Ajax, Ontario, Canada CNN Even without the benefit of context, the image of a naked 9-year-old girl running for her life is as searing and indelible today as it was 43 years ago. Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds. More Videos Girl in iconic Vietnam photo still carries scars Story highlights You might not know her name, but you've probably seen a photo of Kim Phuc She is well-known as the terrified young girl in an iconic photo from the Vietnam War Now she lives near Toronto as a wife, mother and United Nations ambassador for peace She preaches a message of forgiveness rooted in Christian faith. Photos: Vietnam napalm attack.
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The adults were out when the children heard the plane overhead and fled, trying to outrun their terror. One of them was nine-year-old Phuc who, in a moment captured by photographer Nick Ut, was shown screaming as she ran naked down the road, having stripped off her clothes to rid herself of the poison on her skin. Ho, then 10 years old, ran alongside her cousin. The image, for which Ut won a Pulitzer prize, was widely credited with turning the tide of public opinion against the war.
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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 Republic of Vietnam Air Force pilot mistook the group for enemy soldiers and diverted to 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.
On television screens and magazine pages around the world, photographs told a story of a fight that only got more confusing, more devastating, as it went on. And, in the decades since, the most striking of those images have retained their power. Think of the War in Vietnam and the image in your mind is likely one that was first captured on film, and then in the public imagination.
