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Photographer Collection: Horst Faas in Vietnam

35 Whelen35 Whelen Member Posts: 14,307 ✭✭✭
edited August 2012 in General Discussion
Horst Faas, a Pulitzer Prize-winning combat photographer who became one of the world's legendary photojournalists in nearly half a century with the AP, captured these images during the Vietnam War. Faas died Thursday, May 10, 2012 in Munich at age 79.

http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2012/05/15/photographer-collection-horst-faas-vietnam/5689/#photo2
An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it.

Comments

  • anatomically correctanatomically correct Member Posts: 1,045 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Almost biblical. "He, being dead yet speaketh." Great pictures....sad memories.
  • pwilliepwillie Member Posts: 20,253 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Michlien Plantation 1967....These pics should be posted in Congress,when they decide to send young men into harms way.[:(]
  • allen griggsallen griggs Member Posts: 35,692 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Great pics! Fantastic!

    I remember seeing his work during the war, I believe they printed many of his great photos in Life Magazine.
  • allen griggsallen griggs Member Posts: 35,692 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    faas030sJPG_950_2000_0_75_0_50_50.jpg
    In this Jan. 16, 1966 photo, Lt. Col. George Eyster of Florida is placed on a stretcher after being shot by a Viet Cong sniper at Trung Lap, South Vietnam. (AP Photo/Horst Faas, File)


    This is one of the pics from this link. I have this photo in the book "The Tunnels of Cu Chi."
    Lt. Col. Eyster had just been fatally shot by a sniper who sprung up from a "spider hole" and then jumped back in the hole before he was shot. They could not find the guy; it turned out the spider hole was part of a 250 mile long tunnel complex that was right underneath the big US base.

    Lt. Col. Eyster made a remark about "those fantastic fighters in the tunnels," referring to the VC, and then he died.







    .
  • oldnbaldoldnbald Member Posts: 3,578
    edited November -1
    I agree with allen griggs that the pictures are fantastic. I do have one question/comment. In picture #12, the caption says the A - 1 is dropping 500 lb bombs. I certainly do not claim to be an expert. but they look more like napalm to me. Am I right?
  • Laredo LeftyLaredo Lefty Member Posts: 13,451 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by oldnbald
    I agree with allen griggs that the pictures are fantastic. I do have one question/comment. In picture #12, the caption says the A - 1 is dropping 500 lb bombs. I certainly do not claim to be an expert. but they look more like napalm to me. Am I right?


    Your right, those are napalm cannisters. 500 lb bombs would have fins on them so they strike the ground fuses first.


    Those photos were taken before, during and after my time there. I carried a camera with me but not nearly the quality of the cameras used for those pictures. I have a scrapbook of the pics I took.
  • shilowarshilowar Member Posts: 38,811 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Thank you for posting
  • StingSting Member Posts: 629 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Yes, thank you for posting.
  • footlongfootlong Member Posts: 8,009
    edited November -1
    What a WASTED war. l hope LBJ and Nixon are both burning in HELL for it. My small class of 1965 produced 45 boy hs grads. A third of us got drafted. The other 2 thirds either went to college,knocked some girl up, or joined the nasty guard. 0f us draftees half went to Viet Nam. THREE came home in boxes. Jackie Brasington and Laverne Rabon are on the WALL. Fry LBJ FRY
  • TooBigTooBig Member Posts: 28,559 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Thanks for posting and they look so yound and by grace of God my number didn't come up for Nam. Drafted Aug 65 and boot camp was bare and when I came out Fort Lost in the Woods it was wall to wall with recurits gearing up for Nam.
  • eastbankeastbank Member Posts: 4,052 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    after close to 50 years years i still can,t look at pic,s of that place with out getting upset, its still with me today.i lost one of my best friends in april 1966, my mother sent me a letter telling of his loss,it turned me into a sonofabitch towards the viets i came in contact with. eastbank.
  • GuvamintCheeseGuvamintCheese Member Posts: 38,932
    edited November -1
  • Blade SlingerBlade Slinger Member Posts: 5,891
    edited November -1
    Thanks to all that returned from that hell and the ones that didnt.
  • kimikimi Member Posts: 44,719 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by pwillie
    Michlien Plantation 1967....These pics should be posted in Congress,when they decide to send young men into harms way.[:(]


    Exactly, five of the pictures, numbers 23, 26, 31, 56, and 57 mention Michelin Rubber Plantation, and number 46 notes a rubber plantation as well. Number 58 shows another problem in that a soldier has black power shown on his helmet, and note the year of 1969, when the military was at the very height of its race problems with all too many of these militant people fraggin and killing their own comrades. And, within two years this hate and discontent which had been inspired by such low life scum as Malcolm "X" and Louis Farrakhan had spilled over into the their Muslim followers which resulted in the killing LEO's and innocent men, women and children in America, not to dwell on the riots in our cities that soon followed.

    These pictures ought to tell the real story behind our world problems and those who are behind it...but the vast majority of folks, especially those younger ones will see it as a reason to grow the U.S. military industrial complex, its world police force, and a police state for America. Not a pretty picture at all, but it is what it is.

    What the hell has changed during the past 40+ years other than we have a bunch of radical buzzards in congress, many of whom want to create a national holiday for Malcolm "X", and those who will do anything to hasten Armageddon! We need to replace most every government building in Washington with a Chick-Fil-A, a new crew, and start over.
    What's next?
  • He DogHe Dog Member Posts: 51,593 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Iconic photos, thanks.
  • River RatRiver Rat Member Posts: 9,022
    edited November -1
    Wow. I had to go through all 63. Pretty mesmerizing. Faas had a gift.

    Ah yes, the cultures and traditions fueled by peaceful Buddhism. Bataan Death March, Japanese prison camps, Korean brainwashing, and my personal favorite: the Viet Cong. They win the gold medal for brutality.

    One thing has annoyed me for decades. Google "WWII photos" and you get some heroic photography. Google "Vietnam War photos" and all you get is pathos. The media then (and still today) was very slanted.

    Forty years later, I can walk through photos like this. For a long while, I could not.

    Thanks for posting these, Whelen.
  • dreherdreher Member Posts: 8,891 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    You look at those pictures and wonder what all that bravery and heroics accomplished. Actually, I don't wonder. I believe nothing positive was accomplished in Viet Nam. I don't think anything of a lasting, notice I said lasting, positive affect will come from our men being in the Middle East today.

    When there is a reason to die with a gun in your hand, so be it. I just don't think that there has been a military reason to die since WW II and I could make a case for staying out of WW II.

    There are blue helmets marching down our streets? Count on me to stand and die beside you. You want me to fight and possibly die in the Middle East? Sorry, you are asking the wrong man. If you are going to ask me to risk my life there must be a good reason for it. Iran, Afganistan ain't it.
  • dcs shootersdcs shooters Member Posts: 10,870 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by eastbank
    after close to 50 years years i still can,t look at pic,s of that place with out getting upset, its still with me today.i lost one of my best friends in april 1966, my mother sent me a letter telling of his loss,it turned me into a sonofabitch towards the viets i came in contact with. eastbank.


    I'm with you there [xx(] Reminded me of '63-4 when I was there [B)]
  • MFIMFI Member Posts: 7,899 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Wonderful stuff. .Thank you for sharing !
  • cavman 69cavman 69 Member Posts: 654 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    seeing these makes me even more bitter about my time in 'nam. burn in hell LBJ. i would piss on his grave if i could!
  • eastbankeastbank Member Posts: 4,052 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    i have wondered over the years if JFK had not been killed if vietnam would have grown into the killing fields it became. i think the seto treaties of 1953 doomed the USA to the blood bath that followed.it seems the democrates have put us in harms way a lot in last century and the republicans have also done their fair share. eastbank.
  • bojangies46bojangies46 Member Posts: 363 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    In 1967 I was in the 101st airborne when they got orders to go to Nam.We waited for 8hrs on the air field because he was late. When he got there he said-- GOOD LUCK BOYS--and then was gone. We made a jump for the News MED and news paper. It was a joke
  • allen griggsallen griggs Member Posts: 35,692 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by dreher
    You look at those pictures and wonder what all that bravery and heroics accomplished. Actually, I don't wonder. I believe nothing positive was accomplished in Viet Nam. I don't think anything of a lasting, notice I said lasting, positive affect will come from our men being in the Middle East today.

    When there is a reason to die with a gun in your hand, so be it. I just don't think that there has been a military reason to die since WW II and I could make a case for staying out of WW II.

    There are blue helmets marching down our streets? Count on me to stand and die beside you. You want me to fight and possibly die in the Middle East? Sorry, you are asking the wrong man. If you are going to ask me to risk my life there must be a good reason for it. Iran, Afganistan ain't it.


    That is eloquent, dreher.

    Name me one war since WW2 that has been a real good idea.
    Vietnam, Iraq in particular are insane. Both have done much more harm than good.
    Lying deceitful politicians send the boys off to die for nothing.
  • grdad45grdad45 Member Posts: 5,381 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I was stationed at the base hospital in Danang from Oct,'66 until I volunteered to go on detachment to Chu Lai in Apr.'67 so I could get away from the blood and guts we saw every day. We (the staff) were the walking blood bank, and my electric shop was across the sidewalk from the morgue. I carried a LOT of wounded and dead in those 6 months.
  • dreherdreher Member Posts: 8,891 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I again looked at those pictures. Such a horrible waste. I looked at the pictures that had a dead GI in them. I wondered if I was looking at Frank or Mike, two friends that came home in a flag draped coffin. Again, such a waste.

    If we ever get in a mess like that again and they are drafting people as opposed to an all volunteer military I will help my now 13 yo son get to Canada before I would lose him in a senseless war. As I said in my previous post, there are reasons to die fighting. Viet Nam was not a reason for our men die.
  • the middlethe middle Member Posts: 3,089
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by kimi
    quote:Originally posted by pwillie
    Michlien Plantation 1967....These pics should be posted in Congress,when they decide to send young men into harms way.[:(]


    Exactly, five of the pictures, numbers 23, 26, 31, 56, and 57 mention Michelin Rubber Plantation, and number 46 notes a rubber plantation as well. Number 58 shows another problem in that a soldier has black power shown on his helmet, and note the year of 1969, when the military was at the very height of its race problems with all too many of these militant people fraggin and killing their own comrades. And, within two years this hate and discontent which had been inspired by such low life scum as Malcolm "X" and Louis Farrakhan had spilled over into the their Muslim followers which resulted in the killing LEO's and innocent men, women and children in America, not to dwell on the riots in our cities that soon followed.

    These pictures ought to tell the real story behind our world problems and those who are behind it...but the vast majority of folks, especially those younger ones will see it as a reason to grow the U.S. military industrial complex, its world police force, and a police state for America. Not a pretty picture at all, but it is what it is.

    What the hell has changed during the past 40+ years other than we have a bunch of radical buzzards in congress, many of whom want to create a national holiday for Malcolm "X", and those who will do anything to hasten Armageddon! We need to replace most every government building in Washington with a Chick-Fil-A, a new crew, and start over.


    You need to chill out. I didnt get any of that out of these photos.....what I DID get is that war is hell, and needs to be avoided.

    God bless you guys that were over there.
  • kimikimi Member Posts: 44,719 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by the middle
    quote:Originally posted by kimi
    quote:Originally posted by pwillie
    Michlien Plantation 1967....These pics should be posted in Congress,when they decide to send young men into harms way.[:(]


    Exactly, five of the pictures, numbers 23, 26, 31, 56, and 57 mention Michelin Rubber Plantation, and number 46 notes a rubber plantation as well. Number 58 shows another problem in that a soldier has black power shown on his helmet, and note the year of 1969, when the military was at the very height of its race problems with all too many of these militant people fraggin and killing their own comrades. And, within two years this hate and discontent which had been inspired by such low life scum as Malcolm "X" and Louis Farrakhan had spilled over into the their Muslim followers which resulted in the killing LEO's and innocent men, women and children in America, not to dwell on the riots in our cities that soon followed.

    These pictures ought to tell the real story behind our world problems and those who are behind it...but the vast majority of folks, especially those younger ones will see it as a reason to grow the U.S. military industrial complex, its world police force, and a police state for America. Not a pretty picture at all, but it is what it is.

    What the hell has changed during the past 40+ years other than we have a bunch of radical buzzards in congress, many of whom want to create a national holiday for Malcolm "X", and those who will do anything to hasten Armageddon! We need to replace most every government building in Washington with a Chick-Fil-A, a new crew, and start over.


    You need to chill out. I didnt get any of that out of these photos.....what I DID get is that war is hell, and needs to be avoided.

    God bless you guys that were over there.


    What I need to do is keep on speaking about the truth of the matter as I see it, straight from the mind and heart. Also, if you were in the NAM I might favorably view your comment about chilling.
    What's next?
  • JasonVJasonV Member Posts: 2,481 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Picture 9 says it is 1964 but there is a M16A1 in the bottom right of the picture.

    Wasn't 1964 to early for the M16?
    formerly known as warpig883
  • eastbankeastbank Member Posts: 4,052 ✭✭
    edited November -1
  • TxsTxs Member Posts: 17,809 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by JasonV
    Picture 9 says it is 1964 but there is a M16A1 in the bottom right of the picture.

    Wasn't 1964 to early for the M16?
    What you're seeing is a very early, first generation 'duck bill' style M16 flash suppressor.

    This was soon replaced by a strenghtened three prong design, then eventually by the birdcage style that was introduced when the M16A1 came out in '67.

    So yes, this pic could have very well been taken in '64.
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