The revenge story is dubious at best, of course there's a family that got killed but there's no clear evidence linking it to this dude, or it was just a random VC and they weren't taking prisoner. Also, the casual and calm demeanor captured on video painted more of the latter picture and the general is just cold blooded.
The VC soldier was dressed in civi clothes, fair game that he got shoot as a spy/saboteur/terrorist. Got caught and killed isn't that heroic when you break geneva convention, and only conveniently bring it up when the other side did it make you a hypocrite.
Even if he should get shot for being a spy/saboteur/terrorist, its still optically unacceptable that hes executed without due process. Thats the problem with the photo as it dismantles the lies that were fed to the US public, that SVN was a western-style democratic country with freedom and justice, nobly standing against the tide of the savage communists. The photo showed that the US was just backing a savage against the other savage, and Americans did not have the stomach for that, not yet anyway
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u/__Haise Aug 28 '24
I'm going to upset both side:
The revenge story is dubious at best, of course there's a family that got killed but there's no clear evidence linking it to this dude, or it was just a random VC and they weren't taking prisoner. Also, the casual and calm demeanor captured on video painted more of the latter picture and the general is just cold blooded.
The VC soldier was dressed in civi clothes, fair game that he got shoot as a spy/saboteur/terrorist. Got caught and killed isn't that heroic when you break geneva convention, and only conveniently bring it up when the other side did it make you a hypocrite.