COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) – Ruediger Richter barely recognizes himself in the yellowed military photograph hanging in his den – one of the best-known images of the Vietnam War.
A sinewy GI stands in the middle of the frame, staring into the distance; behind him, another soldier looks down at the body of a comrade, wrapped in a poncho. The photo, enshrined in the National Archives, came to be known as “The Agony of War.”
Richter is the man at the center, though he does not look the same. Partly, it’s because of age – he was 25 years old when the photo was taken, and he is now 73, with two grandchildren. Partly, it’s because of war’s ravages – months after the photo was taken, he was shot in the head, and he spent years coping with anger, alcohol, addiction to pain medications, post-traumatic stress.
But Richter himself will tell you that he does not resemble the man in the picture because he is no longer the man in the picture.
“I was a killer then,” Richter said on his front porch, the wife who helped save his life by his side, birds chirping in trees rustled by the breeze. “I have made my peace here.”