Eddie Adams ( photographer ) Eddie Adams ( June 12 , 1933 – September 18 , 2004 ) was an American photographer and photojournalist noted for portraits of celebrities and politicians and for coverage of 13 wars . He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1969 . Combat photographer . Adams served in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War as a combat photographer . One of his assignments was to photograph the entire Demilitarized Zone from end to end immediately following the war . This took him over a month to complete . Pulitzer Prize winning photograph . It was while covering the Vietnam War for the Associated Press that he took his best - known photograph – the picture of police chief General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan executing a Vietcong prisoner , Nguyễn Văn Lém , on a Saigon street , on February 1 , 1968 , during the opening stages of the Tet Offensive . Adams won the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography and a World Press Photo award for the photograph ( captioned ' General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong prisoner in Saigon ' ) , but would later lament its notoriety . Writer and critic David D . Perlmutter points out that ' no film footage did as much damage as AP photographer Eddie Adams ' s 35mm shot taken on a Saigon street . . . When people talk or write about [ the Tet Offensive ] at least a sentence is devoted ( often with an illustration ) to the Eddie Adams picture ' . Anticipating the impact of Adams ' s photograph , an attempt at balance was sought by editors in the New York Times . In his memoirs , John G . Morris recalls that assistant managing editor Theodore M . Bernstein " determined that the brutality manifested by America ' s ally be put into perspective , agreed to run the Adams picture large , but offset with a picture of a child slain by Vietcong , which conveniently came through from AP at about the same time " . Nonetheless , it is Adams ' s photograph that is remembered while the other far less dramatic image was overlooked and soon forgotten . In Regarding the Pain of Others , Susan Sontag is disturbed by what she sees as the staged nature of the photograph . She writes that ' he would not have carried out the summary execution there had [ the press ] not been available to witness it ' . However , Donald Winslow of the New York Times quotes Adams as having described the image as a ' reflex picture ' and ' wasn ' t certain of what he ' d photographed until the film was developed ' . Furthermore , Winslow notes that Adams ' wanted me to understand that “ Saigon Execution ” was not his most important picture and that he did not want his obituary to begin , “ Eddie Adams , the photographer best known for his iconic Vietnam photograph ‘ Saigon Execution ’ ' . On Nguyen Ngoc Loan and his famous photograph , Adams wrote in " Time magazine " : Adams later apologized in person to General Nguyen and his family for the irreparable damage it did to the General ' s honor while he was alive . When Nguyen died , Adams praised him as a " hero " of a " just cause " . On the television show " War Stories with Oliver North " Adams called Gen . Nguyen " a goddamned hero ! " He once said , " I would have rather been known more for the series of photographs I shot of 48 Vietnamese refugees who managed to sail to Thailand in a 30 - foot boat , only to be towed back to the open seas by Thai marines . " The photographs , and accompanying reports , helped persuade then President Jimmy Carter to grant the nearly 200 , 000 Vietnamese boat people asylum . He won the Robert Capa Gold Medal from the Overseas Press Club in 1977 for this series of photographs in his photo essay , " The Boat of No Smiles " ( Published by AP ) . Adams remarked , " It did some good and nobody got hurt . " Awards . Along with the Pulitzer , Adams received over 500 awards , including the George Polk Award for News Photography in 1968 , 1977 and 1978 , and numerous awards from World Press Photo , NPPA , Sigma Delta Chi , Overseas Press Club , and many other organizations . Adams died in New York City from complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis , also known as Lou Gehrig ' s disease . Adams ' s legacy is continued through Barnstorm : The Eddie Adams Workshop , the photography workshop he started in 1988 . He is the subject of a 2009 documentary feature , " An Unlikely Weapon " , directed by Susan Morgan Cooper and narrated by Kiefer Sutherland . Eddie Adams Photographic Archive . The photographic archive of Eddie Adams has been donated by his widow , Alyssa Adams , to the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at The University of Texas at Austin . The archive documents Adams ' s career and includes " Saigon Execution , " his Pulitzer Prize - winning photograph . Measuring 200 linear feet in size , the Eddie Adams Photographic Archive includes slides , negatives , prints , audio and video materials , news stories , diaries , notes and tear sheets . In addition to substantive coverage of the Vietnam War , the collection includes his in - depth features on poverty in America , the homeless , Mother Teresa , Brazil , alternative society , anti - war demonstrations , and riots , as well as his intimate portraits of such high - profile figures as Ronald Reagan , Fidel Castro , Malcolm X , Clint Eastwood , Bette Davis , Bill Cosby , and Jerry Lewis . Auction records . On October 22 , 2009 Swann Galleries auctioned a special print of Adams ' s most well - known image , " Saigon ( General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong prisoner Nguyen Van Lém ) " . The oversize silver print image — printed in the 1980s — had been a gift to Adams ’ s son and came with letter of provenance . The back of the photograph was signed and had Adams ' s notation , " Saigon , 1968 . " It sold for $ 43 , 200 .