Last Days in Vietnam: The Story Behind the Iconic Image of the Fall of Saigon in April 1975

Dutch photographer Hugh van Es, who died in 2009 at the age of 67, became famous for his iconic picture of Americans leaving Saigon, on one of the last helicopters out, on 29 April 1975, the day before the city was captured by the North Vietnamese army at the end of the Vietnam war. At the time he was working as a staff photographer for United Press International (UPI).

A member of the CIA helps evacuees up a ladder onto an Air America helicopter on the roof of 22 Gia Long Street on April 29, 1975, shortly before Saigon fell to advancing North Vietnamese troops.

The photograph has usually been assumed to be of the US embassy, but in a newspaper article Van Es wrote: “If you looked north from the office balcony, towards the cathedral, about four blocks from us, on the corner of Tu Do and Gia Long, you could see a building called the Pittman Apartments, where we knew the CIA station chief and many of his officers lived. Several weeks earlier, the roof of the elevator shaft had been reinforced with steel plate so that it would be able to take the weight of a helicopter. A makeshift wooden ladder now ran from the lower roof to the top of the shaft. Around 2.30 in the afternoon, while I was working in the darkroom, I suddenly heard Bert Okuley [a UPI staffer who escaped that evening] shout ‘Van Es, get out here, there's a chopper on that roof!’”

Van Es grabbed his camera and dashed to the balcony. “Looking at the Pittman Apartments,” he said, “I could see 20 or 30 people on the roof, climbing the ladder to an American Huey helicopter. At the top of the ladder stood an American in civilian clothes, pulling people up and shoving them inside. Of course there was no possibility that all the people on the roof could get into the helicopter, and it took off with 12 or 14 on board ... Those left on the roof waited for hours, hoping for more helicopters to arrive. To no avail.”

Illustrating the Fall of Saigon, this is the most iconic picture of the evacuation of Saigon and there's no free replacement which captures the event in the same way. (Photograph: Hugh van Es)

After shooting about 10 frames, Van Es went back to the darkroom and prepared a print for his regular 5pm transmission to Tokyo. It took about 12 minutes to send a single print with a caption but, as he laconically put it: “Editors didn’t read captions carefully in those days.” The picture was erroneously described as showing the embassy roof and, after years of trying to put the record straight, the photographer gave up. “Thus,” he said later, “one of the best known images of the Vietnam war shows something other than what almost everyone thinks it does.”

He was born Hubert van Es in Hilversum in the Netherlands and learned his profane and always apparently rudimentary English while hanging out with allied troops at the end of the second world war. He had decided he wanted to become a photographer at the age of 13, after going to a photo exhibition at the local museum which featured the work of the war photographer Robert Capa, who became his lifelong hero.

Van Es began work as a photographer with the Nederlands Fotopersbureau in Amsterdam in 1959. After arriving in Hong Kong as a freelance in 1967, he joined the South China Morning Post as chief photographer, and the following year had a chance to go to Vietnam as a soundman with NBC News. After a brief stint there, he joined the Associated Press staff and was with them in Saigon until 1972, when he transferred to UPI, with whom he spent three years.

The only money he ever made from the famous photograph was a one-off bonus of $150. Proud though he was of the picture, he was even more pleased with the shots he had taken during the battle for Hamburger Hill. Van Es stayed on in Saigon and took pictures of the North Vietnamese, made safer by the Vietnamese words Báo Chí Hà Lan, meaning Dutch Press, which he stuck in his camouflage hat along with a miniature plastic Dutch flag. After Vietnam, he made Hong Kong his base and also covered the Moro rebellion in the Philippines and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

The Story Behind the Photo of Winston Churchill With Cigar and Tommy Gun in July 1940

The photograph of Winston Churchill with the Thompson submachine gun was taken during his visit to the coastal defense positions near Hartlepool on 31 July, 1940. The interesting thing about this picture is that both the British and the Germans used it for propaganda purposes. The British edited out two soldiers standing next to Churchill, making him look statesmanlike, determined and menacing. On the other hand, the Germans compared it to those of the gangsters of the American West. The Nazis used this photo in their propaganda leaflets airdropped onto Britain during the Battle of Britain.

Winston Churchill with a Tommy Gun during an inspection near Hartlepool, 1940.

Nazi propaganda minister Goebbels saw the image as a god send and used it extensively domestically, with the other Axis countries, and even in air drops over the Britain during the Battle of Britain with the text in English “WANTED,,” and at the bottom: “for incitement to MURDER.” The reverse of the leaflet is all text: This gangster, who you see in his element in the picture, incites you by his example to participate in a form of warfare in which women, children and ordinary citizens shall take the leading parts. This absolutely criminal form of warfare which is forbidden by the Hague Convention will be punished according to military law. Save at least your own families from the horrors of war!

Nazi Leaflet (left), Nazi poster with Churchill with the German text “Sniper” (right).

With France and its other European Allies out of the war Britain and its Empire stood by itself against a triumphant Hitler. A defiant Churchill instead of bowing down to Germany famously promised during his June 4, 1940 speech to the house of commons: “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender!”. Trying to pass on his never-give-up attitude he sought to back up British morale with some public tours of the British coastal defenses. During one of these tours he was photographed trying out an American 1928 Tommy Gun or Thompson SMG (sub machine gun) at defense fortifications near Hartlepool in Northern England.

Britain purchased quantities of the M1928 Thompson, which were delivered with the drum magazine but soon it was discovered to weigh too much, was cumbersome to load and it rattled too much in use, so thousands were returned to the manufacturer and exchanged for stick mags.

(via Rare Historical Photos)

The Last Photos of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and His Wife Sophie in Sarajevo Moments Before Their Assassination, 1914

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie on June 28, 1914, is widely seen as the central, precipitating event of the First World War: the spark that lit the conflagration.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand with his wife on the day they were assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, June 28, 1914.

In the summer of 1914, Franz Ferdinand and wife Sophie accepted an invitation to visit the capital of Bosnia, Sarajevo. He had been informed of terrorist activity conducted by the nationalist organization the “Black Hand,” but ignored the warnings. On the morning of June 28, 1914, the Royal couple arrived by train and a six-car motorcade drove them to city hall for an official reception. The Archduke and his wife were in the second car with the top rolled back in order to give the crowds a good view.

At 10:10 a.m., as the motorcade passed the central police station, a Black Hand agent, Nedjelko Cabrinovic, hurled a hand grenade at the archduke’s car. The driver accelerated when he saw the flying object, and the bomb exploded underneath the wheel of the next car, injuring two of its occupants along with a dozen spectators. Franz Ferdinand is reputed to have shouted in anger to local officials, “So, you welcome your guests with bombs?!” He also reportedly stated, “What is the good of your speeches? I come to Sarajevo on a visit, and I get bombs thrown at me. It is outrageous.”

On the route back to the palace, the Archduke’s driver took a wrong turn into a side street, where 19-year-old nationalist Gavrilo Princip was waiting. As the car backed up, Princip approached and fired his gun, striking Sophie in the abdomen and the archduke in the neck. Both died before reaching the hospital.

Assassination illustrated in the Italian newspaper Domenica del Corriere, 12 July 1914 by Achille Beltrame.

At trial, it was noted that the three assassins from Belgrade tried to take all blame on themselves. Nedeljko Čabrinović claimed the idea of killing Franz Ferdinand came from a newspaper clipping he received in the mail at the end of March announcing Franz Ferdinand’s planned visit to Sarajevo. He then showed the newspaper clipping to Princip and the next day they agreed they would kill Franz Ferdinand. Princip explained to the court he had already read about Franz Ferdinand’s upcoming visit in German papers. Princip went on to testify that, at about the time of Easter (19 April), he wrote an allegorical letter to Ilić informing him of the plan to kill Franz Ferdinand. Trifko Grabež testified that he and Princip, also at about the time of Easter, agreed between them to make an assassination of either Governor Potiorek or Franz Ferdinand and a little later settled on Franz Ferdinand. The defendants refused or were unable to provide details under examination.

On 26 March, Danilo Ilić and Muhamed Mehmedbašić had already agreed to kill Franz Ferdinand based on instructions from Belgrade predating the newspaper clipping and the discussions amongst the three assassins in Belgrade.

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand gave the hardliners in Austria-Hungary the opportunity to take action against Serbia and put an end to their fight for independence. In July 1914, the situation escalated. After demanding impossible reparations and failing to receive them, Austria-Hungary declared war against Serbia. As was expected, the complex web of alliances was activated as Russia declared war on Austria-Hungary, Germany declared war on Russia, and France and Britain declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary. World War I had begun.

The Archduke and Duchess in the car, the morning they were killed. Sarajevo, June 28, 1914..

The Archduke and his wife emerging from the Sarajevo Town Hall to board their car on the morning the were killed.

The Archduke and his wife leaving the train in Sarajevo, June 28, 1914.

This picture is often said to depict the arrest of Gavrilo Princip, although several scholars say that it depicts the arrest of Ferdinand Behr, a bystander who was initially suspected of involvement in the assassination.

Gavrilo Pricip is arrested moments after the assassination.

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Controversial Backstage Photos of Queen and Diego Maradona in Argentina During “The Game Tour”

The Game Tour was a concert tour by Queen to support their successful 1980 album The Game – which includes the hits like “Another One Bites the Dust” and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” – and their short trek has become the stuff of myths and legends. This tour saw the band being the first to play in South American stadiums in early 1981.

The tour began on February 28, with two consecutive nights at Estadio Velez Sarsfield in Buenos Aires, where the band drew a crowd of 300,000 people –the largest single concert crowd in Argentine history as of 1982.

Freddie Mercury first met Diego Maradona at a party in Castelar outside Buenos Aires, and invited him to appear on stage during Queen’s final Buenos Aires show. Maradona accepted readily.

“Freddie hadn’t really known who he was, as he was not what you could call a football fan,” laughed Peter Freestone. “Footballers’ thighs, maybe. Rugby players’ thighs, even better!”

Still, Freddie could not help but be amused by the young soccer star. To some extent, he could identify with him: they shared modest stature and an unquenchable thirst for success. Maradona duly appeared to ecstatic applause, whereupon the footballer peeled off his Number 10 team shirt, and swapped it for the rock star’s T-shirt. He then introduced “Another One Bites the Dust”, and retreated, as Queen tore in to one of Argentina’s all-time favorite rock numbers.

These photos were taken on March 8, 1981 backstage at the Buenos Aires stadium Estadio José Amalfitani. Maradona is wearing the British Union Jack shirt of Brian Ma, while Freddie Mercury is wearing a Diego Maradona #10 jersey from the Argentina national team.

When these photos surfaced, Maradona was heavily criticized by the Argentine people for wearing The British Union Jack considering The Falklands War “La Guerra de las Malvinas” between The United Kingdom and Argentina. He defended himself by saying that the photos were taken one full month before the conflict began and one full year before the war had even started.

Here is a photo of Maradona on stage introducing Queen after their encore and before the song “Another One Bites the Dust”. (Notice Brian May in the background wearing the controversial shirt)

Perhaps the Palo journalist was not so stupid when he quizzed Freddie at the asado. He put it to Freddie that the shirt-exchange moment with the nation’s greatest sporting idol had been a ‘demagogic act’. Freddie, incensed by the implication, denounced the suggestion as ‘ridiculous’. He declared it to have been a friendly gesture, nothing more.

“If the audience thinks it’s OK to do such a thing, and appreciates it for what it is, I don’t give a damn what the press might think,” he retorted. “I’m going to do what I like, regardless of whether the press label it ‘demagogic’ or wrong.”

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In 1944, George Stinney Jr., 14, Became the Youngest American Executed in the 20th Century When He Was Sent to the Electric Chair

George Stinney Jr. became the youngest person to be executed in the U.S in the 20th century when he was sent to the electric chair in 1944, but more than 70 years after his death his conviction has been overturned.

George Stinney mugshot, 1944. (State of South Carolina)

On the afternoon of March 23, 1944, Betty June Binnicker, 11, and Mary Emma Thames, 7, failed to return home. The next morning searchers, George Stinney Sr. among them, discovered the girls’ bodies lying in a water-filled ditch. Both girls’ skulls were crushed and one of the girl’s bicycles lay on top of their bodies.

According to an article reported by the wire services on March 24, 1944, and published widely, with the mistake of the boy’s name preserved, the sheriff announced the arrest and said that “George Junius” had confessed and led officers to “a hidden piece of iron.” Both girls had suffered blunt force trauma to the face and head.

Betty June Binnicker and Mary Emma Thames.

Reports differed as to what kind of weapon had been used. According to a report by the medical examiner, these wounds had been “inflicted by a blunt instrument with a round head, about the size of a hammer.” Both girls’ skulls were punctured. The medical examiner reported no evidence of sexual assault to the younger girl, though the genitalia of the older girl were slightly bruised.

After a short investigation, police took George Stinney Jr. and his brother John into custody. They released John, but a few hours later, Stinney confessed to murdering the girls. The sawmill fired Stinney Sr. and the family had to move and rarely saw George Jr. again because his incarceration was 50 miles away.

Geroge Stinney Jr., third from left, is seen in this 1944 newspaper photo entering South Carolina’s death house at the state prison in Columbia. (Jimmy Price/Columbia Record)

A mere 10 days later, the State tried Stinney for the girls’ murders. Records indicate 1,000 people crammed the courthouse. Black people were not allowed inside.

The jury was all-white and the trial concluded that same day with Judge P.H. Stoll presiding. The court had appointed Charles Plowden as Stinney’s counsel. Plowden was a tax commissioner campaigning for a Statehouse seat.

Solicitor Frank McLeod represented the State. He presented evidence from law enforcement that Spinney confessed to the crime. While law enforcement testified that a confession occurred, no written confession exists in the record today. Nothing remains from documentary evidence indicating whether the court admitted a murder weapon, bloody clothes or other demonstrative evidence.

Plowden called no witnesses, did not cross examine, and never filed an appeal. No one challenged the sheriff’s recollection of the confession. The jury deliberated 10 minutes and found Stinney guilty.

The same day Judge P.H. Stoll sentenced Stinney to death by electrocution. The entire process had lasted two-hours. No appeals were filed and no stays of execution requested.

George Stinney Jr.’s fingerprints from 1944 are kept at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History. (Michael Pronzato/Post and Courier)

People from across the country wrote letters to Governor Olin D. Johnston regarding George Stinney Jr.’s death sentence in 1944. Most of them sought mercy on the child’s behalf. Courtesy the South Carolina Department of Archives and History. (Michael Pronzato/Post and Courier)

The day before the scheduled execution, the NAACP protested to Governor Olin D Johnston. The execution proceeded.

On June 16, 1944, Stinney became the youngest person to die in the electric chair and the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th century. Standing 5 feet 1 inch (155 cm) tall and weighing just over 90 pounds (40 kg), the straps don’t fit and an electrode was too big for his leg. His feet could not touch the floor.

According to writer Joy James, as the first 2,400-volt surge of electricity hit Stinney, the mask covering his face slipped off, “revealing his wide-open, tearful eyes and saliva coming from his mouth.”

His family buried his burned body in an unmarked grave hoping the anonymity would allow him to rest in peace.

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Vintage Photographs of Young Bill and Hillary Clinton From Between the Late 1960s and 1970s

Before becoming President and First Lady of the United States of America, Bill and Hillary were just two hopelessly devoted, liberal lovebirds.

After first locking eyes at Yale Law School back in 1971, a young Hillary Rodham, pre-presidential candidate days, approached Bill Clinton outside of their school library with a confidence that has followed her throughout her career.

“I was studying in the library, and Bill was standing out in the hall talking to another student — I noticed that he kept looking over at me. He had been doing a lot of that. So I stood up from the desk, walked over to him and said, ‘If you’re going to keep looking at me, and I’m going to keep looking back, we might as well be introduced. I’m Hillary Rodham.’ That was it,” Hillary stated on her website.

From that moment forward, Hillary and Bill became the powerful duo that they are today!

Who knew that it took Bill three times to ask his, now-wife, Hillary, to marry him before she said ‘yes!’ “I actually turned him down twice when he asked me to marry him. He asked me in England on a trip after law school graduation. I said, you know, I can’t say yes. I feel too badly. And then about a year later he asked me again, and I said no. He said I’m not going to ask you again until you’re ready to say yes,” Hillary remarked about her numerous proposals. Looks like she finally did!

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Cycling on the Streets of Paris Under Nazi Occupation in 1942

These photographs were taken by André Zucca in Paris while the city was occupied by the Germans during World War II. Zucca was a French photographer and Nazi collaborator, most well known for his work with the German propaganda magazine Signal.

While everything changed with the German occupation, most things also remained the same. The German occupiers made the French pay for the costs of the occupation in foodstocks, so food was very scarce. Other things, like gasoline and rubber (bicycle tires), were almost impossible to obtain.

Despite all that, France no longer was at war. Life, at least on the surface, appeared more normal than in places like London and Berlin. Men and women went to work, sat in cafés, went to the movies, and even watched or participated in bike races. This did not make them collaborateurs. After all, it would have served little if all Parisians had sat in a corner and sulked for years while the Germans were occupying the city. Even the resistance fighters kept up appearances and tried to live as normal a life as possible, so they did not arouse the suspicion of the Gestapo or their French counterparts.

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Mugshots of Civil Rights Activist Freedom Riders in Jackson, Mississippi During the Summer of 1961

Extraordinary courage stepped up to bigotry in America during the summer of 1961. The acts of bravery came not from soldiers in battle or politicians taking a stand. No, in this case, the valor came from everyday Americans – civilians concerned about the state of their country. Eventually, there would be hundreds of them, acting over a five month period. They came from all over the U.S. They were black and white; liberal and conservative; Catholic, Protestant, and Jew. Many were college students; some from the seminary. They came to lend their presence and put their bodies on the line. Their actions were innocent and non-violent. All they set out to do was ride on a bus – or rather, insure that a person of any color could ride on a bus from one state to another. They were called “Freedom Riders.”

Before it was all over more than 60 “Freedom Rides” would criss-cross the South between May and November of 1961. At least 436 individuals would ride buses and trains to make their point. However, a number of the “freedom riders” were physically assaulted, chased, and/or threatened by white mobs, some beaten with pipes, chains and baseball bats. Many of the riders were also arrested and jailed, especially in Mississippi. Yet these arrests became part of the protest – and in this case, a badge of honor.

For those arrested were not criminals. Far from it. They were among America’s finest heroes. Yes, America has a long line of heroes, and none more honorable than those who fought and died in military conflicts – from the Revolutionary War through WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Those heroes occupy a special and honored place. Yet few heroes stand taller on the domestic front than those who came from the civilian population during the 1961 civil rights “freedom rides.”

Below are some of the mugshots of the “Freedom Rides” after being arrested for protesting in Jackson, Mississippi in 1961. Most of them were sent to the brutal Parchman Prison in Mississippi.

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Christmas Truce 1914: Amazing Photos of British and German Troops Meeting in No Man's Land During the Western Front

Late on Christmas Eve 1914, men of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) heard German troops in the trenches opposite them singing carols and patriotic songs and saw lanterns and small fir trees along their trenches. Messages began to be shouted between the trenches.

The following day, British and German soldiers met in no man’s land and exchanged gifts, took photographs and some played impromptu games of football. They also buried casualties and repaired trenches and dugouts. After Boxing Day, meetings in no man's land dwindled out.

The truce was not observed everywhere along the Western Front. Elsewhere the fighting continued and casualties did occur on Christmas Day. Some officers were unhappy at the truce and worried that it would undermine fighting spirit.

After 1914, the High Commands on both sides tried to prevent any truces on a similar scale happening again. Despite this, there were some isolated incidents of soldiers holding brief truces later in the war, and not only at Christmas.

In what was known as the ‘Live and Let Live’ system, in quiet sectors of the front line, brief pauses in the hostilities were sometimes tacitly agreed, allowing both sides to repair their trenches or gather their dead.

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Rare Photographs From John & Yoko’s “Peace For Christmas” UNICEF Concert in December 1969

After months of trying to bring their Bed-In to the United States, John Lennon and Yoko Ono launched the worldwide billboard and poster campaign, War Is Over! The campaign was launched on 15 December 1969 at the “Peace for Christmas” concert, a benefit for UNICEF held at London’s Lyceum Ballroom.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono performed with George Harrison, Keith Moon, Billy Preston, and The Delaney and Bonnie Band, Alan White, Bobby Keyes, Keith Moon, Klaus Voormann, Jim Gordon and Billy Preston - as the Plastic Ono Supergroup. Their two-song, twenty-five minute set featured extended versions of both sides of their latest single: Cold Turkey and Don’t Worry Kyoko.

A huge War Is Over! banner was hung across the stage, and postcards were distributed to the audience.

“It was a FANTASTIC show – very heavy,” John Lennon said. “A lot of the audience walked out you know, but the ones that stayed – they were in a TRANCE man. They just all came to the front because it was one of the first real heavy rock shows where we had a good, good backing…

“Some of those kids – they were really young- it was a UNICEF concert show or something. Some of those kids formed those freaky bands later. Because there were about 200 kids at the front there, some were about 13, 14, 15 who were looking at Yoko and looking at us the way we were playing that Don’t Worry Kyoko and it really reached a peak of (whatever you call it) it really went out there that night.

“And I often think I wonder if… you know I hear touches of our early stuff in a lot of the punk/new wave stuff – I hear licks and flicks coming out. It pleases me, it pleases both of us. I’d love to know were they in the audience and did somebody go and form a group in London because it sure as hell sounds like it.”

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