Neil Brian Davis (14 February 1934 – 9 September 1985) was an Australian combat cameraman who was recognised for his work as a photojournalist during the Vietnam War and other conflicts in the region.
[1] He joined the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) in 1961 as a cine-cameraman, but he left in December 1963 to accept an offer to become Visnews's cameraman and correspondent for Southeast Asia.
[1] Unusual among foreign correspondents, Davis chose to film the war from the South Vietnamese perspective, shooting acclaimed combat footage on many occasions and acquiring a reputation for skill and luck.
His neutrality notwithstanding, Davis earned the ire of United States military authorities, but this did not stop American news networks seeking out his film.
Davis recalls that on meeting Nguyễn Ngọc Loan he "lifted his arm to which he had strapped a machine pistol, pointed it at me and said 'Some day I kill you'".
On 30 April, Davis filmed as North Vietnamese troops and T-54 tank number 834 famously broke through the gates to the Presidential Palace in Saigon.
This image, which has long remained a symbol of the American failure to stop Communism in Vietnam, was first broadcast on an NBC News Special Report: Communist Saigon narrated by Laurie on 26 May 1975.
[2] After nearly 20 dangerous assignments on the battlefronts, Neil Davis was killed in Bangkok on 9 September 1985, while filming a minor Thai coup attempt that ended after only a few hours.
But for the last six years of his life, he was tethered to a sound man "to shoulder the heavy battery and cassette pack, linked to the nine-kilogram camera by a video cable".