A Picture Speaks a Thousand Words

I came across this page whilst between work tasks this morning. I remember reading that the Vietnam war images caused a change in the way war was reported as the photographers then were not as tied to their troop masters as they have been since. The negative(?) images they produced then meant that in future conflicts governments controlled all media and their output far more.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-24992606

A very moving slideshow.

I think it is is the only war where journalists were embedded and not censored. I remember the nightly horrors shown on the news during the Vietnam war. Such things would never be shown now, even without government censorship.
Even in my leafy London suburb the Vietnam war had a profound affect on me growing up. These photos bring it all back.
I know a couple of vets from the war, both marked for life by their experiences, and vilified by people on their return home after it. No hero's welcome for them, yet they were doing basically the same job as today's troops in Afghanistan, with one big difference - they had no choice about going. They were not professionals, had not chosen the army as a career, but were school kids who with less than basic training experienced way too much at way too young an age, in what was really a pointless conflict.