Photographs do not lie; they represent the truest and most objective form of journalism, because of this, the work of photojournalists in the Vietnam War was the main influence of changing views on the home front, which made the war end earlier. There were many photojournalists in the war, but Larry Burrows and Denis Gibbons were two of the most influential. The Vietnam War was also a part of the Cold War, and the ongoing 'war' between the US and the Soviet Union. Photographers have been a part of wars for decades however the Vietnam War was the first war that was shot and actually shown to the people at home on a daily basis. This is why a lot of people think that photojournalism was the most influential part of changing people's views back home. However, some people disagree that photojournalism was the main influence and think that other factors were more important in changing people's opinions. .
The definition of a cold war is an 'intense economic, political, military, and ideological rivalry between nations, short of military conflict,' (Dictionary.com, 2014), and in this context the nations were the Soviet Union and the USA. The Vietnam War was a result of the Cold War between the two countries and is defined as 'a conflict, starting in 1954 and ending in 1975, between South Vietnam (later aided by the US, South Korea, Australia, the Philippines, Thailand and New Zealand) and the Vietcong and North Vietnam' (Dictionary.com, 2014). The Vietnam War is known as the first televised war in history, this included photojournalism, which is a 'journalism in which photography dominates written copy, in certain magazines,' (Dictionary.com, 2014).
One of the main photojournalists in the Vietnam War was the American, Larry Burrows. His work is often cited as the most searing and the most consistently excellent photography from the war (UTATA, NA). He arrived in Vietnam in 1962 at the age of 36 and he had been a professional photographer for Life magazine for almost a decade.
