New Video online: Horst Faas - Part 3

In the third installment of this special FotoTV series, historic journalist and photographer Horst Faas shares a little about his career working on international assignments around the world's most dangerous political hot spots, while sharing photos from some of his greatest work from exhibits.

Faas touches poignantly on the subject of political turmoil and unrest between the Vietcong and ordinary village people. Either the civilian population was either for or against the unjust or inhumane ruling, or they were forced into submission if they tried to show support for anyone else but their own government.

Teary eyed, Faas hauntingly explains that he witnessed innocent people suffer horrible and cruel deaths, having their villages burnt down while cuddling their children as they lay burnt death to dying in their arms. There was nothing anybody could do, not even Faas, a photojournalist. All he could do is document the atrocities and hope that his images would be seen around the world and that they would echo his own unimaginable horror at seeing such events taking place to normal civilians with everyday lives, from farmers to housewives, to grandparents.

Often the cities were being bombed by air to surface bombs with Napalm even before the troops marched in. Without much protection or defense it was an unthinkable terror for the villagers. Villages being destroyed, men, women and children being shot to death, whether they tried to flee or just stood their in shock--there was carnage was everywhere the could see.

He also discusses the use of Agent Orange a herbicidal warfare that was used to defoliate the trees and jungles. The effects of the use are horrifying and the results can still be seen today. As Faas explains it, "All wars are Barbaric and Vietnam, which I've seen in great detail was an exceptional barbaric war".