The photographs collected in the book come from a variety of sources, such as the Embassy of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam to the Polish People's Republic and the Mission of the National Liberation Front in South Vietnam to Poland, as well as from the state-operated Central Photographic Agency and other sources. The journalistic photographs to which the audience had become accustomed by the numerous press photography competitions are heavily post-produced, effectively becoming disconnected from the specific events and war actions. It is also impossible to determine where or by whom they were taken (this somewhat resembles the way in which photographs were used in the famous anti-war publications, i.e., Bertolt Brecht's Kriegesfiebel or War Primer by Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin).
This book is perversely situated not just within the current of politically engaged photography, but also the humanist one which honoured children (Zofia Rydet, Mały człowiek/Little Man, Warsaw 1965). The book revolves around the fate of the youngest inhabitants of the war-ridden country: destroyed school buildings, the life of children in the trenches, death… The narrative is made dynamic by the rhetorically flamboyant pairings of images, e.g. a crying child next to a figure of an American fighter jet. The expression of the whole is intensified by the juxtapositions of photographic images with dramatic press clippings and literary passages (e.g. Wisława Szymborska's poem Wietnam/Vietnam).
The publication, targeted predominantly at the adolescent audience, carrying a dramatic anti-war message and yet holding a cynical propaganda function, remains – typically – largely anonymous, as the colophon does not credit the editor, nor the author of the publication's concept; all we find is the enigmatic annotation: The album was prepared by Wydawnictwo Harcerskie.
photographs: various authors and agencies
editing: Wydawnictwo Harcerskie
introduction: Jacek Bołdok
graphic design: Krzysztof Dobrowolski
publisher: Wydawnictwo Harcerskie, Warsaw
year of publications: 1969
volume: 142 pages
format: 19.5 x 20.5 cm
cover: linen hardcover with dust jacket
print run: 13 750