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Page last updated at 17:48 GMT, Monday, 17 May 2010 18:48 UK
Reunited with the Vietnamese 'girl in the picture'
Nick Ut's famous image of Kim Phuc fleeing the napalm attack on her village
By Rebecca Lumb
BBC News
Kim Phuc, the girl in one of the unforgettable images of the Vietnam War, has
been reunited for a BBC radio programme with Christopher Wain, the ITN
correspondent who helped save her life 38 years ago.
When Chris last saw Kim, she was lying on a hospital bed with third-degree
burns to more than half of her body, after a South Vietnamese napalm bomb
attack.
It was 8 June 1972 and Chris and his crew had been in Vietnam for seven weeks,
covering the conflict for ITN.
I found our reunion much more moving than I'd anticipated... Kim was
quite emotionally charged, and that's catching
Christopher Wain
He remembers the day clearly: "That morning we'd arrived at the village of
Trang Bang, which had been infiltrated by the North Vietnamese two days
earlier. They were dug in, awaiting a counter-attack.
"In the late morning, two vintage Vietnamese bombers started to circle overhead
- this wasn't anything unusual, but because we had been into the village we
knew something was going wrong."
Many of the villagers had already fled to the shelter of a temple, among them
nine-year-old Kim.
"We thought this would be a safe place - but then I saw the plane - it got so
close," she remembers.
"I heard the noise of the bombs then suddenly I saw the fire everywhere around
me.
"I was terrified and I ran out of the fire. I saw my brother and my cousin. We
just kept running. My clothes were burnt off by the fire."
FIND OUT MORE
It's My Story - The Girl in the Picture, presented by Chris Wain, can be
heard on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday 18 May at 1600 BST
Or listen to it afterwards at the programme website
Chris and his crew were about 400m from the point where the four canisters of
napalm had exploded.
"There was a blast of heat which felt like someone had opened the door of an
oven. Then we saw Kim and the rest of the children. None of them were making
any sound at all - until they saw the adults. Then they started to scream."
Lasting memory
A Vietnamese photographer, Nick Ut, was also covering events in South Vietnam
that day.
As Kim ran down the road, her arms outstretched and screaming for help, he took
what is now seen as one of the most memorable images of the Vietnam War.
She was still running when Chris stopped her and poured water over her, while
directing his crew to record the terrible scenes.
Chris helps Kim as the horrific scenes are captured on film
"We were short of film and my cameraman, the late, great Alan Downes, was
worried that I was asking him to waste precious film shooting horrific pictures
which were too awful to use. My attitude was that we needed to show what it was
like, and to their lasting credit, ITN ran the shots."
Nick took Kim to the nearest hospital, the British-run Saigon First Children's
Hospital. Shortly afterwards, his photograph and the film footage appeared all
over the Western media.
One result was that everyone wanted to know what had happened to the little
girl.
It was Chris who found Kim the following Sunday, in a small room at the British
hospital.
"I asked a nurse how she was and she said she would die tomorrow," he says. So
he got her moved to a specialist plastic surgery hospital, for life-saving
treatment.
Kim stayed in hospital for 14 months and went through 17 operations, remaining
in constant pain to this day.
Her image became a lasting memory for a generation - but the little girl
herself disappeared from public view.
Powerful gift
Then, 10 years later, a journalist from Germany tracked Kim down.
She was at university studying medicine but the Vietnamese government cut short
her studies and ordered her back to her village to be filmed and interviewed.
She was now a propaganda tool.
Even when she succeeded in resuming her studies, this time in Cuba, she was
still expected to fulfil her duties as a "symbol of war".
I realised I have a powerful gift... now that I have freedom I can
control that picture
Kim Phuc
It was at Havana University that she met Toan, a fellow student from Vietnam.
They married and took a honeymoon in Russia, which provided them with a unique
opportunity to flee to Canada.
"I heard rumours that a lot of Cuban students stay in Canada on the way back
from Moscow, when the plane stops to refuel. By doing this I was finally able
to gain my freedom."
Kim settled down to a peaceful and anonymous life in Canada with her husband
and two children, but in 1995 she was traced by another journalist and the
picture was splashed across the front page of the Toronto Sun.
"I wanted to escape the picture because the more famous it got, the more it
cost me my private life. It seemed to me that my picture would not let me go,"
she says.
However, the realisation came to her she did not have to remain an unwilling
victim. The photo was, in fact, a powerful gift that she could use to help
promote peace.
"I realised that now that I have freedom and am in a free country, I can take
control of that picture," she says.
'Impressive woman'
This idea led her to establish the Kim Phuc Foundation, which provides medical
and psychological assistance to child victims of war.
Chris continued with ITN for another three years as defence correspondent,
covering amongst other things the Yom Kippur War and the invasion of Cyprus.
Later he moved to the BBC.
He retired in 1999 and never expected to see Kim again.
"At the time, it was just another story, though an appalling one. It was
certainly the worst thing I ever saw.
"Later, when interest was rekindled, I felt that Kim was being used. That was
why 10 years ago I declined a proposed on-screen reunion with her on the Oprah
Winfrey Show - it sounded exploitative."
Now, having met Kim, he's changed his mind, and no longer thinks of her as a
victim of that picture.
"Despite everything that has happened to her, and all she's endured, she's
become a very impressive woman."
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