38 Special Smith & Wesson Model 38 “Airweight” revolver, in front of AP photographer Eddie Adams and NBC News television cameraman Vo Suu. Having personally witnessed the murder of one of his officers along with that man’s wife and three small children in cold blood, when Lém was captured and brought to him, General Loan summarily executed him using his sidearm, a. Lem admitted that he was proud to carry out his unit leader’s order to kill these people. Nguyen Van Lem was captured near a mass grave with 34 innocent civilian bodies. There was only one survivor, a seriously injured 10-year-old boy. When Lieutenant Colonel Tuan refused to cooperate, Bay Lop killed all members of his family including his 80-year-old mother. After communist troops took control of the base, Bay Lop arrested Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Tuan with his family and forced him to show them how to drive tanks. It shows South Vietnamese National Police Chief Nguyễn Ngọc Loan executing a Việt Cộng captain of a death squad Nguyễn Văn Lém alias Bay Lop in Saigon during the Tet Offensive.Īround 4:30 A.M., Nguyen Van Lem led a sabotage unit along with Viet Cong tanks to attack the Armor Camp in Go Vap. General Nguyen Ngoc Loan Executing a Viet Cong Prisoner in Saigon is a photograph taken by Eddie Adams on 1 February 1968. Military lawyers have not agreed whether Loan’s action violated the Geneva Conventions for treatment of prisoners of war (Lém had not been wearing a proper uniform nor was he, it is alleged, fighting enemy soldiers at the time), where POW status was granted independently of the laws of war it was limited to National Liberation Front seized during military operations. Shortly after the execution, a South Vietnamese official who had not been present said that Lém was only a political operative. Lém’s widow confirmed that her husband was a member of the National Liberation Front and she did not see him after the Tet Offensive began. ![]() Photographer Adams confirmed the South Vietnamese account, although he was only present for the execution. Corroborating this, Lém was captured at the site of a mass grave that included the bodies of at least seven police family members. South Vietnamese sources said that Lém commanded a Vietcong death squad, which on that day had targeted South Vietnamese National Police officers, or in their stead, the police officers’ families. The photograph and footage were broadcast worldwide, galvanizing the anti-war movement Adams won a 1969 Pulitzer Prize for his photograph. 38 revolver, General Loan summarily executed Lém in front of AP photographer Eddie Adams and NBC television cameraman Vo Suu. On the second day of the Tet Offensive, amid fierce street fighting, Lém was captured and brought to Brigadier General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, Chief of the Republic of Vietnam National Police.
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