What an impact! Esquire magazine (US edition) Merry Christmas... i'm the 100th G.I. killed in Vietnam...

In the fall of 1962, George Lois (art-director Esquire) came up with an extremely controversial cover (even by his standards) for the magazine’s December 1962 featuring a blown-up photo of a soldier with the cover line: “Merry Christmas, I’m the 100th G.I. killed in Vietnam.” As the soldier, he used his own photo taken during the Korean War. The State and Defense Department decried the idea and it was never published.

Read here George Lois own explanation about this never published cover< (magazine cover design)