The Vietnam war captured in colour – in pictures
For Americans, it is one of the most compelling images of the Vietnam war: 1966’s Reaching Out, which shows a wounded soldier leaning towards a comrade on a mud-spattered hillside. The picture was taken by British photojournalist Larry Burrows, who covered the war for Life magazine from 1962 until he was killed there in 1971. His images convey the brutality, chaos and human cost of a disastrous campaign. To mark the 40th anniversary of the end of the war, here is a selection of them
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1962
A bayonet-wielding South Vietnamese paratrooper threatens a captured Việt Cộng suspect during an interrogation• All photographs by Larry Burrows/Time & Life pictures/Getty unless stated -
1962
A South Vietnamese soldier escorts a captured man and boy suspected of being Việt Cộng, having just flushed them out of a paddy field where they were hiding -
1964
US and South Vietnamese forces evict prostitutes from a suspected Việt Cộng village after setting it alight -
1964
Tracer fire lights the night sky as US and South Vietnamese forces conduct operations -
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1966
The crew of a US AC-47 plane fire 7.62mm GE miniguns on a night mission -
1966
Reaching Out: wounded US marine Jeremiah Purdie (centre) is led past stricken comrades after a fierce firefight for control of Hill 484 in South Vietnam -
1966
American F-102 interceptor fighters fly a dawn patrol -
1968
A South Vietnamese soldier crouches beside a badly bleeding woman while awaiting medical aid during an attack by the Việt Cộng -
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1968
US soldiers jump from a helicopter during Operation Pegasus, a failed attempt to lift the siege of Khe Sanh -
1968
Nguyen Thi Tron, who was wounded by gunfire from an American helicopter, tries out her new artificial leg in a game of hopscotch -
1969
A grieving widow cries over a body bag containing the remains of her husband, found in a mass grave containing civilians killed by Việt Cộng during the Tet offensive of 1968 -
1970
Half-dressed US soldiers of the 9th Infantry fire on enemy troops somewhere along the South Vietnamese-Cambodian border -
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1970
An exhausted US infantryman drinks from his canteen in the Fishhook area of Cambodia -
1971
Wounded South Vietnamese soldiers are evacuated during Operation Lam Son 719 in Laos -
1970
Larry Burrows (far left) struggles through elephant grass to help GIs carry a wounded soldier to an evacuation helicopter in Mimot, Cambodia. Burrows was killed on 10 February, 1971, along with the photographer who took this picture, Henri Huet, and two other photojournalists, Kent Potter of UPI and Keisaburo Shimamoto for Newsweek, when their helicopter was shot down over LaosPhotograph: Henri Huet/AP
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