Vietnam War Officially Ends

It’s April 30th, 1975 when the North Vietnamese capture Saigon and the South Vietnamese surrender.  United States combat troops have left the country two years earlier.  The War officially ends.  Time Magazine runs a picture of Ho Chi Minh on the cover of its May 12th edition with the caption “The Victor.”

Innocent Souls: Vietnam 1968 Photography Exhibition

This exhibition features pictures of Vietnam captured in 1968, during the peak of the conflict known by Americans as the Vietnam War, by Glenn Hoover, an infantry platoon leader in the 1st Infantry Division.  After sitting as slides in a closet for over 43 years, these images have taken on a new life on canvas. The exhibition was sponsored in part by the Florida Keys Council of the Arts, the State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Council of the Arts and Culture, the National Endowment for the Arts, Womankind, Inc, and The Waypoint Foundation, Inc. 

Some of these photographs are portraits of the Vietnamese and Montagnards who lived there, while others are of the young American soldiers who were visiting.

It is not the intent of this exhibition to be a documentary, nor to pass any moral judgments about this period.  It is a series of snap shots, taken during a brief moment, by one person.  It is left to the observer to look through the eyes and into the innocent souls of the subjects in hope that the images stir thought and encourage contemplation.  If this happens, we consider the exhibition a success.