SOUTH VIETNAMESE GEN. NGUYEN NGOC LOAN, CHIEF OF THE NATIONAL POLICE, FIRES HIS PISTOL INTO THE HEAD OF SUSPECTED VIET CONG OFFICER NGUYEN VAN LEM ON A SAIGON STREET.
The image still has the power to startle and sicken. It was published on the front page of newspapers like The New York Times in February 1968, days into the Tet Offensive, massive coordinated attacks by the North Vietnamese government. In the photo, a South Vietnamese police chief calmly executes a Vietcong fighter in the streets of Saigon. The image, which won a Pulitzer Prize for photographer Eddie Adams, caused many Americans to openly question the morality of the war. Dolk used it to create the stencil.