Vietnam War napalm survivor to speak April 29

2:58 p.m., April 22, 2004--Kim Phuc, whose image as a nine-year old Vietnamese girl screaming in pain and fleeing from a napalm attack during the Vietnam War stirred the consciousness of the world, will discuss her experiences as a victim and survivor at 7 p.m., Thursday, April 29, in 120 Smith Hall.

The event is free to UD students with ID and $2 for the general public.

On June 8, 1972, the child born as Phan Thi Kim Phuc, had been hiding with her family north of Saigon in a CaoDai temple in her native village of Trang Bang during the bombing.

The image of the terror-stricken child running down the road with outstretched arms, her body covered with third degree burns from the napalm, earned a Pulitzer Prize for Associated Press photographer Nick Ut. The picture, which appeared on the front pages of the world’s newspapers, is credited with hastening America’s withdrawal from Vietnam.

Although many were killed during the attack on suspected Viet Cong locations, Phuc survived thanks, in part, to the efforts of Ut, who placed her in a vehicle and rushed her to the hospital.

These and other experiences of Phuc, now a Canadian citizen, have been chronicled in “The Girl in the Picture: The Kim Phuc Story” by Denise Chong.

The event is sponsored by the Vietnamese Student Association, the Office of Multicultural Programs and the Center for International Studies.

For more information, call 831-2991.

Article by Jerry Rhodes

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