It's been half a century since the outbreak of major combat operations in Vietnam, a conflict that indelibly marked the American psyche and changed forever how we think about military interventions.
Vietnam also saw combat reporting come into its own through figures such as Associated Press reporter Peter Arnett, and United Press International's Joe Galloway, whose account of the 1965 battle of la Drang, "We Were Soldiers Once and Young," is held as one of the great pieces of 20th-century combat journalism.
University of Richmond professor and former Military Times senior managing editor Robert Hodierne went to Vietnam in 1966 as a freelancer for UPI. During that tour, and a follow-on tour with Stars and Stripes, Hodierne captured images of frontline combat in every corner of the country and with nearly every unit.
Now some of that work has been collected in an exhibition at Richmond's Lora Robins Gallery, which will run through Jan. 26, an exhibit that Hodierne hopes will connect his students with the past. Military Times spoke with him about his work and his vision for the exhibit.
Questions and answers have been edited for brevity.
Q. What would you like students to get out of this exhibit?
A. Well, there are 40 images, they span 1966, '67, '69 and '70, and most of them are what I would consider portraits.
I'm fascinated by the faces of these kids (in the photos). They have 19-year-old faces and 40-year-old eyes. I'm hoping that the kids here look at them and say, "They are as old as I am."
The second thing is that this is the 50th anniversary of the start of major ground combat in Vietnam, and college kids just don't know much about it. It's ancient history to them. So we are hoping to raise some awareness at the same time.
Q. How did you end up in Vietnam as a photographer?
A. I was at Grinnell College, and back then it was considered very cool to be a photographer. In 1966, they sent the 1st Cav and the Marines to Vietnam; I was convinced that the war would be over and I would miss it. So I dropped out of college and went over there.
I came back, finished college and joined the Army. I wanted to be an infantry officer — I was pretty convinced I could do a better job than some of the officers I'd seen over there. But the Army, in its infinite wisdom, sent me to engineering OCS. I said,"Engineering, like hell," so they packed me up and sent me back to Vietnam on a two-year enlistment. I was lucky enough to be assigned to Stars and Stripes.
Q. What's the secret to capturing a great image in combat?
A. You would have to be a rather clumsy, inept photographer not to be able to produce compelling images of combat. The trick is to be where the action was taking place and survive it.
I would go to the medevac pads, and if the pilots knew you — knew you would get off the bird no matter what was happening — they would take you. Also, the 1st Cavalry had a quick-reaction force that sat with their gear on the tarmac and, if a unit got in the doo-doo, the Cavalry would come to the rescue. Often they would take me along.
Q. What else are you hoping to show?
A. One of the sequences depicts U.S. troops burning down a Vietnamese village.
Ten years ago I went back there — and finding it was no mean trick. I just wanted to know, what did they think of us? Were they Vietcong villagers or were they just peasants? One of the pictures I took was of a mother and her child and I actually found the mother and her now-grown daughter. They said "No, we weren't Vietcong."
I did find one guy who walked up to us in a Vietcong uniform and I asked him, "When did you join the Vietcong?" He said, "Three days after you burned my mother's house down."
So I'm hoping there are some lessons in this about counterinsurgency — how not to do it.
Q. Looking at these images 50 years later, what are your thoughts and emotions?
A. The first part is the pictures themselves: These were black-and-white negatives, developed by a technician who wasn't very good at his job. There were a lot of scratches and dust spots. So on a purely mechanical, technical level, I spent a lot of time editing them. And I have to say, they look fantastic. The hard part is limiting it to 40 images. It's like trying to choose your favorite children.
Looking at the pictures, emotionally, I think to myself, "Was I really there? Did I actually do that? I tell stories about this all the time but are they true stories? Did I embellish it?"
And I look at these pictures and I can say: I was there. I did that. You know, it's one of the few things in my life that wasn't bullshit. Editor's note: If it were up to me, I would leave that walkoff line just as it is -- Chuck
David B. Larter was the naval warfare reporter for Defense News.
