The Polaroid War
The listless night was interrupted by a loud stirr. The wings of apaches cut through the light of distant stars, humming through the thick midnight air. In a field outside the Vietnamese jungle they landed in tall grass, and clean shaven men departed with a blissful innocence. Stepping on to new soil they made their way towards the jungle. Their many thousands of boots hit the ground like a great rain.
In 1965 the first U.S. combat troops were deployed in Vietnam. Over the years this foreign and obscure war has been put into sharp focus. Only sharper was the polarization of United States politics. American flags were waved in support of a war that others protested in song and vast congregation. This conflict in Vietnam, at times, seemed to be competing for dominance with the movement at home. The spark for all this political change, a different kind of sharpness. The sharp focus of a lense, capturing pictures that would change the American opinion of war forever.
This was the war citizens witnessed from their living room. Photography proved to be a driving force of political and ideological upheaval in the States. Iconic Images taken in the midst of conflict created a horrifying and real depiction of war. For some this did not changed their viewpoint. For others it only justified their believe that Vietnam had been mistake, as well as an avoidable tragedy. This turning of the tide was not from a collection of statistics. Rather, the work of journalists on the front lines. Photos that illuminated gut wrenching truths and images akin to First World War. Eddie Adam's capture of Vietnamese police chief Gen. Nguyen killing a Viet Cong suspect won a Pulitzer Prize. Controversy surrounded Vietnam, it's impact only heightened by the influx of graphic photography. If a picture truly is worth a thousand words, then the American citizen had been given a lot to read about. These varied interpretations of the war which continued to divide us, only increasingly reflected that. Over the course of time photography had slowly undermined the idea of a "winnable war".
The change which photojournalism brought on in the United States correlates with an internal change. Photography had been present in many historically significant wars. However, we saw an increase in contextual imagery that hadn't existed prior. The idea of spot shooting was replaced by images that investigated deeper into the situations within Vietnam. They were no longer a news accessory, more an intense glimpse of realism. At the forefront of this movement were photographers such as, Henri Huet, Philip Jones Griffiths, and Ron Haeberle. They all seemed to capture a necessity the public was desperate for. A way of expressing objective truth. It was not written opinion that can be regurgitated and corrupted, it was real life put before ones eyes. Haeberle's photos of the 1969 My Lai massacre were horrifying and iconic. They brought to light crimes committed by United States soldiers which would have otherwise gone unnoticed. After their release in life magazine they were the feature of protests and the famous "And babies" poster. Haeberle's expository photos sparked increased opposition to the U.S. Involvement in Vietnam both domestically and internationally. Never before had photos shown in such graphic nature the context and setting of a war. This change in Photojournalism created some of the most influential images of the century.
Equally impressive to the artistic mastery of these photographs was the gritty work done to get them. Photojournalists were not sheltered from the same dangers the soldiers faced. They were alongside them in rainstorm and firefight. This was a huge part of the work the public was witnessing. Dennis Gibbons, a photojournalist in Saigon, recalls hitting a landmine while traveling, "We came out of the top of the explosion like a Roman candle... and we ended up in various areas... I was about thirty meters away, faced down in a bush. Not only was I really shattered by the explosion, bleeding from every orifice in my body, but... I was really psychologically shot." After this Gibbons returned home. He has since suffered from PTSD. This reminds us that the stirring photographs out of Vietnam came at a price.
As conflict continued and death tolls rose, the public became increasingly adamant for an end to the war. The subject of Vietnam remained a complex and difficult one to decipher. However, the photos we received helped to clean a dirty and stained picture. Although we may never come to a consensus on Vietnam, one thing is certain. The images of war sit in stark contrast to the ideology of our hopelessly victory driven country.