Evocative: This photograph showing American soldiers boarding a Chinook helicopter is one of 2,000 taken by Charlie Haughey during his tour of duty

Locals: Vietnamese children peer through a gate at the American photographer during his tour which took place from 1968-9 (left) while soldiers look pensive as they are transported in a Chinook over Vietnam (right)



Duty: Charles Haughey pretended to have photographic experience but was nonetheless on the front line of the war

Last year a chance discovery brought the images to light again - and this week they are going on display in an exhibition casting new light on the controversial conflict.



Mr Haughey had been at art school in his native Michigan as a young man, but ran out of money and started working in a factory.

In October 1967, he was drafted into the Army and sent to San Francisco to be deployed.



He says his carefree attitude encouraged him to 'just go with the flow' - but he was astute enough to alter his personnel file to claim that he was a photographer, sensing that this might give him an advantage in Vietnam.

Mr Haughey arrived in the war zone with the 25th Infantry Division in March 1968, and two months later was asked to report to the colonel.

The senior officer told him that the battalion photographer had been injured and that he would take up the role - but Mr Haughey was under strict orders to point his camera away from the battlefield.



'You are not a combat photographer - this is a morale operation,' the colonel told him.



'If I pick up the papers, and I see pictures and stories about the guys in my outfit, then you can do anything you want.'

However, if the young soldier hoped that his new job would take him off the front line, he would have been disappointed.



He had to follow his comrades around as they carried out dangerous tasks such as mine-sweeping, blowing up Vietcong tunnels and flying helicopters.

Describing the harrowing experience on Flickr, Mr Haughey said: 'Being in first platoon meant hard work.

'The fire support base had to be maintained and protected. In the field, first platoon was faced with mortars, machine guns, and booby traps.



'The oppressive heat would hit over 100 degrees as soon as the sun came up. The jungle was full of fire ants, hornet nests, bugs, and leaches.



'Wet rice paddies threatened tender feet.

'And, of course, there was the Viet Cong, which the infantrymen were constantly seeking out in the hostile jungle.'

Luckily, Mr Haughey escaped injury and returned home to the U.S. in May 1969, where he adopted a new career as a cabinet maker.

Last year, he rediscovered his Vietnam photographs and decided to convert 1,700 film negatives into digital scans.



After looking at the photographs for the first time in 43 years, Mr Haughey could not sleep for three days.



He has now decided to exhibit his work at a gallery in Portland, Oregon.



The exhibition, entitled A Weather Walked In, opens this Friday at ADX.

The war itself gathered heavy opposition in the States and soldiers have since recalled being told by superiors to remove their uniforms before landing in the US to avoid being accosted by campaigners on their return home.

War crimes are said to have been committed by both sides and one of the most controversial aspects of the US military effort in South Asia was the widespread use of chemical defoliant which still damages crops and is said to cause disease in Vietnam today.



The Hanoi government estimate that in 21 years of fighting four million civilians were killed across North and South Vietnam and a further 1.1million communist fighters died.

US estimates claim that between 200,000 and 250,000 south Vietnamese soldiers were killed and more than 58,000 US soldiers died or were missing in action when the final troops pulled out in March 1973.