Nguyễn Văn Lém was a captain in the Viet Cong and was known by the code name Bảy Lốp.


Execution

Nguyễn Văn Lém was a captain in the Viet Cong and was known by the code name Bảy Lốp. His wife, Nguyễn Thị Lốp, explained that his code name consisted of "Bảy" for the seventh son,[whose?] and "Lốp" from her own name.

Lém was captured by South Vietnamese troops while wearing civilian clothing near Saigon's Ấn Quang Pagoda on 1 February 1968, amid the Tet Offensive, a massive surprise attack by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces. He was brought to Brigadier General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan, Chief of the Republic of Vietnam National Police, at 252 Ngô Gia Tự Street, District 10 (10.7638°N 106.671°E), near the present-day Chùa Trấn Quốc temple.

The 36-year-old Lém was accused of murdering South Vietnamese Lieutenant Colonel Nguyễn Tuân, his wife, six children, and the officer's 80-year-old mother. He was allegedly captured near a mass grave of approximately thirty civilians.

Loan summarily executed Lém in the street, using his .38 Special Smith & Wesson Bodyguard revolver to shoot the bound prisoner through the head. The event was witnessed and recorded by Võ Sửu, a cameraman for NBC News, and Eddie Adams, an Associated Press photographer. The photograph and film became famous images in contemporary American journalism, and won Adams the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography.

Loan was reported to have said afterwards: "If you hesitate, if you didn't do your duty, the men won't follow you."[6] In 2018, author Max Hastings detailed the allegations against Lém, adding that American historian Edwin Moise "is convinced that the entire story of Lém murdering the Tuân family is a post-war invention" and that "the truth will never be known."

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