Meantime, for the Marines of Con Thien, the months ahead look grimmer than ever. The fall monsoon rains have just begun. They will go on til February, hampering American air power, [SOUND] depriving the men on the ground of at least some of the air support they desperately need. The artillery dual at Con Thien will go on and on. This battle is different than any other action in the war, in that there is no let up. Day after unchanging day. As long as the North Vietnamese can resupply their troops and guns. As long as they can send down reinforcements, [NOISE] there is little the Marines. Can do about it. >> I mentioned a little earlier that we might consider the Boer War as a period of British Imperial history that the country in the 21st century doesn't take so much pride of. Let's consider an event in the 20th century which might be considered to have a similar status with regards to the United States and the Vietnam war. Much has been written about the Vietnam War. The, potential adventurism of America in Southeast Asia. The importance of maintaining treaty obligations the States oversees. The loss of human life. The commitment to the army going out, and how those veterans were treated when they came back to the United States has been a cause celebre in, in American history. Along with an overlapping with Watergate. The failure in the Vietnam war seems to have had a profound effect on America's view on the 1970s. And it's something that has been written about a great deal. Again, the book that I'm sort of referencing today, Underexposed, does make quite a lot of Reference to war and images which, which were suppressed. I want to go slightly the different way or a different way. And talk about some of the war photography of Don McCullin, now a highly respected British photojournalist who documented the war through his camera. And many wars through his camera over the years. And if you go to the British Victoria and Albert Museum website, one of his images is portrayed amongst their list of photographs of the 20th century. You can pick it up here. It's of possibly his most famous Vietnam War photo. The shell shocked soldier. This rendition is a little bit darker. There are other prints or representation you'll see where the soldiers eyes can be seen. This is 1968. This is following an intense period of battle. A man holding his gun sullen-looking, a thousand-mile stare. Although as I said from this representation it's a little bit difficult to pick up on. So, the V and A are going to pick out this portrait. It's not posed, per say, it's a photograph from the time. It's the aftermath. Now, this is these are images which were available to contemporaries in the late 1960s. And, it's not putting forward an image of success. If you consider the post first war, World War period. And even during the 1914 to 1918 period, there was a lack of understanding for those people who had shell shock. What we might describe now as post traumatic stress disorder. So, over a century, we have a situation where there is greater willingness to accept the nature of war. And the aftermath it's going to have on the lives of combatants. And over that century, we can start seeing that the representations in the media. Make that experience more open and also confront those readers who are at home. So I think in this case, that although the image is a classic one, I'm trying very much to bring up the photographs. That have been widely referenced. It is something that we need to just take a pause and think about. This is 1968, you would have seen nothing similar to this in 1918 to represent an experience of soldiers after the Western Front in the first World War. Now, if we look at, some of other, of McCullin's, photographs. This is a website it's Contact Press Images they are copy written images. And let me just see if I can actually bring this up to a larger size. Again, the nature of image is important. Here we have, Vietnamese civilians running away from a fire fight. And you have, immediately next to them, American, servicemen in pursuit of their jobs, et cetera. At rest, but in a confrontational, environment. Atmospheric, I think is a good way of actually thinking about, the way you might consider this photograph. Again, men doing their job. But, this is 1968, they are still black and white photographs, they are literally grainy, as well as showing the grit of war. And I think this is something that you might want to consider, as we mentioned in the first seminar, how important it is. That you are seeing images which have an authenticity about them, and for some reason that we'll discuss later, black and white photographs do cover that to a certain degree. So just let me flip through a couple more of these images quickly. Here we have triage of a, a wounded soldier. Here, just to see what the snipers are like we have an American soldier putting his helmet on the gun and putting it above the parapet of the wall, so he's getting a feeling of exactly how safe or dangerous the environment is. Again, another portrait of a soldier. Sullen, dirty, in the midst of conflict. Again, let's skip over this one, but again another picture of men working for a common purpose. But I, I'd just like you to think about this particular image and to go back to the site and review all of them. And consider your reactions to them. Here we have a bystander. Someone who has been very directly involved with the conflict. But someone who is not obviously a combatant. Covered in blood, cradling what we assume to be his daughter, looking disconsolate. Looking demoralized. But also what we have the daughters actually made eye contact with the camera itself. And there's a mix there of being distraught but also slight curiosity what is this being pointed in front to me. So while it's only on a very limited scale. It's bringing across slightly the curiosity the, the, willingness to learn from the child, even though it's an environment which is bloody in every sense. [BLANK_AUDIO]
