U Minh Forest, 9/15/70: This is the second frame of the same scene. Some people, including myself when I first saw the previous image, have wondered aloud if the photographer set up the shot. So I asked the photographer Vo An Khanh, and he showed me this negative, which clearly shows actual surgery taking place. A third image exists but the negative has been lost; it shows even more detail of the shrapnel removal. Also Mr. Khanh commented that subject matter such as this was not the preferred material that his fellow Viet Cong fighters and leaders would enjoy seeing. In fact, Khanh thought the image so unremarkable he had never even had enlarged it until 1996 when I commissioned a print. Finally, in April of 2000, the image was published on the front page of the New York Times, to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. Mr. Khanh was elated to see his photograph finally seen, and it also caught the attention of the folks at National Geographic Books, who ultimately chose to publish the book.
		Photo: © Vo An Khanh