It was not only the Vietnam photographs shot by the professionals that changed hearts and minds. At almost every small outpost I went to, some GI would come over and want to show me his snapshots. And nine times out of 10, they were truly disturbing. Body parts, mainly. Bits and pieces, not only of the enemy, but of friends and fallen comrades.
War is about death.
These young soldiers in Vietnam captured it in dying color, vividly, graphically and horribly. Edwin Land once said that we photograph things so as not to be afraid of them. These GI's proved his point. I think it was these photos sent home if not to Mom, then to younger brothers, uncles, best friends, that brought the real horror of Vietnam into the American home. These GI's used no such filter.