The Photo That Changed A War

The story behind the iconic ‘Napalm Girl’ photo.

The iconic photo Nick Ut clicked 43 years ago in which a 9-year-old Kim Phuc (centre) is seen running among other children and South Vietnamese forces. (Photo: AP)

On June 8, 1972, in war-stricken Vietnam, a 21-year-old photographer captured an image of a naked girl screaming and fleeing after South Vietnamese planes looking for Viet Cong insurgents attacked with napalm from the air.

This moment, which Huynh Cong “Nick” Ut framed on his Kodak Tri-X black-and-white film, turned out to be a picture the world could not forget.

The image had such an impact on people that some say it hastened the end of the war. The picture was named the second most recognisable picture of the 20th century. It even earned Nick Ut a Pulitzer.

Pulitzer winning photographer Nick Ut at the place where he took his iconic ‘Napalm girl’ photo 43 years ago, in Trang Bang, Vietnam. (Photo: AP)

The story behind

A nine-year-old Kim Phuc, now known as the ‘Napalm girl’, survived the aftermath of napalm bomb by tearing off her burning clothes and running for life.

I looked through the black smoke and I saw a girl, naked ... running
-Ut

She collapsed just after the picture captured the moment of torment. Ut saw parts of her skin falling off after the napalm seared her neck, most of her back, and left arm, Nick Ut told CNN.

“I said: ‘Oh my God I don’t believe she’s burned so badly,’” Ut recalled. “I put my camera down on the highway and tried to help her.”

He poured water on her wounds and brought her to a hospital along with other injured children in his van, Ut recounted his experience to CNN.

“Inside my van she said, ‘I’m dying, I’m dying.’ I kept watching her every minute. I said, ‘We will be there soon.’”

Scarred for life

In this May 25, 1997 photo, Phan Thi Kim Phuc holds her son Thomas, three, in their apartment in Toronto. (Photo: AP)

Kim spent more than a year in hospitals with her family fearing that she would never survive. Eventually she recovered from physical wounds but she could not forgive the events that followed.

The picture was famous but I hated that picture, I hated it so much. I contemplated suicide. I thought that if I ended it then the pain would end.
- Kim Phuc

Now 52, Kim Phuc a mother, wife and a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations, travels around the world to share her story of war and survival.

Phuc also started the Kim Foundation International, a charity that helps children suffering from war.