The Photo That Changed the World...

[cynatnite]

AP 'napalm girl' photo from Vietnam War turns 40

[IMG][/IMG]

TRANG BANG, Vietnam (AP) — In the picture, the girl will always be 9 years old and wailing "Too hot! Too hot!" as she runs down the road away from her burning Vietnamese village.

She will always be naked after blobs of sticky napalm melted through her clothes and layers of skin like jellied lava.

She will always be a victim without a name.

It only took a second for Associated Press photographer Huynh Cong "Nick" Ut to snap the iconic black-and-white image 40 years ago. It communicated the horrors of the Vietnam War in a way words could never describe, helping to end one of the most divisive wars in American history.

But beneath the photo lies a lesser-known story. It's the tale of a dying child brought together by chance with a young photographer. A moment captured in the chaos of war that would be both her savior and her curse on a journey to understand life's plan for her.

"I really wanted to escape from that little girl," says Kim Phuc, now 49. "But it seems to me that the picture didn't let me go."

http://news.yahoo.com/ap-napalm-girl-photo-vietnam-war-turns-40-210339788.html

The entire article is really a great read. This young girl has an incredible life story that is both tragic and inspiring.

[Blue_Tires]

1. She came here to speak one time

Very inspirational, and not a lot of dry eyes in the crowd...

[Zalatix]

2. The military now forbids photos like that, and they use drones to boot. Fewer witnesses that way.

[jwirr]

8. Yes, they do not want their wars ended.

[zeemike]

20. And that all "reporters" be in bed with them.

And they will report what the military wants to show...and nothing else.

[Zalatix]

24. Which makes me laugh when people on here deride posters

for posting news from Iranian news sources. They're no more corrupt than our sources are.

[cynatnite]

3. kicking. n/t

[Robb]

4. Great piece, thanks for bringing it here.

Never occurred to me but of course in hindsight it's obvious the photo editor would've had to have fought to get the picture used. He deserves a place in history, too.

[malthaussen]

5. It's a classic photo, but I don't see how it changed the world

We're still blowing up children.

-- Mal

[lunatica]

7. I agree

I've seen photos of the victims of our wars now that are worse because the children are dead.

I wish it had truly changed things.

[cynatnite]

10. It changed the attitudes about the war and turned a lot of folks in activists...

This photo had tremendous impact. In a lot of ways it did change the world.

[malthaussen]

11. Changed individual opinions, surely.

You might even say, changed the world for some people. But no absolute change, not that I can see.

-- Mal

[cynatnite]

12. It changed the Vietnam war...

It changed opinions about the war. It symbolized what the US was doing in that country. It was a moment that was captured which had a tremendous impact.

Photographs have a long history of changing public opinion and public policy. This is probably one of the most powerful moments that did more to end the war in Vietnam than anything else.

[malthaussen]

16. I guess it's a definitional thing, Cynatnite.

The photo, along with many others (the Tet one of the GVN officer shooting a POW comes to mind) certainly had tremendous impact on public opinion and policy. But when I read "changed the world," I think of some fundamental pardigmatic shift, not just a change in a given policy. The Nile floods: that causes local, possibly catastrophic change, and certainly can be "world-changing" for those caught in the flood. But when the ice finally melts, that is going to be world-changing on a much more fundamental level.

Even if we stipulate that the photo ended the Vietnam war, that didn't change the world: again, we're still blowing up children.

-- Mal

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

15. I remember it having an impact

on me and the people I knew. Also having an impact was the horrific film footage shown on U.S. national television of a South Vietnamese General shooting a Vietcong prisoner in the head at point blank range. It really made people wonder why we were supporting a corrupt regime and the fact that TV news broadcasts dared to show it while Americans were settling down to their evening meals really riled the conservatives.

Warning: very graphic

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2390091327094425662

[malthaussen]

17. Just brought that up above

Two great classic photos. And then there was the one of the Buddhist monk who burned himself...

-- Mal

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

21. Photos of the My Lai massacre

with dozens of bodies of villagers lying in a ditch. There was also a lot of controversy over film showing a little baby crying. Supposedly it was a baby whose mother had been killed, I think. Conservatives were up in arms saying the CBS news cameraman had taken food away from the baby to just come up with anti-war propaganda. One thing is sure from all these examples of photos and films from Vietnam: we don't see this kind of stuff regarding our current wars anywhere to the same degree. The news organizations today with their fondness for embedding have no courage.

[malthaussen]

22. Yeah, I noticed that in the first Iraqi invasion

... uh, I mean "liberation," of course. Whatever one may think of General Schwartzkopf's generalship, it was clear to me then that the military had learned how to manipulate the media to an amazing extent. It was beautiful to watch, in a creepy sort of way. It's only gotten worse. "Embedded" really should be changed to "In bed with."

-- Mal

[jwirr]

6. Tears like the first time I saw this photo when it came out. Indeed it ended the war and turned

many of us into anti-war activists for life. Thank you. I never knew until now if she lived or died.

[Enrique]

9. here's a recent photo

the girl and the photographer

[TrogL]

18. link please

Last I heard she was living in St. Catharines, Ont. Canada

[pinboy3niner]

25. Here:

http://www.aajaphoto.org/2011/07/03/photojournalist-nick-ut-earns-aaja-lifetime-achievement-award/vietnam-victim/

[patrice]

13. Talked to some Viet Nam Vets this morning at the protest against new taxes here in Brownbackistan.

Those guys didn't miss a note.

They know how it all happened. They schooled me on Nixon's collusion with the enemy (I'm usually the one to do that) and they are furious over what happened to Iraq.

They loved my street-sign about taxing the churches.

[calimary]

14. I worked with Nick Ut at the AP. He's a truly wonderful man.

Evidently when he brought that photo into the bureau, there was some debate about whether or not to run it - because of the nudity. The powers that be finally decide it should be used because of the over-arching story it told. It wasn't just a little naked girl running down the road. It was a little naked girl SCREAMING IN PAIN BECAUSE SHE'D JUST BEEN NAPALMED. The REAL point of the picture was how it showed, in one image, the horrors of war especially in the ways it impacts the innocent and other non-combatants. So they went with it. It won Nick Ut a Pulitzer Prize. Well-deserved.

[malthaussen]

23. Think they'd run it today?

Based on your experience and expertise?

-- Mal

[calimary]

27. Not sure. Depends on who's in charge.

And I've been away from there since 1996 so I'm not familiar with the brass now. They were always pretty cautious though.

[Uncle Joe]

19. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, cynatnite.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

26. I wrote a poem about this when I was in school

Most people wrote about flowers and animals and I was scolded by the teacher for writing this. I think I still have the poem somewhere.