A year after the flames were put out and the smoke cleared from the southern California sky, LIFE revisited the scene of the devastation for a “special section” in its July 15, 1966, issue that the magazine called “Watts: Still Seething.” A good part of that special section featured a series of color photos made by Bill Ray on the streets of Watts: pictures of stylish, even dapper, young men making and hurling Molotov cocktails; of children at play in torched streets and rubble-strewn lots; of wary police and warier residents; of a community struggling to save itself from drugs, gangs, guns, idleness and an enduring, corrosive despair.

In that July 1966 issue, LIFE introduced Ray’s photographs, and Watts itself, in a tone that left no doubt that, whatever else might have happened in the months since the streets were on fire, the future of the district was hardly certain, and the rage that fueled the conflagration had hardly abated:

Before last August the rest of Los Angeles had never heard of Watts. Today, a rock thrown through a Los Angeles store window brings the fearful question: “Is this the start of the next one?” It brings the three armed camps in Los Angeles the police, white civilians, the Negroes face to face for a tense flickering moment. . . .
Whites still rush to gun stores each time a new incident hits the papers. A Beverly Hills sporting goods shop has been sold out of 9mm automatics for months, and the waiting list for pistols runs several pages.
Last week a Negro showed a reporter a .45 caliber submachine gun. “There were 99 more in this shipment,” he said, “and they’re spread around to 99 guys with cars.”
“We know it don’t do no good to burn Watts again,” a young Negro says. “Maybe next time we go up to Beverly Hills.”
Watts seethes with resentments. There is anger toward the paternalism of many job programs and the neglect of Watts needs. There is no public hospital within eight miles and last month Los Angeles voters rejected a proposed $12.3 million bond issue to construct one. When a 6-month-old baby died not long ago because of inadequate medical facilities, the mother’s grief was echoed by a crowd’s outrage. “If it was your baby,” said a Negro confronting a white, “you’d have an ambulance in five minutes.”
Unemployment and public assistance figures invite disbelief in prosperous California. In Watts 24% of the residents were on some form of relief a year ago and that percentage still stands. In Los Angeles the figure is 5%.
[It] takes longer to build a society than to burn one, and fear will be a companion along the way to improvements. “I had started to say it is a beautiful day,” Police Inspector John Powers said, looking out a window, “but beautiful days bring people out and that makes me wish we had rain and winter year-round.”

For his part, Bill Ray, a staff photographer for LIFE from the mid-1960s until the magazine’s demise in the early 1970s, recalled the Watts assignment clearly, and fondly:

“In the mid-nineteen-sixties [Ray told LIFE.com], I shot two major assignments for LIFE in southern California, one after the other, that involved working with young men who were volatile and dangerous. One group was the Hells Angels of San Bernardino the early, hard-core San Berdoo chapter of the gang and the other were the young men who had taken part in the Watts riots the year before.
I did not try to dress like them, act like them or pretend to be tough. I showed great interest in them, and treated them with respect. The main thing was to convince them that I had no connection with the police. The thing that surprised me the most was that, in both cases, as I spent more time with them and got to know them better, I got to like and respect many of them quite a lot. There was a humanity there that we all have inside us. Meeting and photographing different kinds of people has always been the most exciting part of my job. I still love it.
Two big differences in the assignments, though, was that I shot the Hells Angels in black and white which was perfect for their gritty world and “Watts: A Year Later” was in color. Also perfect, because Watts had a lot of color, on the walls, the graffiti, the way people dressed and, of course, my group of bombers who liked to practice making and throwing Molotov cocktails [see slides 17, 18 and 19 in gallery].
Those two assignments documented two utterly marginalized worlds that few people ever get to see up close. There was no job on earth as good as being a LIFE photographer.”

The words painted on the grocery store alerted rioters that the stored was African-American owned.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Watts, Los Angeles, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Young men hung out near Simon Rodia’s Watts Towers, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Watts, Los Angeles, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Young men near Simon Rodia’s Watts Towers, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Watts, Los Angeles, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

William Solomon (right, in his home in Watts) commanded a big Watts street gang, which he openly admitted took an active part in the riot. A champion hurdler in high school, he had no job and was on probation for assault. With two followers shown with him, he later helped at a neighborhood association and used his influence to keep order there and, by his interest, give its program a certain prestige in the streets.”

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Watts, Los Angeles, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The Fire Last Time: Life in Watts, 1966

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Watts, Los Angeles, 1966.

Bill Ray/ Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Watts, Los Angeles, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Watts, Los Angeles, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Watts, Los Angeles, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Watts, Los Angeles, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Booker Griffin (yellow shirt) moved in on an argument between students and police who found the youths carrying heavy boards and suspected a gang fight. He calmed both sides.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Making Molotov cocktails, Watts, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Molotov cocktails in Watts, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Molotov cocktails in Watts, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Molotov cocktails in Watts, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

LaRoi Drew Ali refused to join any group, but viewed Christianity as a device to keep African-Americans down. “Even if somebody did rise up on Easter,” he said, “it would just be another white man to kick us.”

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Watts, Los Angeles, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Watts, Los Angeles, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The Fire Last Time: Life in Watts, 1966

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Watts, Los Angeles, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Watts, Los Angeles, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Watts, Los Angeles, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Watts, Los Angeles, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The post The Fire Last Time: LIFE in Watts, 1966 appeared first on LIFE.

The details of the debates have been recounted innumerable times in the subsequent decades. The stories, meanwhile, of how Nixon showed up to the very first debate looking pale and glistening with sweat beneath the glare of the studio lights, while JFK looked (literally) tanned and rested, haven’t lost any of their power simply because they’re true.

The photos here back up those stories: Nixon did look like death warmed over; Kennedy did look like a movie star. And while pundits and armchair historians like to assert that Kennedy’s media savvy won him the election while Nixon won the debates, no data exists anywhere that positively proves either point.

The fact is, both men were formidable candidates. Each had a strong grasp of the major issues facing the country—the Space Race with the Soviets; America’s role in an increasingly complex global economy; the Civil Right Movement—and each man had very little trouble articulating his and his party’s position on them. But it’s remarkable now, however, to recall that Nixon was just four years older than Kennedy. By the look of the two men in these photographs by Paul Schutzer, they might as well have been from different generations.

Presidential candidate Richard M. Nixon (right) spoke during a televised debate while opponent John F. Kennedy watches, 1960.

Paul Schutzer The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Kennedy-Nixon debates, 1960.

Paul Schutzer The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The candidates chatted prior to the first of their four televised debates, 1960.

Paul Schutzer The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Richard Nixon, 1960.

Paul Schutzer The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

John Kennedy and Richard Nixon stood at lecterns as moderator Howard K. Smith presided at their first debate, 1960.

Paul Schutzer The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Richard Nixon during the Kennedy-Nixon debates, 1960.

Paul Schutzer The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Kennedy-Nixon debates, 1960.

Francis Miller The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

John F. Kennedy during the Kennedy-Nixon debates, 1960.

Paul Schutzer The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jackie Kennedy watched from the wings as her husband debated Richard Nixon, 1960.

Paul Schutzer The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Richard Nixon during the Kennedy-Nixon debates, 1960.

Paul Schutzer The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

John F. Kennedy gripped his lectern during the debate, 1960.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

John F. Kennedy gestured during the Kennedy-Nixon debates, 1960.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Richard Nixon’s hands during the Kennedy-Nixon debates, 1960.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Kennedy-Nixon debates, 1960.

Paul Schutzer The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Two images made during the Kennedy-Nixon debates, 1960.

Paul Schutzer The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The candidates here are seen as they appeared on television, 1960.

Paul Schutzer The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

John F. Kennedy during the Kennedy-Nixon debates, 1960.

Paul Schutzer The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Richard Nixon during the Kennedy-Nixon debates, 1960.

Paul Schutzer The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Kennedy-Nixon debates, 1960.

Paul Schutzer The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

John F. Kennedy during the Kennedy-Nixon debates, 1960.

Paul Schutzer The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Richard Nixon during the Kennedy-Nixon debates, 1960.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

John Kennedy and Richard Nixon after the second Kennedy-Nixon debate, 1960.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

John Kennedy and Richard Nixon after the second Kennedy-Nixon debate, 1960.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Richard Nixon at the time of the Kennedy-Nixon debates, 1960.

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Richard Nixon during one of the Kennedy-Nixon debates, 1960.

Paul Schutzer The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post The Kennedy-Nixon Debates: When TV Changed the Game appeared first on LIFE.

But for all of their emotional and historical heft, Morse’s pictures also present a question: How the hell did he do that?

In 2014 Morse, who died later that year at the age of 97, spoke with LIFE.com, and briefly described how the sequence came about.

“You have to realize,” he said, “that the rocket had to go through the camera, in a sense. It had to go through the camera’s field of view. It took me two years to get NASA to agree to let me make this shot. Now, RCA had the camera contract at Cape Canaveral at that time, and they had a steel box with optical glass attached to the launch platform. We negotiated a deal with them and I was able to put a Nikon, with maybe 30 or 40 feet of film, inside the box, looking out through the glass. The camera was wired into the launch countdown, and at around minus-four seconds the camera started shooting something like ten frames per second.

“It was probably less than an hour after liftoff when we rode the elevator back up the launch tower and retrieved the camera and film from inside that steel box.”

In addition to the launch sequence this gallery also includes a photo of Neil Armstrong’s wife, Jan, with sons Erik and Mark, watching the launch of Apollo 11 from the deck of a boat rented for them by LIFE magazine. The scene, as captured by LIFE’s Vernon Merritt III, is a quiet reminder that the mission to the moon was not only an epic public spectacle. It was also a human adventure, shared by the astronauts and those closest to them.

The gantry retracted while Saturn V boosters lifted the Apollo 11 astronauts toward the moon, July 16, 1969.

Ralph Morse The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jan Armstrong, wife of Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong, and her sons watched the rocket’s liftoff.

Vernon Merritt III The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post Apollo 11: What Liftoff Looked Like appeared first on LIFE.

Waiting two weeks was simply the price one paid for getting it right. One look through the page spreads in this gallery (we recommend viewing all of the slides in “full screen” mode) makes it clear that, with this special issue, LIFE created not only the best first draft of history around the 1969 lunar landing, but produced an astonishingly comprehensive, coherent and, at times, poetic account of what LIFE’s editors called “history’s greatest exploration.”

As Neil Armstrong and his fellow astronauts Buzz Aldrin and command module pilot Michael Collins reached out for destiny all those years ago, 500 million people around the world watched in awe as the grainy black-and-white television footage beamed back to Earth from the cold surface of the moon and it seemed then, for America, that anything was possible. In a sense, LIFE magazine shared in that triumph, as it had rigorously followed and reported on the soaring successes and the tragedies of America’s space program since well before President John Kennedy, in 1961, challenged the country to set foot on the moon.

Less than a decade after JFK’s bold proclamation, America did just that. This is what it looked like, and what it felt like, to be a part of it for the three men who flew, and for the countless others on Earth who watched, and marveled, and willed the trio safely back home.

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969.

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. July 20, 1969: “Neil Armstrong’s booted foot pressed firmly in the lunar soil. . . .”

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “In orbit 63 miles high the Lunar Module approaches the landing zone.”

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “The Eagle has landed.”

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “Buzz Aldrin eased down Eagle‘s ladder, paused on the last rung and jumped the final three feet.”

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “Aldrin’s gold visor mirrored Eagle and Armstrong, who took most of these pictures.”

LIFE Magazine

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “Aldrin walked from the Lunar Module to set up two experimental packages—the laser beam reflector and the seismometer.”

LIFE Magazine

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “Adrin made final adjustments to the seisometer, left behind to monitor possible moon quakes. Earlier he unfurled the ‘solar wind sheet,’ designed to trap tiny particles hurled from the distant Sun.”

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “Nine hours after his arrival, man had littered the moonscape with his paraphernalia.”

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “On the windless plain Aldrin saluted the American flag, stiffened with wire so that it would ‘wave’. . . .”

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “Eagle landed 125 feet west of a rock strewn-crater, several feet deep and 80 feet across.”

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “Left: Aldrin inspected the condition of the Lunar Modules footpad. Right: The view from Eagle‘s window after the walk.”

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “The simplest mark of man’s first visit footprints in the fine moon sand.”

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “As seen at some distance from Columbia, Eagle rolled left and closed for rendezvous 69 miles above moon …”

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “Eagle turned its docking port towards Columbia moments before hookup. earth is in upper right corner of large picture …”

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “Tired but triumphant Armstrong got ready for the trip back …”

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “Left:The plaque left behind with the Lunar Module’s descent stage. Right: Aldrin, Collins and Armstrong heroes of history’s greatest exploration …”

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “Three kids bound for the moon. From left: Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins …”

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “Neil Armstrong: He could fly before he could drive …”

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “Despite a relentless schedule Armstrong sometimes found moments for normal family life …”

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “Away from work Armstrong enjoyed a few frivolous moments …”

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin: ‘The best scientific mind in space’ …”

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “Aldrin is like most astronauts, an exercise buff who spends nearly an hour a day keeping fit …”

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “Aldrin with his wife and daughter …”

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “Mike Collins: An engineer who does not love machines …”

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “Before the moon flight Collins spent time at home with his family …”

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “Collins with his wife and daughter …”

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “A Calendar of Space Flight: Man’s Countdown for the Moon …”

LIFE Magazine

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “A Calendar of Space Flight: Man’s Countdown for the Moon …”

LIFE Magazine

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “A Calendar of Space Flight: Man’s Countdown for the Moon …”

LIFE Magazine

LIFE magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “A Calendar of Space Flight: Man’s Countdown for the Moon …”

LIFE Magazine

Life magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “Unlocking the ancient mysteries of the Moon …”

Life magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “Anatomy of the Lunar Receiving Lab …”

Life magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “What the Moon Samples Might Tell Us …”

Life magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “What the Moon Samples Might Tell Us …”

Life magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “So long to the good old moon …”

Life magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “So long to the good old moon …”

Life magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “The dawn of the day man left his planetary cradle. Right: Armstrong led the way from gantry to spacecraft …”

Life magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “Apollo 11 lifts off …”

Life magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “Journalists— nearly 3,500 of them from the U.S. and 55 other countries — watched in hushed expectant awe as Apollo began its slow climb skyward …”

Life magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “Jan Armstrong raised a hand to ward off the bright morning sun and watched her husband’s spacecraft rear toward a rendezvous with the moon …”

Life magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “At Disneyland (left) hundreds gave up ‘moon rides’ to watch the real thing. While in Manhattan people cheered and worried in front of huge TV screens. Las Vegas casino crowds paused over Baccarat (below) and passengers jammed a waiting room at JFK airport (right) to watching Armstrong’s walk …”

Life magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “The moonwalk was broadcast live in London (left) and other world capitals, although Moscow viewers (right) had to wait several hours for an edited version. Pope Paul got a telescopic close-up of the moon, while South Koreans clamored around a 20-foot-square TV screen. GIs read of lunar adventure …”

Life magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “Andy Aldrin watched with grim determination as his father set foot on the moon, while at the Collins home Pat and friends followed the walk on two television sets. Joan Aldrin collapsed on the floor in happy relief when Eagle lifted safely off the moon …”

Life magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “The fiery sideshow as Apollo comes home …”

Life magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “The capsule was first righted by floatation bags. Then as astronauts in special insulation suits watched, frogmen scrubbed it down with disinfectant. (right). Apollo crew waved as they entered quarantine aboard [the recovery ship] the USS Hornet …”

Life magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “In Houston the splashdown joy was personal and intense. NASA workers leaped from their consoles waving flags, and at home Jan Armstrong (below left) beamed and sighed in relief. Joan Aldrin applauded as Buzz Aldrin struggled into the raft and Pat Collins served champagne to a house full of happy friends …”

Life magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin grinned jubilantly from inside their quarantine chamber on the carrier Hornet before their flight home to Houston …”

Life magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969. “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind …”

The post ‘To the Moon and Back.’ See LIFE’s Complete Special Issue on Apollo 11 appeared first on LIFE.

In its September 8, 1961 issue, LIFE wrote that the newly constructed wall, “up to 20 feet high and tipped with cruel glass splinters, is now an all but permanent barrier between the hapless people in both sectors [of divided Berlin] . . . Communist inhumanity has seldom showed itself more baldly or more brutally than in its Berlin wall and the anguish and indignity it is now working upon the people of Berlin, young and old, East and West.”

With the crude bulwark in place, the ideological divide between Eastern and Western superpowers grew sharper, more frightening and (seemingly) more intractable. Here, LIFE.com offers powerful pictures of the construction and earliest days of the Wall photos that offer a glimpse into an era that today feels at once profoundly alien, and disturbingly familiar.

Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.

A hand reached above the broken glass-covered top of the Berlin Wall in August 1961.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

A West German man boosted up his son to give him a view of the other side of the Berlin Wall.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

A woman, in the foreground, who had escaped to West Berlin, spoke to her mother, who was still in West Berlin.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

A West German woman looked out her window onto the Berlin Wall.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

U.S. and East German forces faced each other across the newly built Berlin Wall.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

A crowd of West Berlin residents watched as an East German policeman patrolled the Berlin Wall.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

A couple enjoyed a West Berlin bar with a view of the Berlin Wall outside.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

An East German mason built up a fresh portion of the Berlin Wall in August, 1961.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

A crowd of jeering West Berlin youths protested the newly constructed wall.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Sunlight shone on the barbed wire and blocks of the Berlin Wall.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

An East German policeman used sunlight reflected off a mirror in an attempt to stop photographers from taking pictures.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

A West Berlin child struggled with a sealed door that had become a part of the Berlin Wall.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

West Berlin children built a pretend Berlin Wall.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Three West Berlin police officers jumped off a truck, ready to start their shifts on guard duty at the Berlin Wall.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

An East German teen hid in tall grass, awaiting a chance to jump over the Berlin Wall. “Crouching in a tangle of grass in East Berlin,” wrote LIFE when this escape sequence originally ran in he magazine, “and hidden except for his face [barely visible on the left side of the pic], a boy waits to make a break over the wall he must surmount to reach the West. Nearby is a patrol of East German Vopos who will shoot to kill if they see him.”

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

An East German teen made his way to the West, climbing over the Berlin Wall.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

An East German teen escaped over the Berlin Wall to the West.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

West German police looked out over the Berlin Wall for potential escapees to the West.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

A Lebanese businessman, Edmond Khayat, carried an 85-pound wooden cross to protest the Berlin Wall in October 1961.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Birds rested on barbed wire atop the Berlin Wall.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

A divided Berlin, seen through barbed wire and rubble in January 1962.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Children chased a ball beside the Berlin Wall.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

A girl played with a ball at the Berlin Wall.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

An East German guard threw a ball back to a child on the West German side of the Berlin Wall in 1962.

Paul Schutzer/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

An East German policeman walked near Checkpoint Charlie between East and West Berlin in October 1962.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

A girl looked through a frosty window at the Berlin Wall.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The Berlin Wall bore the shadowy silhouettes of West Berliners waving to their relatives on the unseen, Eastern side of the Wall in December 1962.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

A divided Berlin was seen through a tangle of barbed wire.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The post Berlin Wall: Photos From the Birth of a Brutal Divide appeared first on LIFE.

Over the decades, of course, LIFE published dozens of photo essays by some of the 20th century’s greatest photographers. Very few of those essays, however, managed to combine raw intensity and technical brilliance to such powerful effect as “One Ride With Yankee Papa 13” universally regarded as one of the greatest photographic documents to emerge from the war in Vietnam.

Here, LIFE.com presents Burrows’ seminal photo essay in its entirety: all of the photos that appeared in LIFE are here. (Note: In a picture from the article, Burrows mounts a camera to a special rig attached to an M-60 machine gun in helicopter YP13 a.k.a., “Yankee Papa 13.” At the end of this gallery, there are three previously unpublished photographs from Burrows’ 1965 assignment.]

Burrows, LIFE informed its readers, “had been covering the war in Vietnam since 1962 and had flown on scores of helicopter combat missions. On this day he would be riding in [21-year-old crew chief James] Farley’s machine and both were wondering whether the mission would be a no-contact milk run or whether, as had been increasingly the case in recent weeks, the Vietcong would be ready and waiting with .30-caliber machine guns. In a very few minutes Farley and Burrows had their answer.”

The following paragraphs lifted directly from LIFE illustrate the vivid, visceral writing that accompanied Burrows’ astonishing images, including Burrows’ own words, transcribed from an audio recording made shortly after the 1965 mission:

“The Vietcong dug in along the tree line, were just waiting for us to come into the landing zone,” Burrows reported. “We were all like sitting ducks and their raking crossfire was murderous. Over the intercom system one pilot radioed Colonel Ewers, who was in the lead ship: ‘Colonel! We’re being hit.’ Back came the reply: ‘We’re all being hit. If your plane is flyable, press on.’

“We did,” Burrows continued, “hurrying back to a pickup point for another load of troops. On our next approach to the landing zone, our pilot, Capt. Peter Vogel, spotted Yankee Papa 3 down on the ground. Its engine was still on and the rotors turning, but the ship was obviously in trouble. “Why don’t they lift off?’ Vogel muttered over the intercom. Then he set down our ship nearby to see what the trouble was.

“[Twenty-year-old gunner, Pfc. Wayne] Hoilien was pouring machine-gun fire at a second V.C. gun position at the tree line to our left. Bullet holes had ripped both left and right of his seat. The plexiglass had been shot out of the cockpit and one V.C. bullet had nicked our pilot’s neck. Our radio and instruments were out of commission. We climbed and climbed fast the hell out of there. Hoilien was still firing gunbursts at the tree line.”

Not until YP13 pulled away and out of range of enemy fire were Farley and Hoilien able to leave their guns and give medical attention to the two wounded men from YP3. The co-pilot, 1st Lt. James Magel, was in bad shape. When Farley and Hoilien eased off his flak vest, they exposed a major wound just below his armpit. “Magel’s face registered pain,” Burrows reported, “and his lips moved slightly. But if he said anything it was drowned out by the noise of the copter. He looked pale and I wondered how long he could hold on. Farley began bandaging Magel’s wound. The wind from the doorway kept whipping the bandages across his face. Then blood started to come from his nose and mouth and a glazed look came into his eyes. Farley tried mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but Magel was dead. Nobody said a word.”

In his searing, deeply sympathetic portrait of young men fighting for their lives at the very moment America is ramping up its involvement in Southeast Asia, Larry Burrows’ work anticipates the scope and the dire, lethal arc of the entire war in Vietnam.

Six years after “Yankee Papa 13” ran in LIFE, Burrows was killed, along with three other journalists Henri Huet, Kent Potter and Keisaburo Shimamoto when a helicopter in which they were flying was shot down over Laos in February, 1971. He was 44 years old.

Larry Burrows Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Vietnam War, LIFE Magazine, Yankee Papa 13

Larry Burrows Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Vietnam War, LIFE Magazine, Yankee Papa 13

Larry Burrows Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Vietnam War, LIFE Magazine, Yankee Papa 13

Larry Burrows Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Vietnam War, LIFE Magazine, Yankee Papa 13

Larry Burrows Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Vietnam War, LIFE Magazine, Yankee Papa 13

Larry Burrows Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Vietnam War, LIFE Magazine, Yankee Papa 13

Larry Burrows Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Vietnam War, LIFE Magazine, Yankee Papa 13

Larry Burrows Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Vietnam War, LIFE Magazine, Yankee Papa 13

Larry Burrows Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Vietnam War, LIFE Magazine, Yankee Papa 13

Larry Burrows Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Vietnam War, LIFE Magazine, Yankee Papa 13

Larry Burrows Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Vietnam War, LIFE Magazine, Yankee Papa 13

Larry Burrows Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Vietnam War, LIFE Magazine, Yankee Papa 13

Larry Burrows Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Vietnam War, LIFE Magazine, Yankee Papa 13

Larry Burrows Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Vietnam War, LIFE Magazine, Yankee Papa 13

Larry Burrows Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Vietnam War, LIFE Magazine, Yankee Papa 13

Larry Burrows Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Vietnam War, LIFE Magazine, Yankee Papa 13

Larry Burrows Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Vietnam War, LIFE Magazine, Yankee Papa 13

Larry Burrows Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Vietnam War, LIFE Magazine, Yankee Papa 13

Larry Burrows Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Vietnam War, LIFE Magazine, Yankee Papa 13

Larry Burrows Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Vietnam War, LIFE Magazine, Yankee Papa 13

Larry Burrows Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Vietnam War, LIFE Magazine, Yankee Papa 13

Larry Burrows Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Vietnam War, LIFE Magazine, Yankee Papa 13

Larry Burrows Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

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Vietnam War, LIFE Magazine, Yankee Papa 13

Larry Burrows Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Vietnam War, LIFE Magazine, Yankee Papa 13

Larry Burrows Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Vietnam War, LIFE Magazine, Yankee Papa 13

Larry Burrows Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

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