Photographed from ground level, this image offers an intimate view of a detainee screening event in South Vietnam during 1963. The circle of uniformed advisors surrounding the seated men reflects the close, on-the-ground nature of the American advisory mission at this early stage of the conflict, when U.S. personnel worked directly alongside South Vietnamese forces in the field rather than in the large combat formations that would characterize later years of the war. Project: 218716