This famous photo was taken on February 1st, 1968 in Saigon. Brigadier General and Chief of the Republic of Vietnam Police Nguyen Ngoc Loan is summarily executing South Vietnamese Nguyen Van Lem, right in front of an NBC cameraman filming. Lem allegedly was in command of South Vietnamese death squad targeting military police members. It is still not clear, even to modern lawmen and lawyers if Lem's execution was justified.It is not sure if Loan's actions went against previous statements in the Geneva Convention about treat of POW's. But at the same time, Lem was leading a death squad, which would call for execution. Regardless of the legal views of this photo, it truely conveys the situation in Vietnam much more than any news report or movie
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