It’s been forty years since this photo shocked Americans:
Do you know the story behind the photo? I tell it in this article at PJ. Some of what you read may surprise you.
[NOTE: I've written about the photo before, in a different context. See this and this.]
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on Friday, June 8th, 2012 at 9:12 am and is filed under History, Military, Press, Vietnam, Violence, War and Peace.
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Previously a lifelong Democrat, born in New York and living in New England, surrounded by liberals on all sides, I've found myself slowly but surely 
June 8th, 2012 at 10:24 am
I never knew this. I’m beginning to really hate our press.
June 8th, 2012 at 10:39 am
Another famous picture is the when that shows a South Vietnamese official (in Saigon ) shooting a North Vietnamese in the head. The story behind that picture is instructive.
Jeeze, makes me look forward to August.
June 8th, 2012 at 12:40 pm
Michael: the links at the end, to old posts of mine, tell that story as well.
June 8th, 2012 at 2:18 pm
holmes.
I presume you meant “beginning” metaphorically.
Anybody who’s been paying attention began decades ago.
June 8th, 2012 at 2:44 pm
Richard- yes, I hated the press before. But beginning to really hate it.
June 8th, 2012 at 3:59 pm
I remember taking that magazine into my room from the hiding place that my mother stashed it in. I was very young but very curious. I DO remember thinking “why would America do this?”.
June 8th, 2012 at 4:08 pm
Sushisistah: I think your reaction was an extremely common one. And not just among the very young.
June 9th, 2012 at 8:30 am
Yep, that’s our press: “The facts, however interesting, are irrelevant. I reject reality and substitute my own! The important thing is the story I want to tell, facts be damned!”
June 9th, 2012 at 12:23 pm
PapaMAS: I think it’s even more complicated than that. Sometimes the facts were reported wrong regarding the photo. But sometimes they were merely omitted, or important parts omitted. Sometimes (I would guess) that omission was done purposely and strategically, but sometimes it was done ignorantly and without even realizing the importance of the deeper context.
June 9th, 2012 at 5:40 pm
I added a note about the photo in the subsequent thread about 2-3 days after this one.