History is not a fixed set of facts. In reality, it is a collection of ideas, images, and information that enough people have chosen to preserve and disseminate. Necessarily, more is lost to time than is remembered. Photographs, and visual media generally, play an especially important role in this process of shaping collective memory of an event.
During the Vietnam War, for example, photographs and footage brought the conflict home to the American people. Shocking images such as Nick Ut's "Napalm Girl" and Eddie Adams' "Saigon Execution" have become synonymous with the widespread outrage and disapproval of the war in the United States.
Given how large the canon of Vietnam War photojournalism is and the level of infamy much of it has achieved, it may be surprising to learn that a wellspring of Vietnam War photos from a source other than photojournalists has been largely ignored: the works of military photographers.
Though their works have been declassified over time and physical copies are carefully preserved at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, it is estimated that less than a quarter of military images from Vietnam were ever made available to the press. In the rare cases where they were published or broadcast, the photographers were rarely credited.
