They were met by ARVN and the Vietnamese Air Force (VAF). How the ARVN attack occurred remained a mystery. [30] Later, other foundations were set up, with the same name, under an umbrella organization, Kim Phúc Foundation International. He took one look at the images and ordered them transmitted to Tokyo and New York. Ut had not the slightest idea that before the day was over, he would experience the defining moment of his life. The perimeter of the fire burned others as they ran. [20], On February 11, 2019 Kim Phúc was awarded the 2019 Dresden Peace Prize in recognition of her work with UNESCO and as an activist for peace.[33]. With the overnight curfew lifted, Ut climbs into a van outside the AP bureau and tells the driver to head toward Highway 1. Ut took Kim Phuc to a hospital, where he learned that she might not survive the third-degree burns covering 30 percent of her body. war. the North Vietnamese Army (VNA) occupied the South Vietnamese town of Trang [23] Due to constant pain she considered suicide but in 1982 she found a New Testament in a library that led her to become a Christian. Sections of the film shot were included in Hearts and Minds (1974), the Academy Award-winning documentary about the Vietnam War directed by Peter Davis. Standing in a puddle of water that has been poured over her burns, Phan Thi Kim Phuc is filmed by an ITN news crew. Katherine Hepburn, American actress who won four Oscars. Naked, she ran away from the hellish scene, screaming in shock. “I couldn’t finish my education and because of my deformed scars and pain, I thought I would never get married and never have a normal life. On November 10, 1994, Kim Phúc was named a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. That hurt me more than my burns.”. On the ground, armed troops ranging from greenhorn Marines just doing their jobs to throat-slitting commandos in the Studies and Observations Group that killed an estimated 2 million indigenous people. The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. names 58,200 members of U.S. armed forces who were killed in action. Although it was first used by US forces in World War II, Napalm is more associated with the American and South Vietnamese forces during the Vietnam War. So with the help of colleagues he got her transferred to an American facility for treatment that saved her life. Nearly five decades on Kim, whose story features in the History Channel documentary Photos That Changed The World, reveals she was mortified when she first saw Nick Ut’s picture, 14 months after the attack. This led directly to her conversion to Christianity, which she credits with healing the psychological trauma of living over forty years being known to the world as "Napalm Girl". Ut’s photo of the raw impact of conflict underscored that the war was doing more harm than good. All Rights Reserved. Nick Ut, a seasoned war photographer despite his youth, checks his gear. only to meet an untimely fate. Flak jacket. On October 27, 2005, she was awarded an honorary degree in Law from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. THE chilling image of a Vietnamese girl running naked from a napalm attack has topped the list of the most powerful news images that have shocked and amazed the … In 1997 she established the first Kim Phúc Foundation in the U.S., with the aim of providing medical and psychological assistance to child victims of war. On June 7, 1972, Hermann Rorshach, Swiss psychiatrist, inventor of the inkblot test. The bombing killed two of Kim Phúc's cousins and two other villagers. A former actor and CBSTV sound man, My was an AP photographer at the time, mostly covering the Mekong Delta. I still have many scars on my body and severe pain most days but my heart is cleansed. On their honeymoon, the couple defected to Canada and they have two sons – Thomas, 25, and Stephen, 21. “The message from that little girl in the picture is that if I can do it, everyone can do it.”, Photos That Changed The World airs at 10pm on Monday 28th on HISTORY. After the war, the Communist government used the picture as propaganda and trotted her out for important visitors. She was one of the The True Story Of Phan Thi Kim Phuc, The “Napalm Girl”. Prime Minister of Vietnam Phạm Văn Đồng became her friend and patron. Kirurgi hoiti napalmin polttaman tytön", "40 Jahre danach: So geht es dem Napalm-Mädchen heute", "The Vietnam collection 2; TX South Vietnamese planes bombing village...", "Phan Thi Kim Phuc Videos and B-Roll Footage", "Phan Thi Kim Phúc the Vietnam Napalm Girl", "Phan Thị Kim Phúc on Pain and Forgiveness", "Girl in the 'napalm picture' during Vietnam War gets free laser surgery", "Laser treatment for Vietnam War napalm attack victim", "Reunited with the Vietnamese 'girl in the picture, "Napalm Survivor Tells of Healing After Vietnam War", "Pastor Admits Lying About Vietnam Bombing", "Honorary Degrees – Fall Convocation 2005", "The Historic 'Napalm Girl' Pulitzer Image Marks Its 40th Anniversary", "Mark Zuckerberg accused of abusing power after Facebook deletes 'napalm girl' post", "The Story Behind the 'Napalm Girl' Photo Censored by Facebook", "The Survivor - The Story of Kim Phuc and photographer Nick Ut", Archival Video: Napalm Girl Phan Thị Kim Phúc, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Phan_Thi_Kim_Phuc&oldid=979606150, People notable for being the subject of a specific photograph, CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown, Articles with dead external links from April 2017, Articles with dead external links from May 2020, Articles with permanently dead external links, Articles that include images for deletion from November 2020, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 21 September 2020, at 18:02. died a few hours after the bombs were dropped, if not for the help of a Vietnamese photographer, Nick Út, who took her Bureau Chief Ed White and photo boss Horst Faas were reluctant to put another son in harm’s way. The “Napalm A cropped version of the photo—with the press photographers to the right removed—was featured on the front page of The New York Times the next day. The first Skyraider dropped some bombs—closer to the ARVN positions than the NVA—but they failed to explode. I felt ugly.”. “I lost my dream. Nick Ut’s original, uncropped photo shows ARVN soldiers and several journalists walking alongside the children. On June 5, South Vietnamese soldiers had advised Kim’s family and other villagers to take shelter in the temple, and for the next three days they could hear the fighting come closer as South Vietnamese troops drove the NVA out of town and into a wooded area behind the temple. running toward the cameras of international journalists. war correspondent like his brother. We got a hospitality interview about this “They were going to bring my body back to the village for burial,” she says. [8][9] It was only after treatment at a renowned special clinic in Ludwigshafen, West Germany, in 1982, that Kim Phúc was able to properly move again. When Route 1 was closed and parts of the town fell into enemy hands, many of the villagers had fled, but Kim’s family remained to protect their business and care for their animals. Sometimes, I would see the picture in the journalism history class of Prof. Dr. Willam B. Silcock. Too hot!” ran toward the group, her arms outstretched. In 2003, Belgian composer Eric Geurts wrote "The Girl in the Picture," dedicated to Kim Phúc. After arriving in Cuba, she met Bui Huy Toan, another Vietnamese student and her future fiancé. [2] Kim Phúc joined a group of civilians and South Vietnamese soldiers who were fleeing from the Caodai Temple to the safety of South Vietnamese-held positions. Albert Friedrich Frey-Wyssling, Swiss botanist and molecular biology pioneer. Kim Phuc Phan Thi is the author of Fire Road: The Napalm Girl’s Journey through the Horrors of War to Faith, Forgiveness, and Peace (Tyndale). By 1972, the U.S. had been meddling in Vietnam’s affairs for decades, and half of that time had seen three times the munitions used in all theaters of World War II dropped over an agrarian country the size of New Mexico. The most influential photos always have a story attached to them. And the story of what happened to Kim Phuc after her brush with history is just as powerful a reminder that human beings are far more complex than a single photograph can ever convey. that changed the war in Vietnam. The Election Showed How Little Has Changed. By the second day, the temple area was clearly marked so that VAF strikes outside of town could avoid it. IT’S 5:30A.M., JUNE 8, 1972, and the early light, dimmed by a sky that threatens monsoon rains, filters through the trees lining Saigon’s boulevards. Ut won a 1973 Pulitzer Prize, plus every other major photo award that year and was feted at AP headquarters in New York. Flames swept the area, swallowing up several soldiers in the inferno. THE image of a naked nine-year-old girl with burning flesh, screaming in agony as she flees a napalm attack in Vietnam, is one that is seared on the world’s memory.