Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Eddie Adams, 71

Eddie Adams, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of a Vietnamese general executing a Viet Cong prisoner in the streets of Saigon became an enduring symbol of the brutality of the Vietnam War, died yesterday in his New York home. He was 71.

Mr. Adams died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, his assistant, Jessica Stuart, told The Associated Press. He was diagnosed last May with a rapid strain of the incurable neurological disorder and quickly lost his speech and became increasingly incapacitated.

Mr. Adams photographed 13 wars from Vietnam to the Persian Gulf War, and earned more than 500 awards for his work.

But none of his remarkable photographs of battle, international politics, fashion or show business evoked the emotions of the picture of the summary execution that won the 1969 Pulitzer Prize and the 1969 World Press Photo award. The picture brought Mr. Adams no joy.

An Associated Press special correspondent, Mr. Adams was assigned to Vietnam when the communists launched their Tet Offensive in 1968. On Feb. 1, the second day of the massive military operation, he hitched a ride with an NBC crew and rode toward the sound of gunfire in Cholon, Saigon's embattled Chinese quarter.

Finding no action, they were about to leave when Mr. Adams saw police walking out of a building with a bound prisoner.

"All of a sudden, out of nowhere, comes General (Nguyen Ngoc) Loan, the national police chief," Mr. Adams once related. "I thought he was going to threaten the prisoner. So as quick as he brought his pistol up, I took a picture. But it turned out he shot him."

The photo was published on front pages around the world and increased opposition to the war.

"In taking that picture," Mr. Adams later told Parade magazine, "I had destroyed [Loan's] life. For General Loan had become a man condemned both in his country and in America because he had killed an enemy in war. People do this all the time in war, but rarely is a photographer there to record the act."

Mr. Adams was far prouder of other Vietnam photos: a series he shot of 48 refugees in a 30-foot boat that made it to Thailand only to be towed back out to sea by Thai marines. Presented to Congress, the photos and story helped convince President Carter to admit 179,000 boat people to the U.S.

"I'd rather have won the Pulitzer for something like that," Mr. Adams once told The Washington Post. "It did some good, and nobody got hurt."

In addition to capturing scenes of war and breaking news, Mr. Adams was known for his portraits, often in black and white, of such world figures as Presidents Nixon and George W. Bush, Pope John Paul II, Fidel Castro and Mikhail Gorbachev.

Mr. Adams is survived by his wife of 15 years, Alyssa; a son, August, 14; three children from a previous marriage, Susan Ann Sinclair and Edward Adams II of Atlanta and Amy Marie Adams of New Jersey; his 100-year-old mother, Adelaide; and four sisters.