Photographer Don McCullin to focus on Vietnam for his final book | Don McCullin

After more than seven decades of covering conflicts around the world, Don McCullin will return to Vietnam and his best-known photographs for his latest book.

Photographer who started photography at the age of 23 A gang in Finsbury Park Published in the Observer, he decided to revisit the war and his 12-day mission with US marines during the battle of Hue in 1968.

McCullin’s war photographs, which include a shell-shocked American soldier, are among the most iconic images of the conflict and are widely credited with helping turn public opinion in the United States against the war.

McCullin said he was still haunted by some of the photographs he took during one of the bloodiest and most notorious battles of the Tet offensive, which he described as “utter madness and madness.”

“They bother me when I go to bed at night,” he said. “They come up to me uninvited and I start saying: ‘Could I have done better? Could I have done this, could I have done that?’ The real war I was in was the last major war in 1968. “I saw many American soldiers being killed very close to me.”

Harold Evans, one of his editors at the Sunday Times, said McCullin’s secret ingredient was empathy with his subject (whether criminals in North London or guerrilla fighters in Central Africa). According to Evans, he combined “a cold gaze shaped by the warmth of his empathy.”

McCullin cut his teeth before being deployed to Vietnam. Conflicts in Congo In the bloody, chaotic process leading to independence and in Cyprus Civil war between Turkish and Greek groups. He was also there when the Berlin Wall was being built and the iron curtain was being drawn across Europe.

He retired from war photography at the age of 75 when he visited Aleppo in Syria and was no longer mobile enough to quickly escape danger if necessary. He has since published books about his other passions, including ancient Rome.

So why go back to that war for his latest book, Vietnam? Why not revisit his work in Belfast or Biafra? “There has never been a war like Vietnam because of all the wars that have raged over the last 20, 30 or 40 years,” he said. “Sadly, 58,000 American soldiers died and 300,000 were injured. This was an extraordinary American misfortune.”

McCullin made 16 trips to Vietnam. His new book includes 100 images and his war equipment, including his helmet with “Times England” written on the side and his muddy compass.

McCullin, now 91, is arguably the most famous living British photographer. He had a retrospective exhibition at Tate Britain, tours of his work took him around the world, and he continued to work from his base in Somerset.

While his photographs often bring the horrors of war to the attention of the wider public and, in many cases, help make a moral case for ending conflicts, he remains unconvinced of the power of his photographs to effect change.

“I made absolutely no impact,” he said. “I came with these pictures, they were published and people were shocked when they saw them. But look at the wars since the Vietnam war. They were all unfortunate. I participated in many wars in Lebanon and they are still going on. How can I really make a difference?”

The book will be released in October books.