The “Saigon Execution” Photo Symbol Analysis

When he tells Thi Bui about living under the repressive South Vietnamese government, Bố recalls one particularly shocking episode: a general ordered soldiers to cut off Bố’s long hair. This general is famous for appearing in the photo often named “Saigon Execution,” which shows him shooting a Việt Cộng prisoner in the head during the Tết Offensive. Cited as damning evidence of South Vietnamese war crimes, this photo became an important symbol in the American public’s fight against the Vietnam War and even won a Pulitzer Prize. But the general’s story is far more complicated than it initially seems: the man he summarily executed had just murdered “an entire family,” and Bố sees the execution as fair retaliation. The photographer even approached the general decades later to apologize. So while Bố hates the general because of their personal encounter, he also feels sympathy for him because of the photo’s misinterpretation.

For Bui, the “Saigon Execution” photo therefore demonstrates the way different narratives about the “GOOD GUYS” and “BAD GUYS” in the Vietnam War miss the complexity of the historical facts. In reality, both sides were responsible for atrocities and believed they were fighting for freedom and equality, so Má and Bố have no clear allegiances: they were too affected by the war to choose a side. This is similar to how Bui feels about the United States—she loves it as her country but resents the racism and discrimination she has experienced there. And, most of all, she resents Americans’ tendency to narrate the Vietnam War as an American tragedy, while ignoring its impacts on Việt Nam itself. So “Saigon Execution” represents not only the war’s complexity and ambiguity, but also the American tendency to erase that complexity and replace it with simple narratives, told from and for the American perspective.