On the road from Nam Dinh to Thai Binh, Vietnam. This is one of the last photographs that Photographer Robert Capa took before he was killed by stepping on a landmine.

THE INDOCHINA WAR: ROBERT CAPA'S FINAL CONFLICT

Robert Capa’s photographs from the conflict in Southeast Asia that would be his final assignment.

After World War II France reinstalled its colonial government in Indochina (after the Japanese invasion during the war). In 1946 a Vietnamese independence movement, led by communist Ho Chi Minh, started to fight against French troops to gain control of northern Vietnam. On May 7th, 1954, the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu. The armistice, signed in Geneva, divided Vietnam into a “Democratic Republic” in the North, under communist rule, and the “State of Vietnam” in the South, during the reign of Emperor Bao Dai.

The war was partly documented by Robert Capa in 1954, who had travelled to Japan for a Magnum exhibition. While he was in the area, LIFE magazine gave him an assignment to cover the conflict in Southeast Asia, along with two journalists, John Mecklin and Jim Lucas. The regiment was passing through a dangerous area under fire when Capa left his Jeep and went up the road to photograph the advance. It was there that he stepped on a landmine. He was 41 years old when he died.