Associated Press
08 June, 1972
Original caption from World Press Photo (1973)
Phan Thị Kim Phúc (center) flees with other children after South Vietnamese planes mistakenly dropped napalm on South Vietnamese troops and civilians.
Context
This photograph became one of the defining images of the atrocities of the Vietnam War (1955 - 1975). The depiction of full-frontal nudity was contested but editors at The Associated Press agreed that the value of the picture and the news it portrayed deemed it important to publish.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Phan Thị Kim Phúc said: “I didn't like that picture at all. [In the moment] I felt ‘why did he take my picture when I was in agony, naked, so ugly. I wished that the picture wasn't taken.’ (...) [Now] I am so proud of that picture, and I consider it a really powerful gift for me to use it to work for peace."
Questions
Can a single photo end a war?
Has this photograph become a ‘media myth’? Did it really turn US public opinion against the conflict and hasten the end of the Vietnam War?
What does this photo symbolize?
Would this photograph be published today?
Authorship disputed
Since 1972, the photograph The Terror of War has been credited to Associated Press photographer Nick Út. However, this attribution is now under serious question. New research by ...
