‘Napalm girl’ photograph turns 40
Lesser-known story lies below surface of Vietnam image.
TRANG BANG, VIETNAM — In the picture, the girl will always be 9 years old and wailing as she runs down the road away from her burning Vietnamese village.
It only took a second for Associated Press photographer Huynh Cong “Nick” Ut to snap the iconic black-and-white image 40 years ago.
It communicated the horrors of the Vietnam War in a way words could never describe, helping to end one of the most divisive wars in American history.
But beneath the photo lies a lesser-known story. It’s the tale of a dying child brought together by chance with a young photographer.
“I really wanted to escape from that little girl,” says Kim Phuc, now 49. “But it seems to me that the picture didn’t let me go.”
‘We will be dead’
It was June 8, 1972, when Phuc heard the soldier’s scream: “We have to run out of this place! They will bomb here, and we will be dead!”
Fire danced up Phuc’s left arm. The threads of her clothes evaporated on contact. Searing pain bit through skin and muscle.
In shock, she sprinted down Highway 1.
‘I cried when I saw’
Ut, the 21-year-old Vietnamese photographer who took the picture, drove Phuc to a small hospital.
Ut flashed his American press badge, demanded that doctors treat the girl and left assured that she would not be forgotten.
Back at the office in what was then U.S.backed Saigon, he developed his film. When the image of the naked little girl emerged, everyone feared it would be rejected because of the news agency’s strict policy against nudity.
But photo editor Horst Faas took one look and knew it was a shot made to break the rules.
A couple of days later, another journalist found out the girl had somehow survived the attack.
The aftermath
For a while, life did go somewhat back to normal for Phuc. The photo of her was famous, but Phuc largely remained unknown except to those living in her tiny village.
Ut and a few other journalists sometimes visited her, but that stopped after northern communist forces seized control of South Vietnam on April 30, 1975, ending the war.
Life under the new regime became tough.
Phuc worked hard and was accepted into medical school to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor. But all that ended once the new communist leaders realized the propaganda value of the ‘napalm girl’ in the photo.
Then suddenly, once again, the photo that had given her unwanted fame brought opportunity.
She traveled to West Germany in 1982 for medical care with the help of a foreign journalist. Later, Vietnam’s prime minister made arrangements for her to study in Cuba.
She was free from the minders and reporters hounding her, but her life was far from normal.
A new life begins
While at school, Phuc met a young Vietnamese man. The two decided to marry in 1992 and honeymoon in Moscow. On the flight back, the newlyweds defected during a refueling stop.
A book was written in 1999 and a documentary came out.
“Today, I’m so happy I helped Kim,” said Ut. “I call her my daughter.”