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Eeporting on Vietnam War
Bert Westbrook recalls from the Vietnam war "a very famous
picture, which may have been the cover of Time magazine, of a girl fleeing a
napalm attack. She survived, moved to the U.S., and went to college" RH:.That
picture went around the world, but the treatment she got in the US and her going
to college here received little notice. Where is she now? Forgotten. This is
the nature of photography, which seeks dramatic scenes but is little interested
in quiet, prosaic, constructive work.
John Heelan says: "Nick Ut's Pulitzer prize photo of Kim Phuc running naked
from a US napalm attack has been regarded as one of those visual scenes symbolic
of conflict- similar to Robert Capa's picture of a loyalist soldier as he was
shot in the Spanish Civil War and Eddie Adam's 1968 Pulitzer Prize shot of the
Viet Cong prisoner being executed by South Vietnamese General Nguyen Ngoc Loan.
"Though terribly burned, that little girl did survive. Nick Ut placed her
in a vehicle and rushed her to the hospital. Kim endured fourteen months of
painful rehabilitation for the third degree burns over more than half her body.
As an adult, Kim would be forced to abandon medical school following renewed international interest in the "symbol of the people's war." After an appeal to the head of the Vietnamese government, she was allowed to leave the country to resume her studies. Kim met her future husband while studying in Cuba, and was, by this time, determined to defect to the West. On their honeymoon in 1992, the couple disembarked during plane refueling in Gander, Newfoundland, Canada and defected.
Settled in a new country with a young family, Kim's story continues. While there have been confusion and disagreement about the bombing“who ordered it, where it actually took place, what the target was"the fact that Kim became another innocent victim of war is unchangeable. Now, she uses her notoriety to speak for peace. In November 1997, Kim was named a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Earlier in 1997, she founded the Kim Foundation in Chicago, to help innocent victims of war."
[http://www.womentodaymagazine.com/features/kim_phuc.html]
RH: What a deeply moving story! "Notoriety" has a negative connotation,
"fame" is not quite right since it is too strong. Anyhow, the point
is clear.
She is a Canadian citizen. In 1997 she took the Canadian citizenship test earning a perfect score. When Canadians found out that the little girl from the 1972 photo was now a Canadian citizen, they raised $30 000 to help her settle in Canada (Quinlan,1999:95). She has been declared a Goodwill Ambassador to UNESCO. In 1997, she established the Kim Foundation, a not-for-profit Canadian organization to help children who are the victims of war. As an adult, she has been the study of several photographers including Joe McNally, Life Magazine, and has been interviewed in Larry King Live, the History Channel and the Arts and Entertainment Channel, among others.
Kim Phuc often speaks to groups of journalists. "Sometimes I like to think
of that little girl, screaming, running up the road, as being not just a symbol
of war, but a symbol of a cry for peace.” She is a born-again Christian
and speaks often on the meaning of Christ in her life. In 1996, she spoke at
the Veteran’s Day rally at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC.
Source: http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/features/legendsV2Q4/editorial/6.shtml
And, http://www.canadianidentity.com/p/kim_phuc/
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