Neil Davis, an Australian War Photographer gives a partial account of that time here: http://australianscreen.com.au/titles/frontline/clip3/

Neil, who worked mostly with Vietnamese and later Cambodian troops, shot the footage seen in the clip. He was killed / murdered by ‘friendly’ Thai troops during one of the many coups in Bangkok on 09 September 1985. The camera still running, Neil filmed his own death.

As Neil says: General Loan learned that the VC/NVA was captured near the police compound where Loan’s friend, wife and 6 children were ‘murdered’ by the VC/NVA. As an (OZ) adviser with the ARVN, I ran across Neil a few time in SVN. Always cheerful and optimistic, he loved the Vietnamese soldiers and always spoke up for them as they were doing the bulk of the fighting (contrary to what the official reports may say).

A number of attempts to assassinate Loan (sanctioned by the SVN president), failed, including a helicopter gunship attack on a bunker Loan was in. General Nygoc Loan died from cancer at his home in Burke, Washington. It was definitely one of those occasions during the TET offensive, 1968, where you wouldn’t want to investigate too thoroughly for fear what you might dig up about your own troops. No names – No pack drill.

Adams’ long insisted that the South Vietnamese general was right to summarily execute the VC who had just killed a bunch of people during a VC operation in Saigon. Adams said, regretfully, that the general killed the VC and his photo figuratively killed the general. Adams regarded the general as a hero.

Nick Ut’s photo was used by antiwar activists and to this day it is seen as symbolic of US military action in Vietnam but no Americans were in the photo. The napalm was dropped by South Vietnamese planes, not US planes, at the order of ARVN commanders, not US. The soldiers in the picture are Vietnamese, not US.

When I point this out to lefties, they like to go on about how the napalm girl photo teaches “larger truths” than the facts of the photo.

The way I heard it, the Police Chief’s wife
was one of the victims; She was dismembered,
and bled to death.

Back in the last ‘69, I was an infantry squad leader in Viet Nam. One day, while we were being resupplied by helicopter out in the bush, a camera crew arrived along with the things we needed.

A while later, our Captain came over to me with the crew in tow and asked me if I wanted to take them out on a patrol I was about to leave on. In one of my proudest moments in the war, I replied, in my New York fashion, with a question, “Do I have to bring them back?” We went out; they didn’t.

I am profoundly uncomfortable with media involvement in combat operations. It’s one more thing to worry about when everyone is chock full of worries already. Nobody goes into a restaurant through the kitchen. Our combat soldiers deserve similar respect. Let the media build their résumés on someone else’s work.

And I wish that everyone who has the chance will use that photo to teach their children about the laws of war–and the moral ambiguity of a single photo.

That picture he took would have been child’s play.

-special memory
great friend and my hero Charles- presumed killed in action, body not recovered. 07/06/68
18 years old-

-But not to weep-
we celebrated one hell of a Fourth.