4. “The Terror of War” captures a moment that would become iconic for the anti-napalm rhetoric during the Vietnam War.
The fact that the Vietnam War was broadcast widely on television, meant that the true horror of napalms devastating effects was seen by the public and became one of the key factors in shifting public opinion against its use in combat. Napalm was seen as a particularly inhumane weapon. Due to its adhesive properties, it stuck to human flesh, causing deep burns. Smothering the flame was the only effective way to extinguish the fire. Trying to wipe it off only spread the burning material and expanded the burn area. Over 85% of napalm burn victims experience fourth-degree burns to the deepest hypodermic layer and fifth-degree burns which burn right down to the muscle. Secondary effects of napalm include burns in the upper part of the windpipe from heat fumes, as well as carbon monoxide poisoning, shock, mental disorder and nervous prostration.
Perhaps, Nick Ut’s 1973 Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph, “The Terror of War” best encapsulates why napalm came to be so reviled during the conflict. On June 8, 1972, Associated Press photographer Nick Ut captured the iconic image of a naked and badly burned nine-year-old girl, Phan Thi Kim Phuc, fleeing a napalm attack by South Vietnamese forces following a “friendly fire” incident. The expression of agony and terror on that little girl’s face revealed the true horror of napalm’s effects on its victims.
Ut recalls how he had seen a group of children running down the highway toward him in terror. After Ut took his iconic image, he tended to Kim Phuc’s wounds. He poured water over her body, before taking her to a hospital, where he discovered that she had sustained third-degree burns covering thirty percent of her body and was told that she might not survive. Ut, with the help of his colleagues, transferred Kim Phuc to an American treatment facility which ultimately saved her life. Kim Phuc underwent seventeen operations and lay in a coma for six months and spent a total of fourteen months in hospital. Kim Phuc became a potent symbol of civilian suffering during the Vietnam War and the horrible reality of napalm as an indiscriminate weapon.