The Terror of War
Photographer: Nick Ut
Date: June 8, 1972
Location: Trang Bang, South Vietnam (now Vietnam)
Nick Ut of the Associated Press photographed 9-year-old Phan Thị Kim Phúc, running naked and screaming in agony down Highway 1 near Trang Bang, South Vietnam, on June 8, 1972, after a South Vietnamese Air Force aircraft accidentally dropped napalm on civilians and South Vietnamese troops. Kim Phúc's clothes had been burned off. Other children and fleeing soldiers are visible in the background. Ut photographed the scene, then immediately loaded Kim Phúc and other wounded children into his AP van and drove them to a hospital. Doctors initially refused to treat her, as she was expected to die; Ut reportedly intervened by identifying himself as an AP photographer before she received care. She endured 17 surgeries. The AP initially hesitated to distribute the image due to its nudity. The photograph appeared on the front page of newspapers worldwide and became one of the most powerful anti-war images of the Vietnam War, contributing to growing public opposition. Ut won the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography in 1973. Kim Phúc now lives in Canada and founded the Kim Phúc Foundation International, which provides medical and psychological assistance to child victims of war. She and Ut have remained close friends for decades.
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