Huynh Cong Ut – Napalm Strike, Vietnam. ====================================== This photo of a naked and terrified young girl running towards Pulitzer prize-winning photographer Nick Ut has entered popular culture as a symbol of the horror of the Vietnam War. It was taken during the American bombing of the village of Trang Bang, Viet Nam. However there has been much controversy over the events depicted in the photo. It is suggested that American bombers had nothing to do with this event and that there have been many derogatory and misleading comments about the American troops in regard to this photo. Nevertheless, it is said that this photo ended the war in Vietnam and served as an icon for the peace movement that was prevelent in the 1970s. ============================= On June 8th, 1972, nine-year-old Kim Phuc Phan Thi's village near Trang Bang Vietnam was hit by South Vietnamese bombers in an American-ordered attack. In one of the world's best-known photographs, Kim, who took a direct hit, is shown running naked down a road, screaming in agony from the napalm that covered her body. It took many years, and 17 operations, to save her life. In 1993, Kim defected to Canada in order to escape her past and take control of her life. Today, she is a mother of two. For the photographer, it all started on June 8th, 1972, when a South Vietnamese fighter plane swooped in on a cluster of its own soldiers, and some women and children, opened fire and dropped napalm on civilians. Photographer Huynh Cong "Nick" Ut happened to be in the right place at the right time that day, and captured the group as they attempted to flee the cloud of burning napalm behind them. His photo was seen on the cover of Time Magazine later that month, and is still remembered today as one of the most infamous images of the Vietnam War. Before delivering his film with the Kim Phuc photo, he took her to the hospital. Horst Faas ordered the photo transmitted despite the AP bureau's debate about transmitting a naked girl's photo over the wire. He had became a photographer when he was 16 years old, pressed into service during hard times. His older brother (also a photographer) was killed during the Vietnam War. Ut earned the Pulitzer prize for his photograph. Wounded three times in Vietnam, Ut has since worked for the Associated Press in Tokyo, South Korea, and Hanoi and still maintains contact with Kim Phuc. He still works for the AP, but now at their Los Angeles bureau. Today he is a United States citizen, and is married with two children. ============================= June 8, 1972, Trang Bang, Vietnam Photo by Huynh Cong "Nick" Ut, AP Women and children run screaming from their village after a napalm drop. The little girl Phan Thi Kim Phuc had removed her clothes because they were on fire. Details of the events of that day here. Ut won the 1973 Pulitzer for this image and became a lifelong friend of Phan Thi Kim Phuc for his dedication getting her medical attention after the trauma. ============================= February 1, 1968, Saigon, Vietnam Photo by Eddie Adams, AP Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong prisoner in Saigon during the Tet offensive. The prisoner had reportedly just murdered eight South Vietnamese. In 1969 Eddie Adams won the Pulitzer for spot news photography. In 1975, the year the communists overran the country, Ngoc Loan fled South Vietnam, and moved to Virginia, where he opened a restaurant. He died in 1998.