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The Napalm Girl
I am a photography student doing a research paper on photographs that have become an icon for their era. One of the photographs is the infamous one of Miss Phuk as a little girl running after being Napalmed. I seek opinions on this photograph.
Do you think it is representative of the Vietnam war?
No I do not think it represented the Vietnam war. Those who were opposed to the war used the photograph to their political advantage.
Do you think the photo "lies"?
Photos do not "lie", but how they are interpreted and presented to the people can bring about false assumptions. A lot of people thought that the United States had dropped the Napalm on the friendly village. We did not. The bomb (Napalm) was dropped by the South Vietnamese Air Force. I have heard several stories about the incident some saying it was an accident and others saying the strike was called in. Regardless, innocent people were killed and injured from this incident. In war you are going to have a lot of innocent people getting killed or wounded. It is a tragic fact but that's war!
Did this image have any impact on the war?
I feel the photo was used by those who opposed the war to it's fullest extent.
Did it have impact on protests back in the US?
Yes it did have an impact. It was an excellent picture, bring the horrors of war home to the American people.
Did it have an impact on YOU?
Not really, I was upset from the sensationalism from the press and war protestors and I felt sorry for the girl. Like I said earlier this was war and innocent people get hurt.
Dow Chemical developed napalm-b in 1965, in collaboration with the U.S. Air Force. A petroleum jelly which burns at excess of 2200 degrees Fahrenheit, Dow Napalm B sticks to whatever it splatters on. When this is human flesh, the napalm continues to burn downwards into the body, flameless, feeding on fat and other tissue.
A Vietnam veteran is attributed with this perverse but technically illuminating quote about the development of Napalm: "We sure are pleased with those backroom boys at Dow.
The original product wasn't so hot - if the gooks [Vietnamese] were quick they could scrape it off. So the boys started adding polystyrene - now it sticks like shit to a blanket. But then if the gooks jumped under water it stopped burning, so they started adding Willie Peter (white phosphorus) so's to make it burn better. It'll burn under water now. And just one drop is enough; it'll keep on burning right down to the bone so they die anyway from phosphorus poisoning."
In "Medical Problems of South Vietnam," four American physicians wrote: "Napalm is a highly sticky inflammable jelly which clings to anything it touches and burns with such heat that all oxygen in the area is exhausted within moments. Death is either by roasting or by suffocation. Napalm wounds are often fatal (estimates are 90 percent). Those who survive face a living death. The victims are frequently children."
Dr. Richard E. Perry, an American physician, wrote in Redbook in January 1967, on his return from Vietnam: "I have been an orthopedic surgeon for a good number of years, with rather a wide range of medical experience. But nothing could have prepared me for my encounters with Vietnamese women and children burned by napalm. It was shocking and sickening, even for a physician, to see and smell the blackened flesh." By 1966, Dow was supplying 4550 tons of napalm per month to be dropped onto Vietnam.
A peace activist, UN goodwill ambassador and the subject of a famous photograph that changed the way the world looked at the Vietnam war brought a message of peace, hope and forgiveness during a weekend visit to Hanover.
Kim Phuc was nine years old when an Associated Press news service photographer captured her running naked down a road at the height of the war in Vietnam fleeing a napalm bombing attack that left her severely burned.
The photograph won Nick Ut a Pulitzer Prize, raised world-wide awareness of the horrors of wars toward children and became a symbol of the suffering of innocent civilians in the Vietnam War.
On June 8, 1972, Kim's village of Trang Bang came under attack by South Vietnamese and American planes, which mistakenly dropped napalm on a Buddhist pagoda in an area where the North Vietnamese were infiltrating. While running for safety with other children, including members of her family, Kim was severely burned by the napalm. Two of her infant brothers were killed
She complained of being, "too hot too hot," but when someone poured water over her to cool down her body, it catalyzed the effect of the napalm and she passed out.
Water boils at 100 C. When mixed with water, napalm reaches temperatures of 800 to 1,200 C.
Ut put Kim in a vehicle and rushed her to the nearby hospital. Covered with third-degree burns over half her body, she was not expected to live. She was placed in the hospital morgue where she was discovered by her family a few days later.
Kim spoke to about 350 people at John Diefenbaker Secondary School on Saturday. She told them the story of what happened to that little girl 35 years ago and how she endured 14 months of painful rehabilitation and 17 operations.
Kim still suffers the pain from the deep burns and scars on the left side of her body.
"The pain has never disappeared. I've had to deal with it," she said, adding she has learned not to focus on the pain otherwise it gets bigger and bigger.
"I pray a lot. That helps me a lot."
As an adult, Kim was forced to abandon her studies at medical school following efforts by the Vietnamese government to use her in a propaganda campaign as a "symbol of the people's war."
Do you think it is representative of the Vietnam war?
No I do not think it represented the Vietnam war. Those who were opposed to the war used the photograph to their political advantage.
Do you think the photo "lies"?
Photos do not "lie", but how they are interpreted and presented to the people can bring about false assumptions. A lot of people thought that the United States had dropped the Napalm on the friendly village. We did not. The bomb (Napalm) was dropped by the South Vietnamese Air Force. I have heard several stories about the incident some saying it was an accident and others saying the strike was called in. Regardless, innocent people were killed and injured from this incident. In war you are going to have a lot of innocent people getting killed or wounded. It is a tragic fact but that's war!
Did this image have any impact on the war?
I feel the photo was used by those who opposed the war to it's fullest extent.
Did it have impact on protests back in the US?
Yes it did have an impact. It was an excellent picture, bring the horrors of war home to the American people.
Did it have an impact on YOU?
Not really, I was upset from the sensationalism from the press and war protestors and I felt sorry for the girl. Like I said earlier this was war and innocent people get hurt.
Dow Chemical developed napalm-b in 1965, in collaboration with the U.S. Air Force. A petroleum jelly which burns at excess of 2200 degrees Fahrenheit, Dow Napalm B sticks to whatever it splatters on. When this is human flesh, the napalm continues to burn downwards into the body, flameless, feeding on fat and other tissue.
A Vietnam veteran is attributed with this perverse but technically illuminating quote about the development of Napalm: "We sure are pleased with those backroom boys at Dow.
The original product wasn't so hot - if the gooks [Vietnamese] were quick they could scrape it off. So the boys started adding polystyrene - now it sticks like shit to a blanket. But then if the gooks jumped under water it stopped burning, so they started adding Willie Peter (white phosphorus) so's to make it burn better. It'll burn under water now. And just one drop is enough; it'll keep on burning right down to the bone so they die anyway from phosphorus poisoning."
In "Medical Problems of South Vietnam," four American physicians wrote: "Napalm is a highly sticky inflammable jelly which clings to anything it touches and burns with such heat that all oxygen in the area is exhausted within moments. Death is either by roasting or by suffocation. Napalm wounds are often fatal (estimates are 90 percent). Those who survive face a living death. The victims are frequently children."
Dr. Richard E. Perry, an American physician, wrote in Redbook in January 1967, on his return from Vietnam: "I have been an orthopedic surgeon for a good number of years, with rather a wide range of medical experience. But nothing could have prepared me for my encounters with Vietnamese women and children burned by napalm. It was shocking and sickening, even for a physician, to see and smell the blackened flesh." By 1966, Dow was supplying 4550 tons of napalm per month to be dropped onto Vietnam.
A peace activist, UN goodwill ambassador and the subject of a famous photograph that changed the way the world looked at the Vietnam war brought a message of peace, hope and forgiveness during a weekend visit to Hanover.
Kim Phuc was nine years old when an Associated Press news service photographer captured her running naked down a road at the height of the war in Vietnam fleeing a napalm bombing attack that left her severely burned.
The photograph won Nick Ut a Pulitzer Prize, raised world-wide awareness of the horrors of wars toward children and became a symbol of the suffering of innocent civilians in the Vietnam War.
On June 8, 1972, Kim's village of Trang Bang came under attack by South Vietnamese and American planes, which mistakenly dropped napalm on a Buddhist pagoda in an area where the North Vietnamese were infiltrating. While running for safety with other children, including members of her family, Kim was severely burned by the napalm. Two of her infant brothers were killed
She complained of being, "too hot too hot," but when someone poured water over her to cool down her body, it catalyzed the effect of the napalm and she passed out.
Water boils at 100 C. When mixed with water, napalm reaches temperatures of 800 to 1,200 C.
Ut put Kim in a vehicle and rushed her to the nearby hospital. Covered with third-degree burns over half her body, she was not expected to live. She was placed in the hospital morgue where she was discovered by her family a few days later.
Kim spoke to about 350 people at John Diefenbaker Secondary School on Saturday. She told them the story of what happened to that little girl 35 years ago and how she endured 14 months of painful rehabilitation and 17 operations.
Kim still suffers the pain from the deep burns and scars on the left side of her body.
"The pain has never disappeared. I've had to deal with it," she said, adding she has learned not to focus on the pain otherwise it gets bigger and bigger.
"I pray a lot. That helps me a lot."
As an adult, Kim was forced to abandon her studies at medical school following efforts by the Vietnamese government to use her in a propaganda campaign as a "symbol of the people's war."
i hope she is a happy woman now.
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