hurt.

Mike
(Thanks to John Camp and Chuck Albertson)

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Original contents copyright 2011 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by Evan: "Chris Hondros has died as well. Not much else to say about it. Thank you to all the photojournalists who take these risks so that we might know the truth, or something close to it."

Featured Comment by Andrea: "I met personally Tim, when he came to Italy to be awarded at the Lucca Digital Photo Fest, and had the privilege to spend some time with him. Beyond being a great photographer, he was one of the most beautiful soul I've ever met. We'll miss him."

Featured Comment by Hugh Crawford: "I'm surprised that Ronald L. Haeberle's photo #82 was reproduced in black and white when it is best known as a color photo, and in fact the reason it became public is because it is in color. The story behind that photo is pretty mind boggling."

Comments

[Mark Myers]

Sad news indeed. Journalists and photojournalists covering wars put their lives on the line so that society may see through "the fog of war."

I highly recommend Sebastian Junger's book War for insight into the truly heroic work of the men and women who report in words and pictures.

[Gary]

Stupid, dumb, f&$@#< war. I have four boys. Damn and curse the old men that send our kids to war -- I hope there's an especially miserable hell put aside for these especially hideous men (and women).

[Gary Brown]

Please be aware that the Denver Post has hired a law firm that looks for sites containing any photos or text from their site; they then sue the offending Web site, demanding fines, forfeiture of the domain name, attorney's fees, etc.

There's lots of coverage in The Las Vegas Sun (e.g., Commentary: Is Righthaven about to get some payback?) and the EFF (e.g., Why Righthaven’s Copyright Assignment Is A Sham – And Why It Matters).

[Mike Johnston]

Gary,
Well, you know what? TOP's not going to last forever. Don't know what will kill it, but something will. That doesn't mean I'm going to get off the horse just because I might be thrown. I claim Fair Use for one photo and a small amount of text when when I'm linking back to and commenting on their content. I'm sending people to them, not stealing from them.

Mike

[Bruce Smith]

I am not usually moved by hearing of the death of people I don't know (there is so much death and suffering I cannot bear to). Nonetheless, I saw Restrepo some months ago and was moved by it. I saw Junger's name on the credits but not Hetherington's. Thank you for including this post and the photo. What a fine and good man he appears to be in his portrait. How sad we have lost him.

[Keith Loh]

Big ups for "Restrepo". In a year with two big Afghanistan documentaries (the other one was "Armadillo"), what really marked "Restrepo" was that it just seemed to be facts without editorializing. This is the life of these boys in combat and that's it. The facts are already terrifying, sobering and human.

I really loved Hetherington's post-tsunami images (from Sumatra, not from the recent one in Japan).

[Ken Bennett]

I suppose I'll always regret not making it to the Henri Huet exhibit when I was in Paris last month. Seeing more of his work in this gallery is wonderful in a bittersweet way.

[glenn brown]

As a photographer I am humbled and angered by this collection of photographs mainly because the polititians who start these wars are at at home with a scotch and soda and these people are living it.

[John MacKechnie]

I second Mark's suggestion and recommend that everyone read War and watch Restrepo. It's the least that we can do to honor those who fall in search of the truth.

[charlie]

Risky Business.

Rest In Peace

[swr]

I saw this on Hetherington's Wikipedia entry.

In the Second Liberian Civil War, he and his broadcast colleague James Brabazon were the only foreign journalists to live behind rebel lines, which earned them an execution order from then president Charles Taylor.

Any life that earns a death sentance from a dictator is a life well-lived.

RIP Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros.

[Jim McDermott]

I'm in complete agreement with Glenn, but it's scary to look at the comments that responded to the Denver Post's piece. There's a vet constituency out there who not only continue to think that Vietnam was a moral war, fought in God's name (yeah, aren't they all?), but who'd be quite happy to go back and do it all over again. As this is a semi-literary site these days, I'd recommend to them (if they haven't avoided it already), Michael Maclear's 'Vietnam: The Ten Thousand day War'. Salutary, and heartbreaking.

[beuler]

As a parent, 113 speaks to me in many different ways and I am very moved by it.

[Prasad]

This is says that Libya is not safe at this time foreigners who are living Libya now they have to leave that country unless they cant live safely because now Libya has no leadership the other countries have to try to discuss with the Libyan government and opposition leaders to bring them for peace talks.

[Dan]

I was able to get, through my library system, a copy of Requiem. Powerful stuff - there may be no photograph sadder than the one that completes Larry Burrows's One Ride With Yankee Papa 13 photoessay.

[James]

Thank you for the Denver Post link Mike. It has given me possibly the most thought provoking and "painfully uplifting" two hours of my life. I have seen war for myself, but of a very different nature to Vietnam: mine was technically advanced, conducted at much longer range, and very rapid, although the deaths were equal in their impact on friends and families of soldiers of both sides.

I found the presentation by the Denver Post - essentially chronological, but also with themes emerging, developing and then being replaced - to be a vital part in communicating a wider story. As an Englishman, I had of course heard of the anti-war protests and like to think that I would never have behaved as badly to returning soldiers as some in the US apparently did. I had not heard of the anti-anti-war protests (I'm not going to write "pro-war"), and am heartened to see that many Americans did support their troops. The knowledge that your own people support you is vital to any soldier at war. It is always the politicians who are responsible for the war, and always the soldiers and innocent civilians who suffer and die.

I was particularly struck by the image of the soldiers cheering as their plane lifted off. It brought to my mind exactly the same scene and emotions when we returned from Kuwait in 1991, in our case in much greater comfort in the First Class section of a chartered Kuwait Airlines jumbo, with the very best and most grateful cabin crew I have ever seen.

[MIkal W. Grass]

As a father, #8 is particularly gut wrenching.

[Mike Johnston]

Mikal,
Amen to that. One of those pictures I wish I'd never seen.

Mike