I PROTEST! Khe Sanh, Vietnam
John Corbett
VG+. TRADE PAPERBACK. (NY: New American Library, 1968). First printing. Unpaginated, profusely
illustrated with photographs.
Barbara Baker Burrows writes: "Tucked up in the northwest corner
of South Vietnam, the U.S. Marine outpost at Khe Sanh's proximity
to both Laos and the DMZ, supply routes for the enemy's men and
materiel, was the very reason for its existence. The military
leadership had determined that this was where the enemy had to
be stopped. Intelligence estimated that six thousand Marines
faced a force of 40,000. Comparisons were made to the situation
which had led to the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu fourteen
years earlier. ~~~ For months Khe Sanh dominated the news from
Vietnam, later sharing the headlines with the pivotal 1968 Tet
offensive. In a still unresolved debate, one side argues that
Khe Sanh was just a 'feint' to draw troops away from South
Vietnam's urban areas which were the targets of Tet. Whatever
the truth, Khe Sanh was important. President Johnson had even
had the Pentagon build a table model of the Khe Sanh plateau for
the White House basement Situation Room. ~~~ Through weeks
of incoming bombardment, the encircled Marines fought back,
while unprecedented American air power pounded the besieging
North Vietnamese. Almost 500 Marines were lost, perhaps twenty
times as many of the enemy. ~~~ Inside the camp, along with
the explosions, the heroism and the death, Duncan also caught
the pain and even a tenderness. The enduring effectiveness of
his work is not in some photographic illustration of 'body count',
a concept David so vehemently abhorred, but in the faces and,
closer still, in the intensity of a soldiers' eyes. Their
stare alone can tell the story of the horrors of war. ~~~ I'm
one at heart, David said of the Marines. I know their character
from the past. There's something kind of marvelous about them;
it's their simplicity, their generosity, their casual sharing of
everything they have. The signature photographer of the Korean
War was back with his beloved Marines, and the pictures show it:
His last frames from Khe Sanh, grainy gravure black and grays of
helicopters carrying out the dead.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In 1943 David Douglas Duncan was commissioned a second
lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps. His early assignments
included commanding a photo lab in an aviation unit near
Honolulu. Not destined to remain in the rear echelon, he
soon found himself covering guerrilla warfare behind Japanese
lines in the Solomon Islands. He then covered Marine Corps
combat aviation units on Okinawa and other islands.
~~~ By the end of World War II Duncan was a decorated
lieutenant colonel (Legion of Merit, Purple Heart, two
Distinguished Flying Crosses, and three Air Medals). One of
his final photographic assignments as a Marine was covering
the Japanese surrender on the battleship USS Missouri.
~~~ In September 1950, after the 1st Marine Division landed
at Inchon, Duncan covered the attack to recapture Seoul and the
subsequent movement inland. He was the personification of the
word 'embedded' decades before the word became popular in
journalistic circles. ~~~ He shared foxholes and rations
with Marines as they drove the North Koreans from Seoul and
moved inland. Life magazine published many of his photos that
portrayed the pitfalls and perils of combat. His photos also
made the cover of Life and were published in the book
This Is War? (Little Brown and Co., 1990), which won the
United States Camera Gold Medal award. ~~~
The battle for Khe Sanh in Vietnam lured dozens of
correspondents and photographers. Most of them flew in, put a
'Khe Sanh' dateline on their work, then left immediately.
Duncan spent more than a few hours at Khe Sanh. His graphic
photos appeared in Life magazine. As a result of his
visit he published his antiwar book, I Protest, filled
with somber combat photos.
Originally published at $1, now long since OUT OF PRINT.
An important book, scarce in this condition.
$30.00
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