Arresting images of the Vietnam War that depict life away from the battlefield and the soldier’s interaction with civilians have been immortalized in a new book and exhibition.
Art Greenspon kept his recollections of photographing the Vietnam War for Overseas Weekly tucked away deep in his memory, as inaccessible as the images themselves.
Then in 2014, a treasure trove of 35 millimeter negatives emerged from the gloom of a Scandinavian cellar, reminding Greenspon of his time working for a weekly tabloid called ‘Overseas Weekly in Vietnam’.
His work and that of others is rediscovered in a new book and exhibition, entitled ‘We Shot the War: Overseas Weekly in Vietnam’. The exhibition runs from now until December 8 at the Herbert Hoover Memorial Exhibit Pavilion at Stanford University.
They offer relaxed portraits of American GIs and Vietnamese civilians taken between 1966 and 1972 and mostly show the long hours of boredom and tedium that dominate life at war.
Here are just a selection of images which capture moments of levity and humanity during the long-drawn out war.
More information can be found at www.hooverpress.org
A rare color picture from the collection shows a medic treating a patient designed by the Food Machinery Corporation at Qaung Tri which could carry nearly 13 men or four patients
An unidentified soldier examines his C ration meal in May, 1969 in a moment of downtime on his way from Saigon to Di An
Friends and comrades enjoying some downtime at Landing Zone Evans in Cambodia in May, 1970, in one of the lighter moments during the long and protracted war that lasted approximately 20 years
Villagers of Que Son Valley, including children as young as three, are searched by US infantry men at an unidentified location
Second Lieutenant Timonthy Ganahl (right) shows a young Vietnamese orphan from Lai Khe how to work a rifle in October, 1966, in what is one of many moments of interaction captured between civilians and GIs of this latest collection
Soldiers from B Company, 5th Batallion, 9th Infantry, 1st Air Cavalry Division return wearily to their Fire Support Base, in Shakey’s Hill after two days of fighting as American troops entered the Cambodian jungle for the first time
South Vietnamese fighter planes flying above Saigon in a joint military operation with the US on April 4, 1970
A doctor attends to a wounded man who winces in pain from an injury sustained from a rifle attack in rural Vietnam in 1969
A 106 millimeter recoilless rifle leader barks orders to his crew as they provide fire support for marines during fighthing on the South Side of Saigon in March 1968
A door gunner fires while approaching a landing zone and an Army of the Republic of Vietnam solider winces at the deafening noise from the jet engine and gunfire
Rescue helicopters pick up combat patrols of B company on a patrol of the Central Highlands Highway in 1968
US troopers take a break from combat as they watch dancing girls at a military base in rural Vietnam in 1968
A doctor treats a Vietnamese child caught in the crossfire of battle in rural Phan Thiet in May 1967 as he winces in agony
An unidentified woman dressed in army overalls in November 1969 as she awaits the order to distribute rations on a farm
Troopers of D Company , 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry of the 101st Air Division enjoy grilled steak and a beer at a company cookout in Camp Eagle, south-east of Huế in central Vietnam
A group of soliders await medis and tend to two injured Vietnamese peasants, including a child, in 1970 in rural Vietnam