But, for a time, it was good.

From the Animerica review of The Second Renaissance: Part One:

Lacking both dialogue and a main protagonist, "The Second Renaissance" immediately stands apart from the rest of The Animatrix shorts in two respects. Liberated from the basic requirements of narrative, the short story format is traded in for an ambitious god's eye view of how the hellish man-versus-machine world of The Matrix came to be. Framed as a historical document from the Zion archives, "The Second Renaissance" unfolds in metaphors and dream-like transitions facilitated by a glowing goddess female figure who narrates in cold mechanical fashion. Both parts begin and end by visually referencing the eastern religious art tradition of the mandala, a symbol used to evoke wholeness, completion, and eternity. But this spirituality is immediately contrasted by a parade of shocking images that deliberately invoke the social ills and traumas of the 20th century, such as Vietnam (the famous execution of a Viet Cong prisoner by South Vietnamese general Nguyen Ngoc Loan is replayed with humans and machines), race riots, and Tiananmen Square (here, a lone robot is crushed under the treads of an unrelenting tank).

More information on mandalas, and sample images, may be found at The Mandala Project.

Even if the name is not familiar to you, you've probably seen the photo of Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a prisoner.

The image from Tiananmen Square, likewise, should be familiar to everyone.

I am uncertain if the filmmakers received complaints for adapting/reinterpreting these images in the short. I vaguely recall a complaint about a similar use of The Picture from Kent State in a later issue of TRANSMETROPOLITAN.

Vaguely. That was some time ago, on the WEF, and I'm not jumping back into that glorious time sink looking for the reference.

Half-formed notion about this treatment of images resembling Kathy Acker's treatment of texts, but I'm way too fuzzy-headed to even think about writing that one up. . .