Napalm Girl: Learn the dramatic story behind the iconic image

Whether in history books or newspapers, you have certainly seen this picture and you may know that it represents a dark period in the history of mankind for several reasons: the Vietnam War. The girl who runs desperately toward the photographer is Kim Phuc, then only 9 years old.

It ran from an air strike of napalm, a highly flammable substance called liquid fire, made from gelled gasoline. Her body was covered by the liquid that burns the skin to almost 800 ° C even without burning, which explains Kim's expression of pain and panic.

On the other hand, Nick Ut, the photographer who caught the moment two American planes dropped four napalm bombs on the city to dislodge the Viet Cong. He has been in the country since 1965, with his journalist brother who eventually died. Nick then took his place at the Associated Press office in Saigon and learned how to use a camera to record the conflict.

The fateful day

On June 8, 1972, the fates of Nick and Kim intersected, forever altering their lives, not to mention the impact that photography had on the war. Long, brutal and meaningless, the Vietnam War lasted about 16 years and killed thousands of people in North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

From 1963 to 1973 alone, 388, 000 tons of napalm were launched into Vietnam, which is 10 times the amount used in Korea and 20 times the amount released in the Pacific.

When Kim and several others crossed the thick smokescreen that the bombing caused, they found Nick and other reporters covering the conflict. He said in an interview with NBC News that that moment marked him forever. “I saw several people carrying dead children on their laps, including Kim's grandmother with a boy who died the moment I took the picture. When I looked into the viewfinder of my camera, I noticed the girl running with open arms coming towards me, ”he describes, who wondered why she was without clothes.

Nick accompanied the girl, taking pictures, and that's when he noticed that his body was bathed in napalm and the clothes had already been burned. "When I saw the state of her back, her arms, I cried thinking 'she's going to die soon, she won't survive'." That's when he put Kim in the van and headed toward the hospital.

A year after that, Nick Ut won the Pulitzer Prize for the photo that became a symbol of the horror of war and changed the course of history. Kim remained in hospital for more than 1 year under treatment and underwent about 17 surgeries.

Overcoming after the horror

Currently living in Toronto, Canada, she leads a foundation that bears her name - Kim Foundation International - designed to help children who are victims of armed conflict and is a goodwill ambassador for Unicef. She says she always thinks about what would have happened if that photo had not been taken: “surely I would have died, ” she says in an interview with the newspaper El País.

The retired photographer says he covered several napalm bombings but never got a picture like Kim's. In 1977, he left Vietnam and moved to Hollywood, where he accompanied iconic moments of American celebrities.

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