The story behind the picture that touched the world - “Napalm Girl”
This is the story behind the picture that touched the world, titled “The Terror of War”, though it is more commonly known as “Napalm Girl”.
The Terror of War, also known as “Napalm Girl” . A Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph taken by Vietnamese-American photojournalist Nick Ut on June 8, 1972, during the Vietnam War. It captures Phan Thị Kim Phúc, a nine-year-old girl, running naked and screaming in agony after a napalm bomb was mistakenly dropped by South Vietnamese planes on her village of Trảng Bàng
I met Phan Thị Kim Phúc (Kim), UNESCO-MOST BRIDGES Coalition Goodwill Ambassador and global peace advocate during Bridging Futures: Connecting Today's Decisions to Tomorrows Needs in Swansea. Kim is the girl in this iconic photograph from the Vietnam War, captured as she fled a napalm attack at the age of nine, 8th June 1972. The back of her body, what we cannot see in the image, had been severely burned in the attack. Her skin had melted away.
Phan Thị Kim Phúc delivers the Inaugural Bridging Futures Lecture.
What many don’t know is that Kim was so badly injured, she was laid in a morgue and left for dead, for three days. But she survived. But what truly captured me wasn’t just the tragedy, it was her journey to recovery. The long, painful path to becoming happy again. The courageous choice to forgive!!
As she began to rebuild her life and follow the footpath to her heroes, doctors and nurses and to pursue her dream of studying medicine, she was pulled out of medical school by the Vietnamese government. They wanted to use her as a living symbol, a war heroine, rather than allow her to follow her own path. Her personal healing was politicised. Her autonomy denied.
But Kim has transformed her story into one of peace, compassion, and resilience. Hearing her speak was heartbreaking, inspiring, and deeply human. I cried. My heart ached for the child she was, and for the woman she became, against all odds.
I wrote this post to honour the light she carries, to share her story, and to remind us all that behind every image of war is a human life, a child, a parent, a dream interrupted.
Kim’s journey is not just history. It’s a mirror held up to the present. As war crimes continue today, in Gaza, in Ukraine, in Sudan, and beyond, her story urges us to look beyond the headlines and statistics. To see the people. To feel their pain. And to act with empathy, courage, and resolve, and to give children a childhood, and an education!
Let her story be a call to conscience: that healing is possible, but justice must be pursued. That peace begins when we refuse to turn away, refuse to give up.
Phan Thị Kim Phúc with Tyra Oseng-Rees holding her signed book "Fire Road" at UNESCO-MOST BRIDGES Coalition Bridging Futures: Connecting Today's Decisions to Tomorrows Needs.
