The Vietnam War had produced many narratives in the forms of memoirs, historical accounts, military analyses, political assessments, and fictional novels. One estimate suggests something like 30,000 books have been written about the topic. From the fictional "The Quiet American" by Graham Greene, sandwich in between by the brilliant observations of the Vietnam War from the lens of Vietnam ancient history in "Fire in The Lake" by Frances Fitzgerald, to the Vietnamese diaspora and their postwar angst and gaslighting in "The Sympathizer" by Viet Thanh Nguyen, one can peruse every genre to find whatever interpretations that help make sense of the war and its aftermath.
But there are really only a few photographs that defined the war bookend by photojournalists Eddie Adam's " Saigon Execution" and Hubert van Es' photograph of a helicopter on a building in Saigon evacuating people.
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, IRCC / Viet Museum in support of AANF and Santa Clara County Supervisor Betty Duong is showing an award winning documentary directed by Naja Pham Lockwood about the postwar tribulations and triumphs of the victims of the iconic photo " Saigon Execution"