This photo of a naked and terrified young girl running towards is a symbol of the horror of the Vietnam War. It was taken during the American bombing of the village of Trang Bang, Vietnam. However there has been much controversy over the events depicted in the photo. It is suggested that American bombers had nothing to do with this event and that there have been many derogatory and misleading comments about the American troops in regard to this photo. Nevertheless, it is said that this photo ended the war in Vietnam and served as an icon for the peace movement that was prevalent in the 1970s.Thirty percent of Phuc’s tiny body was scorched raw by third-degree burns, though her face somehow remained untouched. Over time, her melted flesh began to heal.
On June 8th, 1972, nine-year-old Kim Phuc Phan Thi’s village near Trang Bang, Vietnam was hit by South Vietnamese bombers in an American-ordered attack. In one of the world’s best-known photographs, Kim, who took a direct hit, is shown running naked down a road, screaming in agony from the napalm that covered her body. It took many years, and 17 operations, to save her life. In 1993, Kim defected to Canada in order to escape her past and take control of her life. Today (2016), she is 53, a mother of two and lives just outside Toronto.
Besides being a loving wife and mother, she is a mentor, and a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations. Every year she travels the world to recount her story of survival, to raise awareness about the brutality of war.
In addition to her work with the UN, Kim Phuc started the Kim Foundation International, a charity that helps children suffering from war, just as she did so many years ago. Its mission is to help the most underprivileged children suffering from war – building hospitals, schools and homes for children who have been orphaned. Phuc says she plans to live out her life in service of that mission.
For the photographer, it all started on June 8th, 1972, when a South Vietnamese fighter plane swooped in on a cluster of its own soldiers, and some women and children, opened fire and dropped napalm on civilians. Photographer Huynh Cong “Nick” Ut happened to be in the right place at the right time that day, and captured the group as they attempted to flee the cloud of burning napalm behind them. His photo was seen on the cover of Time Magazine later that month, and is still remembered today as one of the most infamous images of the Vietnam War.
Before delivering his film with the Kim Phuc photo, he took her to the hospital. Horst Faas, AP’s chief photographer for Southeast Asia at that time ordered the photo transmitted despite the AP bureau’s debate about transmitting a naked girl’s photo over the wire.
Wounded three times in Vietnam, Ut has since worked for the Associated Press in Tokyo, South Korea, and Hanoi and still maintains contact with Kim Phuc. He had became a photographer when he was 16 years old, pressed into service during hard times. His older brother (also a photographer) was killed during the Vietnam War. Ut earned the Pulitzer prize for his photograph. He still works for the AP, but now at their Los Angeles bureau. Today he is a United States citizen, and is married with two children.
References:
Phan Thi Kim Phuc And Huỳnh Công Út
A Return to Saigon
I’ve never escaped from that moment: Girl in napalm photograph that defined the Vietnam War 40 years on
The girl in the picture: Kim Phuc’s journey from war to forgiveness
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