- Beautiful color pictures taken in the city of My Tho between 1968-69 show bustling markets and busy townsfolk
- They were taken by a 24-year-old private with a love for photography and a lot of time on his hands
- 'I didn't want to be there, but there was nothing I could do about it. So in my free time I would just grab my camera and walk around taking pictures,' said Lance V. Nix, now aged 71, in an interview with Daily Mail Online.
After
being drafted to serve in the war in Vietnam, an American GI decided to
treat his days off-duty in the country as a 'working vacation' with
camera in hand.
The
pictures that Private 1st Class Lance V. Nix took in and around the
city of My Tho between 1968-69 show bustling markets, busy townsfolk and
smiling children — a very different perspective from the dreary combat
operations in muddy fields and jungles most commonly associated with the
decades-long war.
'I
didn't want to be there, but I was drafted and there was nothing I
could do about it. So in my free time I would just grab my camera and
walk around taking pictures,' said Nix, now aged 71, in an interview
with Daily Mail Online.
During
his tour in Vietnam, Nix said he was tasked with doing general
assignments for officials involved in the notorious Phoenix Program — a
CIA brainchild that aimed at 'neutralizing' Viet Cong fighters and
suspicious civilians by capturing, killing and allegedly torturing them
by the tens of thousands.
Nix,
who was 24 when he first landed in Vietnam, said his job was to 'do
everything' — drive officials around, do body guard duty, and even run
the video projector during meetings at command headquarters.
'I
had a lot of free time,' Nix said. 'And since I was the lowest-ranking
member of my whole team, my commanding officer allowed me to wear
civilian clothes so I wouldn't be harassed.'
During
excursions with his Minolta SRT 101 camera, Nix said, 'Most people
didn't know if I was a reporter or whatever. I was usually the only
American around, which could be hazardous. But the daytime was pretty
safe. Nighttime was when you started worrying.'
'The
reactions from people were a little bit of everything. Some people
wanted their picture taken and would smile like you won't believe.Some
would be shy.'
In
Nix's view, 'The Vietnamese citizens weren't really involved in the
war. They were bystanders basically. They were so used to occupation,
with the French before us. Most citizens were just trying to live their
lives, hoping not to have their heads blown off.'
Scroll down for video
Kodachrome slide
Portrait of the artist as a young man:
Lance V. Nix at the Embassy House in My Tho, Dinh Tuong Province,
Vietnam in December 1968
Two children pose at the Mekong River-front in southeast My Tho, Dinh Tuong Province, Vietnam, in 1969
'My Tho's downtown market in Dinh Tuong Province, Vietnam, in the year 1969'
Three produce vendors pose for Lance V. Nix's camera at the My Tho market in the year 1969
'I caught these two ladies on film as
they walked by the sandbags and razor wire around the military
operational center at the south end of My Tho across from the Navy dock
on the Mekong River' in 1969, wrote Nix of this picture
Flower girls at the My Tho marketplace, in the Dinh Tuong Province in Vietnam's Mekong Delta, 1969
Left: Girl selling produce at the My Tho market in 1969. Right: A woman shopping at the same market
'Gleening the last of the fish from
the drying rain ponds at the Binh Duc airstrip west of My Tho, Dinh
Tuong Province, in Vietnam's Mekong Delta in the year 1969'
'Sidewalk fast food in My Tho 1969. Busy with mid-day shoppers at the My Tho market in Dinh Tuong Province, Vietnam, in 1969'
!['Flower vendors selling [marigolds] for TET New Year celebration at the My Tho market in Dinh Tuong Province, Vietnam, in the year 1969'](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_s1w_WFymys-qa01Z_Y7Tuc9fiVOya2Tkjuuj0kSUzAv6WIssibvjxXpr79uTH7c67KbFLE6T88IY89WJ5WgBClt8KntgYci8EJfDKYW78hpWJkmFb_lDw2rNM_I7cdBYO7C6aBYTffMSl3S1puvVlsvcAa-gj8Bqf0YushUrWi=s0-d)
'Flower vendors selling [marigolds]
for TET New Year celebration at the My Tho market in Dinh Tuong
Province, Vietnam, in the year 1969'
'Local men take a mid-day break for a little card game. In northeast My Tho in 1969' wrote Nix of this picture
'River Front Fast Food 1969. In My Tho on the Mekong River, Dinh Tuong Province, Vietnam in 1969'
'South Vietnamese war boat on the south shore of the Coconut Monks island in Vietnam's Mekong Delta near the city of My Tho'
!['A [remnant] from the French colonial days, the long loaves of french bread were plentiful in My Tho,' Nix wrote of this picture](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tXP8qbBogrPvWIp6t5CEJbcIwqLTYVsPo4HgkHrieASosHXjnkOF9IQhnufAzYumMFb1ssN18PxI3xqEqpnbsj-Jw_BylD0CWXTlpqsJ_rHLOyhRyekkOyO1RVnlhlIQaNd0IKYjlGzECquvPtaz-u-VgTIjyUMyyEU82v_fTM=s0-d)
'A [remnant] from the French colonial days, the long loaves of french bread were plentiful in My Tho,' Nix wrote of this picture
A shoe seller and two smiling children at the My Tho market in 1969 as photographed by Lance V. Nix
Vegetables cut into decorative patterns at the My Tho market in preparation for Tet festivities, 1969
'Water Taxi across the Mekong to Kien
Hoa January 1969. Stern view of water taxi approaching Kien Hoa Province
from Coconut Monk's island'
Wrote Nix: 'Vietnam in 1969 had a full
menu of religions from Christianity and Islam to Buddism and Cao Dai.
But the famous Coconut Monk on an island in the Mekong just a couple
miles south of My Tho was by far the most interesting. Educated in
Paris, France, in the field of chemical engineering, he came back to
Vietnam and founded his own unique religion, a blending of the teachings
and philosophies of Buddism with Christianity'
'Vietnam's
Coconut Monk (left) in his tower at the east end of his "floating"
platform refuge (right) at the very eastern tip of his island in the
Mekong River near My Tho, Vietnam'
Lance V. Nix pictured on Veterans Day 2014, in Fort Ord, California. 'Back in uniform 45 years later. How time flies,' Nix wrote
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