The Viet Cong became heroes to many in the American Left, thanks to the Western photojournalists from the AP and New York Times who were able to capture the Vietnamese struggling against the tyranny of their enemies--the U.S. government and the pro-U.S. South Vietnamese government. The run of famous photographs is unforgettable: the Buddhist monks burning themselves in the streets of Saigon to protest the U.S.-backed Diem regime; Vietnamese children fleeing a rain of Dow Chemical napalm; V.C. prisoners being executed with revolvers to the head. Ironically, all of these photos that helped turn the U.S. public against the war were snapped by Western photographers.

So now, thanks to this collection, Another Vietnam, the West can view photographs taken by the Viet Cong. For the most part, the photos are staged propaganda set pieces--smiling upright soldiers, heroic medic units, dutiful workers. The photos lack the harsh, split-second history caught on film by the West. It's no surprise, then, that the most beautiful and moving photographs in this book--the real photographs in this book--are the final batch, which begin in the spring of 1975, as the Viet Cong rolls into Saigon. With no time to stage set pieces, the cameras seemed to have clicked furiously in the moment, capturing arguably the most profound day in the 20th century. And here the juxtaposition to Western photos works to enhance the Viet Cong's view. As opposed to the famous Western photo of helicopters fleeing Saigon, the photos here have a jubilant swoosh to them as the Viet Cong and its supporters spill into Saigon.

These last few pages of photos then, such as the haunting image of the highway leading into Saigon littered with the abandoned military boots of the South Vietnamese army, are the split second of history on film. JOSH FEIT