Khajuria 1

On February 1st of 1968, Brigadier General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executed Vietcong officer Nguyen
Van Lem in a heartbeat and walked away. This picture was taken by AP photographer Eddie Adams.
After pulling the trigger, the General turned to Adams and stated They killed many of my men and
many of our people. This Vietcong officer, a Lieutenant, had in fact murdered a South Vietnamese
family, including a Colonel, his wife, and 6 of their children.
Gandhi put it simple. An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind. Since when has the
world become a middle school, where every argument (for males) almost always ends in fight me.
Since when has physicality become a medium to settle irrelevant arguments?
In this juxtaposition, I wanted to illustrate the true hell of war. This Lieutenant, in his quest for
true victory, had taken it upon himself to strategically execute military officials, paying the ultimate price
for doing so. I put the word Justice in alignment with the exit path of the bullet. I chose red for blood,
obviously. The word Justice spreads out as the distance from the exit wound increases, to imitate a
cone of blood created by the exiting bullet. In the midst of war, people change. Their attitudes are
heavily biased; their actions driven solely by those attitudes.
In an interview, photographer Adams stated Two people died in *the+ photograph: the recipient
of the bullet and General Nguyen Ngoc Loan. The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with
my camera.
I want the viewers to question the motives behind war. At this instant, from no background
information or bias, this photo looks like pure savagery. In no case should anybody resort to becoming
uncivilized to have to prove a point.