The Vietnam War gave us scores of famous and controversial images. Many of us have since played armchair historian, offering our takes on scenes like Eddie Adams’s photo of a South Vietnamese police chief pointing a gun at the head of a suspected Viet Cong soldier, so certain that in that moment we could make the “right” choice.

Port Haywood resident Donald Hirst lived the war in a much more immediate way than those of us with the benefit of hindsight and decades of documentation.

He was a photographer stationed in Saigon during the infamous Tet Offensive and captured one of the most famous photos of the Vietnam War. Next week marks the 50th anniversary of the Tet Offensive.

On Jan. 30, 1968, Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers launched a campaign of surprise attacks against military and civilian targets throughout South Vietnam during Tet, the Vietnamese New Year. Although seen as a military victory for the U.S. and South Vietnamese forces, the size and ...