American troops drag the body of a Viet Cong fighter behind their M113 Armored Personnel Carrier for burial
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American troops drag the body of a Viet Cong fighter behind their M113 Armored Personnel Carrier for burial
American troops drag the body of a Viet Cong fighter behind their M113 Armored Personnel Carrier for burial. He was killed in a fierce night attack by several Viet Cong battalions against Australian forces during the Battle of Long Tan
As the Vietnam War raged on in 1966, international forces continued to fight against the Viet Cong, attempting to gain a secure foothold in South Vietnam. The night of August 19th, a group of Viet Cong soldiers attacked a battalion of Australian troops in what would become known as the Battle of Long Tan. The Viet Cong troops were driven back by Australian and United States forces and several Viet Cong were killed. The body of one deceased Viet Cong soldier, perhaps out of frustration or in a display of victory, was tied to the back of a US Army tank and dragged behind it.
Japanese
photographer Kyoichi Sawada (of the United Press International) was
covering the combat in Vietnam and snapped several photos of American
soldiers tying the body to the armored vehicle and its being dragged
behind until it became disfigured. One of these photos, “American
Soldiers Dragging Viet Cong,” won awards for the World Press Photo of
the Year and was nominated for the 1966 Pulitzer Prize for photography.
After
the photo’s publication, many pro-Vietnam War supporters began to
discuss the severity of the situation on American troop psychology. As
soldiers are exposed to longer, more intensely violent periods of war,
they may develop more brutal tactics. Many anti-war protesters used the
photo as an example of general human brutality and argued that the US
should withdraw from the war. Sawada continued to cover the events in
Vietnam as the battles continued. He was killed on his way to Cambodia
in 1970.
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