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Kim Phuc Phan Thai or "napalm girl". AP Photo /Nick Ut
Kim Phuc Phan Thai is the young girl in the center of this iconic photograph from the Vietnam War. Taken by the photographer Nick Ut after a napalm strike it shows Kim Phuc (as she is less formally known) running naked having suffered horrendous burns to her back and arms. She has sometimes been called "napalm girl" as a result of this picture.
Even today few would be expected to survive such napalm burns but Kim Phuc PhanThai is alive and well and with us now. 65% of her body was burned and she had 14 months of treatment in the burns unit in Saigon and 17 operations to graft skin from the undamaged areas of her legs to her back and arms.
Here's the background to the photograph:
Kim Phúc and her family were residents of the village of Trang Bang, South Vietnam. On June 8, 1972, South Vietnamese planes, in coordination with the American military, dropped a napalm bomb on Trang Bang, which had been attacked and occupied by North Vietnamese forces. Phúc joined a group of civilians and South Vietnamese soldiers who were fleeing from the Cao Dai Temple to the safety of South Vietnamese held positions. A South Vietnamese Air Force pilot mistook the group for enemy soldiers and diverted to attack. The bombing killed two of Phúc's cousins and two other villagers. Associated Press photographer Nick Út earned a Pulitzer Prize for his photograph of the aftermath. It also was chosen the World Press Photo of the Year for 1972. The image of Phúc running naked amidst the chaos became one of the most haunting images of the Vietnam War. In an interview many years later, she recalled she was yelling "Nong qua, nong qua" ("too hot, too hot") in the picture.
Phuc went on to be used by the North Vietnamese Government as an anti-war symbol and then, when studying in Cuba she asked for and received political asylum in Canada. She is not a peace activist and UN Goodwill Ambassador.
Horrible, terrible, things happen in all wars and this photograph helped to bring home to Americans what was happening in SE Asia in their name. Thankfully, as above, Kim Phuc Phan Thai survived and has been able to forgive those who did this to her.
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