The most haunting image of the horror of war since Goya

Kim Phuc on fire, (detail)

On the morning of June 8, 1972, an American air force plane dropped several thin 120-gallon canisters of Dow-brand Napalm B onto the Vietnamese village of Trang Bang.

Kim Phuc on fire, (full frame)

Kim Phuc was there, and she was set on fire. Napalm covered her back, it burned through her clothes, it burned deep into a third of her body. She was nine-years-old.

The photograph showing excruciating pain in the face of death has become a photographic icon, an anti-war rallying point and a symbol of hope. The photograph rightly stands among a few honorable and memorable images of the last 150 years of photojournalism. The London "Observer" Sunday paper calls the photograph "the most haunting image of the horror of war since Goya."

Kim Phuc's brother, Phan Thanh Tam (right), thirty years on

Kim Phuc's brother, Phan Thanh Tam - the one with his mouth in a crescent of agony in the famed photograph that encapsulated the war's horrors - is now 41 (in 2002) and has a paunch. He runs an open-air coffee shack on the very spot where a South Vietnamese bomb hit. Tam says he still has nightmares about the incident.

Biography
Phan Th? Kim Phúc known as Kim Phuc (born 1963) was the subject of a famous photograph from the Vietnam war. The picture shows her at about age nine running naked after being severely burned on her back by a napalm attack.

Kim Phúc was a resident of the village of Trang Bang, Vietnam. On June 8, 1972, South Vietnamese planes dropped a napalm bomb on Trang Bang, which was under attack from and occupied by Viet Cong forces. She joined a group of civilians and ARVN soldiers fleeing from the Cao Dai Temple located in the village along the road to safe ARVN positions. A South Vietnamese VNAF pilot mistook the group as a threat and diverted to attack it.

Along with other villagers two brothers and two cousins were also injured. Associated Press photographer Huynh Cong "Nick" Út earned a Pulitzer Prize for the photograph. The image of her running blistered and naked (she had torn off all her burning clothes) amidst the chaotic background became one of the most remembered images of the Vietnam War.

In an interview many years later, she remembers yelling, "Nong qua! Nong qua!" (Too hot! Too hot!) in the picture. After taking the photograph, Út promptly took Kim Phúc to a hospital in Saigon where it was determined that her burns were so severe that she would not survive. However, after a 14-month hospital stay and 17 surgical procedures, she returned home. Út continued to visit her until the fall of Saigon three years later when he was evacuated.

When she was an adult, due to pressure from people to use her as an anti-war symbol, she requested permission from the Vietnam government to go to Cuba to resume her studies. By this time, she had converted from her family's religion of Cao Dai to Christianity. Pham Van Dong, the then Prime Minister of Vietnam, became a friend and patron of hers.

After receiving permission, she then moved to Cuba, and met her future husband, Bui Huy Tuan. In 1989 Út went to Cuba to meet her and her fiance. Kim Phuc and Bui Huy Tuan married and, in 1992, they went on a honeymoon. During an airplane refueling in Gander, Newfoundland, Canada, they got off the plane and defected to Canada. They now live in Toronto and have two children. In 1996, she again met the surgeons who saved her life.

Recently released audio tapes of then-president Richard Nixon in conversation with his chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman, show that Nixon doubted the veracity of the photograph, musing whether it may have been "fixed." Following the release of this tape, Út commented:

"Even though it has become one of the most memorable images of the twentieth century, President Nixon once doubted the authenticity of my photograph when he saw it in the papers on June 12, 1972... The picture for me and unquestionably for many others could not have been more real. The photo was as authentic as the Vietnam war itself. The horror of the Vietnam war recorded by me did not have to be fixed. That terrified little girl is still alive today and has become an eloquent testimony to the authenticity of that photo. That moment thirty years ago will be one Kim Phuc and I will never forget. It has ultimately changed both our lives" (from program booklet for Humanist Art/Symbolic Sites: An Art Forum for the 21st Century).

Film footage of Kim Phúc running from her village was shot by British news cameraman Alan Downes, then on assignment for ITN.

Vietnam Memorial Speech
In 1996, she gave a speech at the United States Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Veterans Day. During the speech she said that we cannot change the past but can work for a peaceful future. After the speech, Vietnam war veteran John Plummer talked to some of his old buddies and got them to ask if she would like to meet him, for he stated that he was the one who ordered the bombing. She accepted and they met briefly and Kim forgave Plummer.

The news story of Kim Phuc forgiving the American who ordered the bombing was reported on a special report by ABC. Some parties have denied that Plummer ordered the bombing, but according to the Washington Post, December 19, 1997, Plummer says he received a call from an American military adviser working with a South Vietnamese army unit, who requested an air strike on the village of Trang Bang. He relayed the request for a strike to U.S. Air Force personnel, who asked the South Vietnamese air force to launch it. Later, he saw the photo in Stars and Stripes, and recognized the bombing as the one he had requested.

To bolster his point, Plummer provided a copy of a Bronze Star citation, the authenticity of which was confirmed by U.S. Army officials, which details his responsibilities during that time. It notes that Plummer "assisted in the coordination of pre-planned and immediate tactical air strikes in the Military Region 3," which included Trang Bang. The citation adds that he helped coordinate 60 South Vietnamese air force air strikes between April 12 and June 16, 1972.

Phan Thi Kim Phuc in 2000

Honours
On November 10, 1997, Kim Phúc was named a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. On October 22, 2004, she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws from York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada for her work to aid child victims of war around the world. In 2004, she was awarded the Order of Ontario.

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