The picture is an icon, telling the moving tale of an era in one
click of the shutter. A girl running down the street, naked and
screaming as napalm sears her skin. The man behind the camera on
June 8, 1972 was Associated Press photographer Nick Ut
– who won a Pulitzer Prize for the image – but his name is
seldom remembered. The girl, the girl was the one who welled a lump
in throats worldwide.
The picture is an icon, telling the moving tale of an era in one click of the shutter. A girl running down the street, naked and screaming as napalm sears her skin. The man behind the camera on June 8, 1972 was Associated Press photographer Nick Ut – who won a Pulitzer Prize for the image – but his name is seldom remembered. The girl, the girl was the one who welled a lump in throats worldwide.
Kim Phuc was nine years old when her picture was taken as she ran down Route-1 outside her village of TrangBang. The napalm had been aimed at enemy troops, but landed on children.
The image instantly crystallized the horrors of war in a single frame. But what happened later?
Rescued by Ut, Phuc spent the next 20 years recovering physically from her injuries while enduring the spotlight in communist Vietnam, used as a propaganda icon of the regime.
In 1992, Phuc was returning from her honeymoon in Cuba when the plane stopped for a brief refueling in Canada. Phuc seized the opportunity and defected. As she learned the truth about the bombing mission that had so irrevocably altered the course of her life, she also learned the lessons of forgiveness.
“She was able, through some really interesting circumstances, to meet a couple of the men who where responsible for the bombing of her village,” said Gary Carter, business manager of Shadow Mountain Baptist Church, which will be playing host to Phuc. “It’s kind of a personal history of that time in Vietnam and of world history with her defection to Canada and all. If you’re of an age where you remember our history in that era, it will definitely be of interest.”
Phuc will speak at 11am on Sunday, Sept. 26 at the theatre of Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill. The appearance is a presentation of Shadow Mountain Baptist Church, whose staff encourages visitors to meet Phuc after the free talk, which they hope will fill the theatre’s 400 seats.
For more information, contact Gary Carter of Shadow Mountain Baptist Church at (408) 782-7806.
