Pink Umbrella, 9th Division Trooper, Saigon, 1968

During the second 'Mini Tet' offensive in May 1968, U.S. troops were dispatched and engaged in fighting to clear out North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong from suburbs on the south side of the capital at the strategic 'Y' bridge. 

"This photo was taken on about the 4th day of the second Tet Offensive, that was in May of 1968. Things got really bad, so they brought American troops in the 9th Division from the Northern delta of Vietnam to try to contain the fighting. The North Vietnamese had infiltrated the southern suburbs of the city.

Most of these dudes were draftees, so they didn't really fucking care about the war I guess. You know what I mean? They just wanted to survive their year and get out. I mean who knows who wrote hippie on the hat? It's one of those things you see and say 'oh, that's a great picture. I better take more of that.' I never thought more about it until l was doing my book back in 1981, and somebody said, 'have you seen this picture? Look at the detail!' It's one of those images I wouldn't have thrown in the bin, but that I just would have missed it. I saw it at the time, I shot it, but it didn't register at the time as a big deal, you know what I'm saying, it was only discovered years later. And...it wasn't a very good day, that was a week that we lost  9 people. 9 correspondents were killed in one week.

The fighting went on in the streets for about 9 days. It wasn't a good time, but then immediately after that the war just stopped and everybody kinda took a breather. At that point armored vehicles and tanks that were going through the suburbs. I'm trying to think of a suburb to compare it to...it was like Watts back before it burned down in the late 60s. I a lot of 1 and 2 story buildings and shop fronts. Then suddenly it didn't exist because you put an armored battalion through the place with air support, then bye bye suburb.  It was just a total fucking rubble after they went through there. That area now you an go through it and it's all fancy studios and flats. It's tarted up. Back then it right on the edges of the city. It was the first built up suburb." - Tim Page

Collector's Notes:
Tim Page's photographs are printed to order in Australia, please allow 3-6 weeks for delivery. Each photograph is hand-signed and numbered by the artist.

Buyers will receive a certificate of authenticity following delivery of their artwork.