Re: Digest for vietnam-old-hacks@googlegroups.com - 2 updates in 1 topic

[Dawson]

On Sat, Nov 29, 2025 at 3:13 AM <vietnam-...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Ron Yates <jhaw...@gmail.com>: Nov 28 09:03AM -0800 Thanks for the heads up, Carl.   .   -- *Ronald E.* *Y**ates* Author, Journalist, Professor/Dean Emeritus *“If you don’t want to be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing about.” *– Benjamin Franklin

I have always  liked this  one  even more:

It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.
-- Upton Sinclair, 1934

Good to hear from you Ron.

73

[Dawson]

'The Stringer' is now on Netflix.

Carl Robinson <robinso...@gmail.com>: Nov 28 11:44AM +1100

The film runs about 90 minutes 2 hours. I look forward to your response -- after watching it, of course.

Well Carl, you axed for it. I never intended to write about this in public, but you solicited.

    I sincerely wish Bao and others prosperous success, because I have no dog in the fight -- except I was in Saigon and I remember the photo. I also remember the totally unbelievable tale that some AP twinks were fearful they'd be accused of spreading kiddie porn, which I didn't believe then or now. I would have sent that brief moment of The Stringer to the floor.
    I've kind-of followed Kim Phuc, who now lives beside my (levelled) childhood elementary school in gorgeous Ajax, Ontario. And I found it difficult to disagree with the mama who told the camera, fergawdsake let those sleeping dogs lie, who cares who took that single photo, among all the photos and films?
    I knew The Stringer so well before I spent early Saturday watching it. Carl's blogs and a couple of others described the film. So for that reason, I thought the actual moving picture was mostly credible, because it did what it intended to do.
    Honestly? I thought it was a 20-minute news magazine extract with away too much padding. I believe it failed utterly to answer the question of "why?" after 50 years. I just can't accept that influential Horst Faas was impressive enough to do that. I "get" the part about squashing Nick Ut like a roach but again -- 50 years? That didn't fit well.
    It's simply un-newsman-like.
    The story proceeded as advertised, which is why I think it's a one-off, pretty quickly forgotten by the public who's paying for it. Which brings me to the disconnects that shouldn't even have been there.
    First was the claim that only three AP Pulitzer photos had any effect, anywhere -- Mal Brown's burning monk, Eddie Adams' killer policeman, and Whoever's Napalm Girl. That is far beyond disrespectful.
    Nguyen Bao should be treated to knowledge of Kyoichi Sawada, Pham Van Cuong, Dirck Halstead, Larry Burrows, Tim Page, David Kennerley and Hu Van Es, the reason this group even exists. And that's for bare starters. There were dozens of startling photos of just the American war in Vietnam, never mind Katy Leroy and Henri Huet and quite a few others. We just had a discussion of Rockoff and Ulavich, who didn't make The Stringer's cut.
    The resurgent tale of the photo's effect, particularly on the far-left young Americans is bovinely excremental. By the time that the Vietnamese air force bombed Trang Bang without any American advice or other input, Joseph Biden's new laws were already banning U.S. aid, U.S. participation and, even by 1972, a catastrophic Saigon pullout of every American including the ambassador -- and of course "not a nickel" for post-war Vietnamese refugees. The photo had no influence on any of that because American politics and U.S. minds were irreversibly made up, months before the Napalm Girl -- which had nothing to do with Americans anyhow.
    One thing missing in The Stringer was witnesses -- even including Dave Burnett, who didn't notice who took the photo of the burning girl.
    Nick Ut was of course a witness but The Stringer couldn't accept the duality of his being a witness and also the ultimate villain. Unfair, but here we and Netflix are. (For the record I paid Netflix zero to watch.)
    Finally there was Nghe who was led into stating that yeah, I guess I took the photo. He has a hugely supportive family in California. He was not just calm but almost disinterested. "What are you going to do, give me another 20 dollars?" He, too was an actual witness but didn't leap up and shout about it -- and the director seemed not to notice that.
    This is written a few hours after watching The Stringer straight through, all 103 minutes. Frankly, my dear, I'm about as impressed as I was with the Ken Burns version a few years back.

You asked. I'll not quickly forget The Stringer nor its stories and comments. I also probably won't change my mind, but who knows the future, eh?