Photos of North Vietnam during the Vietnam war (1960s - early 1970s)

Escorting American pilot
A communist guerilla was escorting an
American prisoner of war who was
captured in North Vietnam (Nữ du kích
 giải một tù binh Mỹ bị bắt ở miền Bắc)
Author Thomas Bill Hardt - vnexpress.net 8/2/201

Thomas Bill Hardt is a famous German journalist and photographer (born in 1937). He traveled to many countries during the historical times. He is famous for realistic photos of the wars in Vietnam, Palestine and Nicaragua. Visiting Vietnam during the 1960s and 1970s, Thomas recorded horrifying images of the Vietnam war. His photos brought emotional feelings to the viewers. Thomas used to say "I witnessed both the joy of victory and the sorrow of loss of the people all over Vietnam".

Thomas made a total of 50 overseas trips to different countries in the world including 12 trips to Vietnam from 1962 to 1985. Witnessing the horrifying destruction of the war, he said “The nature of photographing is not only recording the last image, but also focusing on circumstances of the shootings". Therefore, he owns an invaluable archive of Vietnam’s photos during the war. His photos were classified into subjects such as the Vietnam war in 1972, the border war with the Chinese in 1979, American pilots, South Vietnam etc.

Boy on a buffalo (1969)
A boy was playing a flute on a buffalo. (Cậu bé
 mục đồng thổi sáo được Thomas chụp ở miền
 Bắc năm 1969) Author Thomas Bill Hardt
- vnexpress.net 10/2/2014

In 1999, he opened a photo exhibition “the Vietnam war” in Hanoi. In 2003, he returned to make another exhibition with the purpose of meeting again some people in his photos. He ended up meeting with the person who obsessed him most in his career:” The girl who opened the road” and her name is Hong Ly.

Thomas’s photos were highly regarded as invaluable images of the Vietnam wars. Since 1960, his Vietnam photos made Thomas famous worldwide and brought him many honorable prizes. They were known all over the world and presented in over 100 exhibitions from Moscow to New York. Many of his works were published in famous magazines.

While photographing painful images of the war, Thomas also focused on terrified faces of Vietnamese children. Every photo taken by Thomas is evidence for the horribleness of the war and it made the world raise their voice. Since 1987, Thomas had actively participated in child-protecting activities of the UN organizations.