A Lauded War Photographer Rediscovers Vietnam

At a lush highway rest stop in the Mekong Delta, Ut snapped these restaurant workers before ordering breakfast of hot soup with rice noodles.

After his older brother, AP photojournalist Huynh Thanh My, was killed by the Vietcong in 1965, 16-year-old Ut began showing up daily and developing film at the bureau, until he got his brother’s job. “My brother said he was going to take a picture that would stop the war,” says Ut, pictured here at a combat base in January 1971. “When I took the picture of Kim Phuc, I thought, ‘I have it for you.’ ”

Trang Bang 43 years later. The site of the bombing is directly behind the Cao Dai temple, seen here.

This crocodile lurks on Con Phung Island in the Mekong Delta, an area Ut covered. During the war, peace activist Ong Dao Dua (or the Coconut Monk) lived nearby. There’s now a temple in his honor.

Like a paparazzo on the prowl, Ut asked his driver to speed up then slow down so that he could capture this family traveling along the highway to Ho Chi Minh City.

Ut’s room at the Sheraton Saigon, where he sometimes stays on his annual visits, looks out on this swimming pool. During the war, the hotel was an apartment building where Ut’s journalist colleagues Tim Page, John Steinbeck IV (son of the novelist), and Sean Flynn (son of Errol), all lived.

Ut captured an aerial view of the anniversary celebration. Even after 40 years, he’s still on the AP clock day and night.

“During the war, there were lots of Vietcong here,” Ut says, gazing out on the Mekong. “They were hiding under these plants and bombing American navy boats. That’s why American soldiers shot so many Vietcong in this area. John Kerry was right around here.”

Ut spotted these red tilapia at a fishmonger in Sa Dec. Though he was in the French-colonial town to visit the famous setting of the 1992 film The Lover, he skipped the official tour to wander through the nearby open-air market.