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The Girl in the Picture
Kim Phuc survived devasting injuries in the Vietnam war to find peace in Canada.
by Jennifer Jacoby-Smith
It is a gut-wrenching image, a permanent part of history. A young, naked girl runs from a Napalm attack on her village in Southern Vietnam, a cry of agony frozen on her face.
The girl, Kim Phuc, received third degree burns to her back, buttocks and left arm. The picture taken by Nick Ut on June 8, 1972, during the Vietnam war, won a Pulitzer Prize that year. It also sparked an interest in the “girl in the picture,” an interest that continues two decades later.
Today, Phuc, 37, lives in Ajax, Ontario. She answers the telephone with a quiet “Hello.” She still speaks of the horrors of war, but for her, the story didn’t end with her desperate dash into Ut’s viewfinder.
As she speaks, one can sense the smile on her face and the contentment she’s found. “I am so happy!” she says. “It’s so wonderful in Canada.”
Joy is a surprising emotion from a woman who has endured so much. In the aftermath of the war, she suffered not only the excruciating pain of recovery and many surgeries, but also the devastation of poverty. She admits to often crying out, “Why me? Why do I have to suffer?”
At a church service in Vietnam Phuc found the forgiveness she needed in order to forgive others, by personally accepting Christ’s death on the cross for her sins. That decision started her healing process.
“Oh, it’s so good, because I’m not angry,” she says, describing that moment. “I’m not upset. I feel like inside I have peace.”
In the ‘80s, when interest in “the girl in the picture” resurfaced, the Communist regime in Vietnam began using Phuc as a propaganda tool.
Every day she asked God to help find freedom. In time, she finally made her escape and defected to Canada.
Today, Phuc lives with her husband Toan, their children, Thomas, six, and Stephen, three, and her parents, spreading her message of peace. She describes her path to forgiveness as a process and not a single moment.
“[Forgiveness] does not happen over night,” she explains gently. Phuc thinks that forgiveness is difficult, because “we don’t know how to forgive. I couldn’t do that without the power of God.”
On November 11, 1996, in Washington, D.C., while speaking at a Veteran’s Day Memorial Service, Phuc met John Plummer, a man who carried with him two decades of guilt for the napalm attack on Phuc’s village.
When they met, Phuc held out her arms to him. “It's okay,” she told him, “I forgive.”
Her life in Canada is kept busy with public appearances. She recently finished a string of speaking engagements in conjunction with the Power to Change campaign, including Edmonton and other sites across Western Canada. She’s also started the Kim Foundation, to help child victims of war.
“I really don’t want to see another picture like that. Enough is enough. No more war.”
Phuc is grateful for how God is using her story. “I thank God for everything — everything that has happened in my life is not by accident.”
In fact, Phuc views the photo by Nick Ut as a powerful gift. “I can use it now to promote peace,” she says. “When people see the picture, they can know how horrible war can be.”
She is thankful that her children are living in a country free from the warfare that Phuc grew up with, free also from the control of a communist regime. Those are true blessings.
But, she said, best of all, in her forgiveness of others, “I feel completely free.”
Denise Chong has chronicled Phuc’s story in vivid detail in her bestselling book The Girl in the Picture (Penguin Books). The book is a riveting look at a story that still captivates us.
Phuc will always be the “girl in the picture,” but she hopes that people will see a new picture — one that reflects the goodness of God.
“Now they can see the picture of love, of forgiveness, and hope.”
For more information about the Kim Foundation write to: P.O. Box 31025, 475 Westney Road North, Ajax, Ontario, Canada, L1T 3V2.
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