New book and exhibit give insight into Vietnam War and photographer Eddie Adams

Iconic Vietnam War photo by Eddie Adams/AP  

A powerful new book "Eddie Adams: Vietnam" (Umbrage Editions) is the first book by one of the world's most renowned photojournalists.

With essays by David Halberstam, Tom Brokaw, and other journalists as well as photographers, the book includes 200 Adams' photos never before seen. They shed new light on the Vietnam War from the front lines. 

This iconic 1968 photograph is the highlight of both the book and an exhibition of its images at the Umbrage Gallery in Brooklyn, NY through April 30.

Eddie Adams' photo helped turned the tide against  the Vietnam War and earned the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for breaking-news photography 40 years ago.

"He hated being known for (this) photo," said Alyssa Adams, the book's editor. "The image disturbed him and he continually wrestled with the responsibility it brought.  Even more, he disliked being defined by one image when he was capable of much more."

Adams caught Brigadier General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, acting South Vietnam Police Chief, shooting a suspected Viet Cong guerrilla in the head.

Adams snapped it during the Tet Offensive, the surprise attacks by North Vietnamese across South Vietnam. The attacks began in its capital Saigon where the photo was taken. 

After the war, Loan emigrated to the DC suburb of Burke, VA where he operated a pizza shop until his death in 1998. Adams had kept in touch with Loan, and published a eulogy in "Time" which Adams once worked for. "The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera." The photographer added, "General Loan was what you might call a real hero, admired by his troops. I'm not saying what he did was right...This picture really messed up his life. He never blamed me." 

In one of the essays in the book, the late author David Halberstam, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1964 for his Vietnam War reporting, said "How ironic that Eddie's most famous photo was also his cruelest...(Adams') extraordinary body of work celebrates the richness and complexity of the human family."

Adams was most proud of his 1977 shot "Boat of No Smiles", showing 50 Vietnamese refugees crowded into a 30-foot boat who'd been at sea for about five days after fleeing from their homeland. Adams wrote in his notebook, "the boat is so crowded...most have to sleep sitting upright. There were no smiling faces aboard the fishing vessel with no name." He added, "This is the first time in my life that nobody smiled, not even the children."

Several photos show the boats being turned away by Thailand authorities. The photos helped convince the U.S. government to admit some 200,000 Vietnamese refugees. He once said, "I wasn't out to save the world. I was out to get a story."

Other photos show a U.S. soldier the moment he was shot, Marines dressed only in towels and carring weapons as they go to take baths, various young teenage Viet Cong soldiers, bombs exploding in air, and other vivid scenes that make that war come alive again. 

His journal comments also throw you into the war:

     -- "...got near the napalm...jeep broke down..."

     -- "Thousands demonstrating...shouting, 'Down with America.' ...crowd kicked and punched Western photographers..."

     -- "Lying there in the sand I began to realize that this was not the enemy shooting at us."

In addition to war photography, Adams snapped some of the world's most famous people. The book notes that Clint Eastwood told him "good shot." Fidel Castro said, "Let's go duck hunting." And Pope John Paul II told him, "You've got three minutes."

The celebrated photographer died of Lou Gehrig's Disease at the age of 71 in 2004. He had amassed about 500 awards and covered 13 wars, from the Korean War as a Marine combat photographer to Kuwait in 1991, during his 45-year career.

"Eddie Adams will be remembered forever for his influential art, but I will also remember his great character," Tom Brokaw said in the book.

CBS News' Morley Safer, who covered Vietnam and also wrote the book "Flashbacks: On Returning to Vietnam" noted, "One cannot help but make comaparisons to Iraq now. At every turn there seems to be some relevance to connect these two tragic moments in our country's history. Eddies' pictures did all that -- it still does today."

"Eddie Adams would never have let this book happen if he were alive," said editor Alyssa Adams, his widow and former collaborator on several projects.