An Unlikely Weapon, Part 1

Image by Eddie Adams

1968

Tonight Amanda and I will attend a screening of An Unlikely Weapon, a documentary on the great photojournalist Eddie Adams. The film will apparently focus on the circumstances and ramifications of his Pulitzer-Prize winning photograph depicting the execution of Vietcong prisoner Nguyễn Văn Lém by police chief general Nguyễn Ngọc Loan during the 1968 Tet offensive.

"The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera. Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world. People believe them; but photographs do lie, even without manipulation. They are only half-truths. ... What the photograph didn't say was, 'What would you do if you were the general at that time and place on that hot day, and you caught the so-called bad guy after he blew away one, two or three American people?"

-Eddie Adams

I will make sure to report back on what I think of the documentary, and any philosophical or ethical questions that it raises.