Vietnam War, by Eddie Adams

Next, we have a picture of an incident during the Vietnam War. This incident took place on the second day of the Tet Offensive in 1968, a watershed battle that changed public perceptions of the war. Prior to the picture, a Vietcong warrior is pulled from a building and General Nguyen Ngoc Loan raised a pistol to his head. Normally, this is a method of interrogation as it creates fear of death, however, the general just raised the pistol and pulled the trigger. One of Adams’ frames was the very instant in which bullet entered the man’s head, which he named “Vietnam War”.
From this picture, we can see the gun, the expression of the victim, the soldier wincing at the left corner. The victim is grimacing, right before his death. This iconic picture served as symbol for the intensifying anti-war movement. The overall gloom and sympathy given off from this image suggests that murder is always dishonorable, no matter what the victim has done or will do. The black and white tone always adds to this effect.