THE FALL OF
INNOCENCE
Vietnam war
Anniversary
Posted by Rene Volpi June 2- 2010
April 30th, 2010, was the 35th anniversary
of the Fall of Saigon and the
end of the Vietnam War, and last month
on May 4th, was the 40th
anniversary of the shooting of students
at Kent State University.
And for what? For protesting. Let's
never forget that atrocity.
The Vietnam War and America's
involvement in it affected the lives of
millions for well over a decade. The
United States military involvement and
troop strength grew rapidly after 1964 -
at its highest level in 1968, with over
500,000 troops on the ground. And then, the
unthinkable happened: The Tet offensive.
This photographs--as graphic and terrifying as
they are-- do not succeed in conveying the
horror and suffering of those who were
actually in the front lines, or in the cross-fire.
As a French translator and photojournalist
for Sygma in that conflict (1970-75) I have
witness the best and worst that humanity has
to offer.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in
Washington, D.C. now bears the engraved
names of 58,267 of those troops. It's nearly
impossible to encapsulate an event of such
scale in a handful of photographs, but here,
35 years after the conflict ended, it is my
sincere attempt.
gun fire into a tree line to cover the advance
of South Vietnamese ground
troops in an attack on a Viet Cong camp 18
miles north of Tay Ninh, northwest of Saigon
near the Cambodian border, in Vietnam on
March 1965. (AP Photo/Horst Faas)
An M41 tank of the South Vietnamese Army advances on enemy
positions in Saigon, Vietnam in May of 1960. (US Department
of Defense) #
Injured Vietnamese receive aid as they lie on the street after a
bomb explosion outside the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, Vietnam,
March 30, 1965. Smoke rises from wreckage in background . At
least two Americans and several Vietnamese were killed in the
bombing. (AP Photo/Horst Faas) #
A U.S. Marine CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter comes down in
flames after being hit by enemy ground fire during Operation
Hastings, just south of the Demilitarized Zone between North and
South Vietnam on July 15, 1966. The helicopter crashed and explo
ded on a hill, killing one crewman and 12 Marines. Three crewman
escaped with serious burns. (AP Photo/Horst Faas) #
A young Marine private waits on the beach during the Marine lan
ding, Da Nang, Vietnam, August 3, 1965. (U.S. Marine Corps.) #
A napalm strike erupts in a fireball near U.S. troops on patrol in
South Vietnam in 1966 during the Vietnam War. (AP Photo) #
A Vietnamese litter bearer wears a face mask to keep out the
smell as he passes the bodies of U.S. and Vietnamese soldiers
killed in fighting against the Viet Cong at the Michelin rubber planta
tion, about 45 miles northeast of Saigon, Nov. 27, 1965. More than
100 bodies were recovered after a human wave assault by guerrillas.
(AP Photo/Horst Faas) #
Sgt. Ronald A. Payne, from Atlanta, Georgia, Squad Leader of
Company A, 1st Bn, 5th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division, checks a
tunnel entrance carrying a flashlight and a sidearm, before entering it
to search for Viet Cong and their equipment during Operation "Cedar
Falls" in the Ho Bo Woods, 25 miles north of Saigon on January
24th, 1967. (US Department of Defense/SP5 Robert C. Lafoon, US
Army Sp Photo Det Pac) #
An aerial port bow view of the Forrestal Class Aircraft Carrier,
USS Forrestal, underway approximately one month after fires and
explosions damaged the ship leaving 132 crewmen dead, 62 injured,
and two missing and presumed dead while on duty in waters off Viet
nam in July of 1967. (U.S. Navy/PHC H.L. WISE)#
A UH-1D helicopter from the 336th Aviation Company sprays a
defoliation agent on a dense jungle area in the Mekong delta.
(US Department of Defense/Brian K. Grigsby, SPC5) #
Buddhist nun Thich Nu Thanh Quang burns to death in an act of
suicide protest against the government's Catholic regime at the
Dieu de Pagoda in Hue, South Vietnam, May 29, 1966. (AP Photo) #
Paratroopers of the U.S. 2nd Battalion, 173rd Airborne Brigade
hold their automatic weapons above water as they cross a river
in the rain during a search for Viet Cong positions in the jungle area
of Ben Cat, South Vietnam on Sept. 25, 1965. (AP Photo/Henri
Huet) #
(1 of 3) South Vietnamese forces escort suspected Viet Cong
officer Nguyen Van Lem (also known as Bay Lop) on a Saigon
street Feb. 1, 1968, early in the Tet Offensive.
(AP Photo/Eddie Adams) #
(2 of 3) South Vietnamese General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, chief of
the national police, fires his pistol into the head of suspected
Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem on a Saigon street, on Feb. 1,
1968. (AP Photo/Eddie Adams) #
(3 of 3) South Vietnamese General Nguyen Ngoc Loan holsters
his gun after executing suspected Viet Cong officer Nguyen
Van Lem whose body lies on a Saigon street Feb. 1, 1968, early in
the Tet Offensive. (AP Photo/Eddie Adams) #
Demonstrators in Berkeley, California march against the war in
Vietnam in December of 1965. (AP Photo) #
Anti-war protesters gather by the Reflecting Pool with the
Washington Monument in the background, in Washington D.C.
on Oct. 21, 1967. (AP Photo) #
A Viet Cong base camp is torched near My Tho, Vietnam on
April 5th, 1968. In the foreground is Private First Class Raymond
Rumpa, St Paul, Minnesota, C Company, 3rd Battalion, 47th Infan
try, 9th Infantry Division, with 45 pound 90mm recoilless rifle. (US
Department of Defense) #
An Air Force F-100D Super Sabre aircraft fires a salvo of 2.75-
inch rockets against an enemy position in South Vietnam on Ja
nuary 1st, 1967. (US Department of Defense) #
During Operation "Bushmaster", a member of Company "L",
(Ranger), 75th Infantry, wearing camouflage makeup sits alone
with his thoughts while waiting to participate in an assault mission
against North Vietnamese Army (NVA) forces in Vietnam in August
of 1971. (US Department of Defense/SP4 John L. Hennesey, 221st
Sig Co) #
Women and children crouch in a muddy canal as they take
cover from intense Viet Cong fire at Bao Trai, about 20 miles
west of Saigon, Vietnam on Jan. 1, 1966. (AP Photo/Horst Faas) #
The body of an American paratrooper killed in action in the jun
gle near the Cambodian border is raised up to an evacuation heli
copter in War Zone C, Vietnam in 1966. (AP Photo/Henri Huet) #
U.S. Marines emerge from their muddy foxholes at sunrise after
a third night of fighting against continued attacks of north Vietna
mese 324 B division troops during the Vietnam War on Sept. 21,
1966. (AP Photo/Henri Huet) #
