The Vietnam War was a long, costly and divisive conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. The conflict was intensified by the ongoing Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. More than 3 million people (including over 58,000 Americans) were killed in the Vietnam War, and more than half of the dead were Vietnamese civilians.

To cover the War, The Associated Press gathered an extraordinary group of superb photojournalists in its Saigon bureau, creating one of the greatest photographic legacies of the 20th century. From Malcolm Browne’s photograph of the burning monk and Nick Ut’s picture of a 9-year-old running from a napalm attack to Eddie Adams’ photograph of the execution of a Viet Cong prisoner, Vietnam: the Real War contains images that both recorded and changed history.