Revisiting the Power of Photojournalism

I am writing in response to your recent article for the New York Times where you write about the Vietnam War in reference to the photographic evidence from the war and how it may impact the public sentiment about war (Renkl). Interestingly, you pose a question in your article that can photos of suffering children have the power to soften sentiment toward the “other” in a polarized age. You come to the conclusion that the world has changes from the time when David Jackson photographed Emmett Till and Nick Ut photographed Phan Thi Kim Phuc and perhaps the over exposure to such photographs and the mistrust of technology may not allow similar public reactions at this time to similar brutalised photographs from this period. I would beg to differ with you on this point, although I do agree with the wider sentiment of your article and the arguments and evidence presented by you.

When you write about the iconic photo and you say that irrespective of whether the photo was related to the withdrawal of the American forces from Vietnam a year after it was taken, “at the very least it fed the growing antiwar sentiment in this country and may have hastened the end of the war” (Renkl). I find this to be an interesting statement and one that I can relate to what I have learnt about in my course material on this subject where it has been noted that President’s Nixon response to the photograph was a speculation that it was doctored by anti-war activities in America to make a case for the end of the American involvement in the Vietnam War (Schaller, Schulzinger and Bezis-Selfa).

I can therefore, agree with your statement that the photograph may have had an impact of reducing the public support for the American involvement in the war. In my course work, I have learnt more about how public sentiment about the Vietnam war changed over a course of time to more and more disillusionment, as seen during President Johnson’s presidency (Schaller, Schulzinger and Bezis-Selfa). It is suggested that photographic testimony, such as the Napalm photograph and Vietnam Zippo raids captured by journalist Morley Safer and his CBS crew did increase public concern over American involvement in Vietnam (Schaller, Schulzinger and Bezis-Selfa). Therefore, I find that there is credibility in what you say about the impact of the photographs on the end of the Vietnam War.

The point that I would diverge from your arguments is where you write about the continuing significance (or lack of the same) of the photographic evidence to impact public opinion, and by extension government actions. You write about the earlier photos that “many of these photos were made during times of profound extremity: war, natural disaster, deep social unrest” (Renkl). It thought that this implied that the times in which these earlier photographs were taken were different from the present times in that the extremity of war, natural disaster and social unrest was more intense in that time and therefore, the photographs had greater impact in shaping public opinion.

From what I have learnt in my course is that although the Vietnam War was an event that took place at a time when the Cold War was going on and there were deep social unrest over issues like civil rights and anti-war sentiment, the present conflicts are also taking place in a time when there is conflict in the world and deep social unrest in America itself (Schaller, Schulzinger and Bezis-Selfa). Therefore, I do not believe that these times represent a better time in terms of extremity of war, social unrest and natural disaster. Consequently, by your own argument that such intense extremities lend to more public outcry against events portrayed by traumatic photographs, I would say that such photographic evidence is still capable of guiding public opinion and shaping government action.

To conclude, I would reiterate that photographic evidence of war brutalities is very powerful medium to shape public sentiment against wars and other such issues that take a toll on human life.

Looking for further insights on Revisiting the Justifications for the Iraq War? Click here.

Bibliography

Renkl, Margaret. "When a Picture Is Worth a Thousand Tears." 17 Feb. 2020. New York Times. .

Schaller, Michael, et al. American Horizons: US History in a Global Context, Volume II: Since 1865. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.