On This Day…

Vietnam War

June 8, 1972

Nick Ut takes his Pulitzer-winning photo of a napalm attack on a South Vietnamese village. It showed nine-year-old Kim Phúc running naked after being badly burned and tearing her clothes off during a South Vietnamese Air Force napalm attack near Trang Bang. Trang Bang had been occupied by North Vietnamese forces. After taking the photograph, Ut took Kim Phúc and other injured children to a hospital in Saigon, where she stayed 14-months and had 17 surgical procedures including skin transplantations. This photo helped turn public opinion against the war.