Posted on 06/02/2012 7:21:36 PM PDT by EternalVigilance
*excerpt*
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.
-----
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Should be 50, no?
If you found 100 Americans familiar with the photo, 98 of them would say the napalm was dropped by US planes.
Photo is 40.
And those 98 would be wrong.
It was dropped by either US or ARVN aircraft. North Vietnam didn’t do any airstrikes in the south.
From the caption on the famous photo, at the link:
FILE - In this June 8, 1972 file photo, crying children, including 9-year-old Kim Phuc, center, run down Route 1 near Trang Bang, Vietnam after an aerial napalm attack on suspected Viet Cong hiding places as South Vietnamese forces from the 25th Division walk behind them. A South Vietnamese plane accidentally dropped its flaming napalm on South Vietnamese troops and civilians. From left, the children are Phan Thanh Tam, younger brother of Kim Phuc, who lost an eye, Phan Thanh Phouc, youngest brother of Kim Phuc, Kim Phuc, and Kim's cousins Ho Van Bon, and Ho Thi Ting.
I hate what the media did to us in that war. Yes what happened to that girl was horrible but for every thing like that our soldiers did a hundred noble things that the MSM never showed. Had the media been balanced we’d have won that war and you wouldn’t have seen so many young dupes in the streets.
The young girl is described as being "9 years old", giving a DOB of sometime in 1962 or 1963.
This is 2012, last time I checked, so she should be 49 or 50.
AP doesn't do math any better than they do unbiased reporting.
"June 8, 1972: Kim Phuc, center left, running down a road nude near Trang Bang after a South Vietnamese Air Force napalm attack."
Headline: "AP 'napalm girl' photo from Vietnam War turns 40." Which it does, next Friday.
Kim Phuc, the subject of the photo, is in her late 40s.
From the story; "A South Vietnamese plane accidentally dropped its flaming napalm on South Vietnamese troops and civilians."
Sorry, I forgot that to the Media, they are all that matter, not the subject.
I think they just ran the same story they ran 10 years ago. I remember this story from then.
I think they just ran the same story they ran 10 years ago. I remember this story from then.
Fascinating. Let me get this straight.
She’s bombed by Vietnamese planes. So an AMERICAN insists she gets proper care, and her life is saved. But after he leaves, she is abandoned in a hellhole of a communist state, and even when she gets her life together despite the bombing, the communists tear her away from success and make her a propaganda model.
Then she finds a BIBLE and finds true hope, and everything starts to change for her.
She gets stuck in another communist hellhole (Cuba) but finally escapes to the west, and starts having a good life.
Want to bet most of readers of AP totally gloss over and miss all those points, and somehow come away with this is America’s fault.
“Headline: “AP ‘napalm girl’ photo from Vietnam War turns 40.” Which it does, next Friday.”
“Kim Phuc, the subject of the photo, is in her late 40s.”
Because, as far as the AP is concerned, it is the PHOTO that is important. Not the girl.
1) Accidents happen in war. If you’re going to use weapons like napalm you have to accept that when those inevitable errors occur innocent people are going to be harmed with the media nearby.
2) The reason the picture reverberated is because it forced the American public to understand that the war in Vietnam was ensuring that such attacks using such weapons were ongoing. And many Americans, including those who had seen first hand the corruption of the SVG and cowardice of the ARVN, weren’t keen on it.
You should actually read the link provided. The whole story is about her struggle to find peace in her life. It isn’t about the “photo”...
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