در هشتم ژوئن سال ۱۹۷۲، دهکده‌ کوچکی در ویتنام جنوبی به نام «ترنک بنگ» به دست نیروهای ویتنام شمالی افتاده بود، دختری نه سال به نام «فان تی کیم فوک»  Phan Thi Kim Phuc  و خانواده‌اش در آن زمان ساکن این روستا بودند و قصد داشتند با بقیه مردم و سربازان به جایی امن در ویتنام جنوبی بروند، اما یک خلبان ویتنام جنوبی، آنها را با سربازان طرف مقابل اشتباه گرفت و با بمب ناپالم به آنها حمله کرد، دو تن از اعضای خانواده «کیم فوک» به همراه دو نفر دیگر از ساکنان روستا در این جریان کشته شدند و پوست و لباس‌های دخترک هم به سختی سوخت و آتش گرفت، طوری که مجبور شد لباس‌هایش را پاره کند و از تنش خارج کند.

دخترک در جاده منتهی به روستا می‌دوید و فریاد می‌زد: «خیلی داغه، دارم می‌میرم، آب می‌خوام، به من آب بدید.»
یک عکاس ۲۱ ساله خبرگزاری آسوشیتدپرس در آن زمان در محل حضور داشت، او صدای فریادهای دخترک را برداشت و عکسی برداشت که برای همیشه جاودان شد. این عکاس نیک اوت  Nick Ut  نام داشت.


پسربچه سمت چپ در این عکس، «فان تانگ تام»، بردار کوچک کیم فوک است، دو بچه سمت راست او عموزاده‌های اویند. پشت سر او سربازان واحد ۲۵ ام ویتنام جنوبی دیده می‌شوند.
عکس عالی‌ای بود، اما در مورد انتشار آن با توجه به برهنه بودن دخترک تردید وجود داشت، اما در آن زمان عکاس دیگری به نام«هورست فاس» که مسئول بخش عکاسی خبرگزاری بود، استدلال کرد که نباید با تنگ‌نظری جلوی انتشار این عکس را که بیان موجز وحشت و رذالت جنگ است را گرفت، عکس روز بعد منتشر شد و کاور روزنامه نیویورک تایمز شد. بدون نظر مساعد هورست فاس، که ماه پیش درگذشت و در «یک پزشک» در موردش نوشته‌ام، این عکس هیچگاه امکان انتشار نمی‌یافت.

این عکس بلافاصله بازتاب زیادی پیدا کرد و به نماد مبارزات ضد جنگ تبدیل شد، در سال ۱۹۷۲ این عکس برنده جایزه پولیتزر وشد.
نوارهای صوتی به جا مانده از ریچارد نیکسون -رئیس جمهور وقت آمریکا- نشان می‌دهد که او به اصالت این عکس مشکوک بود یا شاید هم دوست داشت که بقبولاند که عکس ساختگی است، اما خود عکاس و مردم جهان هیج شکی در اصالت عکس و کریه بودن چهره جنگ نداشتند و باور داشتند که عکاس فقط زشتی جنگ را بازتاب داده بود.


آن دختر هنوز زنده است و گواه اصالت عکس است. به علاوه دو عکاس دیگر هم فیلم‌هایی از قبل و بعد از حادثه برداشته‌اند. بخش‌های از فیلم برداشته شده در یک مستند به نام «قلب‌ها و ذهن‌ها» به کارگردانی «پیتر دیویس» که در سال ۱۹۷۴ برنده اسکار شد، استفاده شده است. این فیلم به صورت کامل در یوتیوب وجود دارد.

دختر ناپالمی و عکاسی که خالق آن است در کنار پزشک معالجش بعد از 40 سال

این عکس، سیر جنگ را تغییر داد، بسیاری از سربازانی که بعد از پایان جنگ، امکان بازگشت به آمریکا را یافته بودند به نیک اوت می‌گفتند که  به خاطر عکس اوست که چنین امکانی یافته‌اند.
تا اینجایش را شاید شمار زیادی از شما بدانید. اما بعد از فشار داده شدن شاتر و گرفته شدن عکس، چه پیش آمد؟ نیک اوت می‌گوید که بعد از گرفتن عکس، دیگر تمایل نداشت، عکس دیگری از صحنه بگیرد، بلکه می‌خواست به هر قیمتی شده به دخترک کمک کند.
در صحنه تعدادی از روزنامه‌نگاران بریتانیایی هم حضور داشتند، یکی از آن «کریستوفر وین» بود که به «کیم فوک» با قمقمه‌اش آب داد، او دختر را کول گرفت و او را همراه نیک اوت به یک بیمارستان کوچک برد.

آن بیمارستان برای درمان سوختگی شدید کیم فوک مناسب نبود، به همین خاطر روزنامه‌نگاران برای انتقال دختر به بیمارستان مجهز آمریکایی اصرار زیادی کردند و بعد از تقلای زیاد دختر به بیمارستان آمریکایی در سایگون برده شد.

در بیمارستان، پزشکان معتقد بودند که با توجه به شدت سوختگی دخترک زیاد زنده نمی‌ماند و شاید فردا یا پس‌فردا فوت کند. اما بعد از ۱۴ ماه بستری در بیمارستان و ۱۷ عمل جراحی، «کیم فوک» بهبود یافت و به خانه برگشت، «اوت» تا زمانی  سقوط سایگون و خروج نظامیان آمریکا از ویتنام به صورت مرتب از او عیادت می‌کرد.

کیم فوک وقتی بزرگ شد، پزشکی خواند، اما دولت کمونیستی ویتنام تمایل داشت از او به عنوان یک ابزار تبلیغاتی استفاده کند، او مجبور شد که کالج را رها کند و به دهکده‌اش برگردد، در آنجا به صورت مرتب با روزنامه‌نگاران خارجی ملاقات کند و جلوی آنها نقش بازی کند و حرف‌هایی را که به او دیکته می‌شد بگوید، او به شدت تحت نظر بود و رنج می‌کشید.
در سال ۱۹۸۲ او برای معالجات پزشکی به آلمان غربی رفت، با نظر مساعد نخست‌وزیر وقت ویتنام، در سال ۱۹۸۶ او اجازه یافت که در کوبا به تحصیلات خود ادامه دهد. در کوبا او با یک دانشجوی ویتنامی دیگر که به نام «بوی هوی توان» آشنا شد، آشنایی که  به ازدواج  آنها در سال ۱۹۹۲ انجامید. آنها ماه عسلشان را در مسکو سپری کردند. اما در بازگشت، وقتی هواپیمای حامل آنها مشغول تجدید سوخت در کانادا بود، آنها از هواپیما پیاده شدند و پناهندگی سیاسی درخواست کردند که مورد قبول واقع شد. این زوج حالا در آژاکس در اونتاریو زندگی می‌کنند و دو فرزند دارند.

در سال ۱۹۹۶، فوک با جراحانی که جانش را نجات دادند، ملاقات کرد. سال بعد او امتحان شهروندی کانادا را با موفقیت گذراند و شهروند کانادا شد.
در همین سال، فوک در روز یادبود کهنه‌سربازان جنگ آمریکا در جمع آنها سخنرانی کرد و گفت که یک شخص به تنهایی قادر به تغییر گذشته نیست اما همه با کمک هم می‌توانند آینده توأم با صلح بسازند. در این مراسم جان پلامر، که زمانی ترتیب‌دهنده حملات هوایی ویتنام جنوبی بود، با فوک دیدار کرد و از او طلب بخشش کرد، درخواستی که در جمع پذیرفته شد. یک فیلمساز کانادایی مستندی از جریان این دیدار ساخته است.
در سال ۱۹۹۷، او در آمریکا بنیاد کیم فوک را تأسیس کرد که هدفش فراهم آوردن کمک‌های پزشکی و روانپزشکی برای کودکان قربانی جنگ است. بعدها همین بنیاد او وجه بین‌المللی به خود گرفت. درهمین سال، کیم فوک سفیر حسن نیت یونسکو  شد.

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."

___

It was June 8, 1972, when Phuc heard the soldier's scream: "We have to run out of this place! They will bomb here, and we will be dead!"

Seconds later, she saw the tails of yellow and purple smoke bombs curling around the Cao Dai temple where her family had sheltered for three days, as north and south Vietnamese forces fought for control of their village.

The little girl heard a roar overhead and twisted her neck to look up. As the South Vietnamese Skyraider plane grew fatter and louder, it swooped down toward her, dropping canisters like tumbling eggs flipping end over end.

"Ba-boom! Ba-boom!"

The ground rocked. Then the heat of a hundred furnaces exploded as orange flames spit in all directions.

Fire danced up Phuc's left arm.

The threads of her cotton clothes evaporated on contact. Trees became angry torches. Searing pain bit through skin and muscle.

"I will be ugly, and I'm not normal anymore," she thought, as her right hand brushed furiously across her blistering arm. "People will see me in a different way."

In shock, she sprinted down Highway 1 behind her older brother. She didn't see the foreign journalists gathered as she ran toward them, screaming.

Then, she lost consciousness.

___

Ut, the 21-year-old Vietnamese photographer who took the picture, drove Phuc to a small hospital. There, he was told the child was too far gone to help. But he flashed his American press badge, demanded that doctors treat the girl and left assured that she would not be forgotten.

"I cried when I saw her running," said Ut, whose older brother was killed on assignment with the AP in the southern Mekong Delta. "If I don't help her — if something happened and she died — I think I'd kill myself after that."

Back at the office in what was then U.S.-backed Saigon, he developed his film. When the image of the naked little girl emerged, everyone feared it would be rejected because of the news agency's strict policy against nudity.

But veteran Vietnam photo editor Horst Faas took one look and knew it was a shot made to break the rules. He argued the photo's news value far outweighed any other concerns, and he won.

A couple of days after the image shocked the world, another journalist found out the little girl had somehow survived the attack. Christopher Wain, a correspondent for the British Independent Television Network who had given Phuc water from his canteen and drizzled it down her burning back at the scene, fought to have her transferred to the American-run Barsky unit. It was the only facility in Saigon equipped to deal with her severe injuries.

"I had no idea where I was or what happened to me," she said. "I woke up and I was in the hospital with so much pain, and then the nurses were around me. I woke up with a terrible fear."

Thirty percent of Phuc's tiny body was scorched raw by third-degree burns, though her face somehow remained untouched. Over time, her melted flesh began to heal.

"Every morning at 8 o'clock, the nurses put me in the burn bath to cut all my dead skin off," she said. "I just cried and when I could not stand it any longer, I just passed out."

After multiple skin grafts and surgeries, Phuc was finally allowed to leave, 13 months after the bombing.

She had seen Ut's photo, which by then had won the Pulitzer Prize, but she was still unaware of its reach and power. She just wanted to go home and be a child again.

___

For a while, life did go somewhat back to normal. The photo was famous, but Phuc largely remained unknown except to those living in her tiny village near the Cambodian border. Ut and a few other journalists sometimes visited her, but that stopped after northern communist forces seized control of South Vietnam on April 30, 1975, ending the war.

Life under the new regime became tough. Medical treatment and painkillers were expensive and hard to find for the teenager, who still suffered extreme headaches and pain.

She worked hard and was accepted into medical school to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor. But all that ended once the new communist leaders realized the propaganda value of the 'napalm girl' in the photo.

She was forced to quit college and return to her home province, where she was trotted out to meet foreign journalists. The visits were monitored and controlled, her words scripted. She smiled and played her role, but the rage inside began to build and consume her.

"I wanted to escape that picture," she said. "I got burned by napalm, and I became a victim of war ... but growing up then, I became another kind of victim."

She turned to Cao Dai, her Vietnamese religion, for answers. But they didn't come.

"My heart was exactly like a black coffee cup," she said. "I wished I died in that attack with my cousin, with my south Vietnamese soldiers. I wish I died at that time so I won't suffer like that anymore ... it was so hard for me to carry all that burden with that hatred, with that anger and bitterness."

One day, while visiting a library, Phuc found a Bible. For the first time, she started believing her life had a plan.

Then suddenly, once again, the photo that had given her unwanted fame brought opportunity.

She traveled to West Germany in 1982 for medical care with the help of a foreign journalist. Later, Vietnam's prime minister, also touched by her story, made arrangements for her to study in Cuba.

She was finally free from the minders and reporters hounding her at home, but her life was far from normal. Ut, then working at the AP in Los Angeles, traveled to meet her in 1989, but they never had a moment alone. There was no way for him to know she desperately wanted his help again.

"I knew in my dream that one day Uncle Ut could help me to have freedom," said Phuc, referring to him by an affectionate Vietnamese term. "But I was in Cuba. I was really disappointed because I couldn't contact with him. I couldn't do anything."

___

While at school, Phuc met a young Vietnamese man.

She had never believed anyone would ever want her because of the ugly patchwork of scars that banded across her back and pitted her arm, but Bui Huy Toan seemed to love her more because of them.

The two decided to marry in 1992 and honeymoon in Moscow. On the flight back to Cuba, the newlyweds defected during a refueling stop in Canada. She was free.

Phuc contacted Ut to share the news, and he encouraged her to tell her story to the world. But she was done giving interviews and posing for photos."I have a husband and a new life and want to be normal like everyone else," she said.The media eventually found Phuc living near Toronto, and she decided she needed to take control of her story. A book was written in 1999 and a documentary came out, at last the way she wanted it told. She was asked to become a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador to help victims of war. She and Ut have since reunited many times to tell their story, even traveling to London to meet the Queen.

"Today, I'm so happy I helped Kim," said Ut, who still works for AP and recently returned to Trang Bang village. "I call her my daughter."

After four decades, Phuc, now a mother of two sons, can finally look at the picture of herself running naked and understand why it remains so powerful. It had saved her, tested her and ultimately freed her.

"Most of the people, they know my picture but there's very few that know about my life," she said. "I'm so thankful that ... I can accept the picture as a powerful gift. Then it is my choice. Then I can work with it for peace."