I t has been nearly five decades since Kim Phuc Phan Thi was captured on camera, at the age of nine, naked and fleeing a South Vietnamese attack that left her severely burned. The year-old, who now lives in Canada, is the founder of the Kim Phuc Foundation , an organization dedicated to supporting the work of international organizations that provide free medical assistance to children who are victims of war and terrorism. In , Ut told the AP that Kim lost consciousness shortly after the picture was taken. He drove Kim to a hospital, where he was told the child was injured beyond help. This is the tenth year the Dresden Peace Prize, presented at the Semper Opera in Dresden, Germany, has honored individuals for their work to advance peace. Write to Hillary Leung at hillary. By Hillary Leung.
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Now, 40 years after the fall of Saigon and the unification of the country, Nick and I were traveling for the third time together through Vietnam and the first time in neighboring Cambodia. But he will never forget the events of June 8, , which he recalled floating down the Mekong on the River Orchid and on our drive up Highway 1. It was a bad day at Trang Bang. Not that there were many good ones, at least not during the Vietnam War. Highway 1 then, as it is now, was a vital artery connecting Saigon with Cambodia. Nick Ut: I left Saigon around seven A. During the war, I traveled up and down Highway 1 all the time. There were no traffic lights on the highway back then. It was a very dangerous drive.
Mark Edward Harris’s Photographs of Vietnam, 40 Years After the War
Although you probably do not recognize Kim by name, you have more than likely seen her photograph. By all accounts, Kim Phuc had a normal and happy childhood. She and her family lived in a nice house. She rode her bike to school every day, and she had a lot of friends. This photograph of young Kim Phuc center became one of the most unforgettable images from the Vietnam War. In , Kim was 9 years old, living a peaceful life with her extended family in Trang Bang, a small village in Vietnam. And then the fighting started. However, the temple was not safe. Napalm is a thick, jelly-like substance which burns at 2, degrees Fahrenheit and is used in military warfare for comparison, water boils at degrees Fahrenheit. As Kim ran down the road in terror and in pain, a photographer by the name of Nick Ut captured the moment on film.
The well-known photo, by AP photographer Nick Ut , shows her at nine years of age running naked on a road after being severely burned on her back by a South Vietnamese napalm attack. The New York Times editors were at first hesitant to consider the photo for publication because of the nudity, but eventually approved it. 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. A number of the early operations were performed by Finnish plastic surgeon Aarne Rintala. Audio tapes of President Richard Nixon , in conversation with his chief of staff, H. Haldeman in , reveal that Nixon mused, "I'm wondering if that was fixed", after seeing the photograph.
