A Picture That Speaks a Thousand Words

Vietnam Napalm, Trang Bang(1972), by Huynh Cong (Nick) Ut (copyright Associated Press)

This dramatic picture is just a quick glance at the history of the Vietnam War. There is a short prehistory of what had happened before the moment the picture was made. The fighters of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) were striking outside the village Trang Bang (Southern Vietnam), hitting the fortifications of the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) troops. The village itself was not the target of the air strike. Some of the villagers were hiding in the pagoda. At some point, when the sounds of the combat were getting closer and closer, scared villagers, including some of ARVN soldiers, ran from the pagoda and away from the village. At this very moment they were spotted by the pilot of a Vietnamese fighter, who diverted from his target and dove to attack the group. As stated by the photographer Nick Ut, the Vietnam Air Force (VNAF) dropped napalm bombs that hurt running people.

The scene, shown on the picture, is very tragic and horrifying. Vietnamese children run for very life with faces distorted with pain and terror, trying to escape from napalm bombs blasts.

When you look at the photograph first time, your eyes are locked on a nine year old girl, running naked down the road, screaming in agony from the jellied gasoline coating her body and burning through skin and muscles down the bone. Her arms look very unnatural for a running person. The pain causes her intolerable suffering, and she disorderly, like a hurt bird, waves her arms. Certainly, you would wonder why the only girl is naked among all characters of the picture. I was wondering too and did some online research about this girl. While running, the little girl Kim Puck tore off her burning clothes from her body trying not to get burned down. Some of children died after this attack, but Kim Puck, who was covered with third-degree burns over half of her body, finally recovered after struggling against death for 14 month in the hospital.

The picture, taken by Nick Ut, Indochinese photographer, on June 8, 1972, is one of the most famous pictures about the Vietnam War. At first, the Associated Press rejected Nick Ut’s photo, because of nudity on the picture, but later New York head-office made an exception for the picture, because of its high news value. Nick Ut was rewarded with the Pulitzer Prize for this picture and became very famous photographer. According to the Vanity Fair magazine, this photo is one of the 25 best pictures that have been published in news papers during the last 100 years.

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