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I went with Marc to the “War Remnants Museum‘ today here in Saigon. The whole thing is very sad and moving. As soon as you arrive the mighty instruments of destruction stand rotting in the courtyard entrance, helicopters, jets, tanks, artillery, giant bombs ………. all the more grim as they are standing and deteriorating in the elements not kept in glossy mint condition the way some museums might preserve them ………… I think that was actually better for this museum, more in keeping for its ethos …….. it is certainly not a museum that celebrates instruments of war …….. instead it brings very graphically the horror of war. A lot of it is very difficult to look at.

One of the most informative and emotive galleries was that housing ‘Requiem- an exhibition of war documentary images made by the 134 journalists of 11 nationalities killed during the Indochina war’ . Some are the famous images by Larry Burrows which are always incredible to see. Others were entirely new to me from photographers whose names I had not heard previously. Some of these journalists photographed alongside the Viet Cong forces from the North others with the American and South Vietnamese forces. Their work collectively really conveys graphically the suffering and horror of the war on both sides. The knowledge that everyone of the photographers perished making these images was sobering in itself.

As part of the Requiem exhibit there is a portrait of each of the photojournalists that was killed . The portraits in this image that are fully shown are Nguyen Oanh Liet Born : 1932, in An Tich village, Sa Dec, Dong Thap Province. Died: April 5 1968 near Lai Thieu, North West of Saigon he worked with ‘VNA- The Liberation News Agency’. Below him his college from VNA also died in 1968 Nguyen Van Tha from Cai Nhum.

I did not see anything written about this but I believe the entire exhibit was put together by Horst Faas and Tim Paige two legendary names in photography of the Vietnam war.

Cheers Jez XXXXXXXXXXX

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