Phan Thi Kim Phuc
This is the story of a changed life, as told to Power to Change Ministries.
Born: Trang Bang, South Vietnam, 1963
It is a photograph that few are likely to forget. A little girl, her clothes seared from her body by a Napalm bomb, runs screaming from her burning village. Her arms are outstretched in terror and pain.
For many, this photograph – which would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize for AP photographer Nick Ut – epitomized the tragedy of the Vietnam war. The village of Trang Bang was damaged on June 8, 1972 during an ariel attack on suspected Viet Cong locations. Many were killed and a little girl’s life was changed forever.
Though terribly burned, that little girl did survive. Nick Ut placed her in a vehicle and rushed her to the hospital. Kim endured fourteen months of painful rehabilitation for the third degree burns over more than half her body.
As an adult, Kim would be forced to abandon medical school following renewed international interest in the “symbol of the people’s war.” After an appeal to the head of the Vietnamese government, she was allowed to leave the country to resume her studies. Kim met her future husband while studying in Cuba, and was, by this time, determined to defect to the West. On their honeymoon in 1992, the couple disembarked during plane refueling in Gander, Newfoundland, Canada and defected.
Settled in a new country with a young family, Kim’s story continues. While there have been confusion and disagreement about the bombing–who ordered it, where it actually took place, what the target was–the fact that Kim became another innocent victim of war is unchangeable. Now, she uses her notoriety to speak for peace. In November 1997, Kim was named a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Earlier in 1997, she founded the Kim Foundation in Chicago, to help innocent victims of war.
What is perhaps most stunning about Kim Phuc is the peace that radiates from her in person. She is not angry. She is not bitter against her government or anyone else involved in the war. In fact, Kim’s greatest passion is healing. In 1996, she travelled to the United States to meet Nick Ut and the doctors who had operated on her in Saigon. On Veteran’s Day that same year, Kim spoke at the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Washington, DC. Her message expressed the need for healing and reconciliation for all those who’d been involved in the war.
What makes this possible? Perhaps a better question is “Who makes this possible?” And the answer is God.
Kim’s gentle spirit and quiet determination are products of her relationship with a loving Heavenly Father. Kim discovered a God who could empathize with her pain, and who could heal it. Her body bears the scars of a brutal childhood experience, but her spirit is whole.
Do you bear scars that you think can never be healed? He’s waiting to prove you wrong.
Won’t you consider asking God into your life today? Just pray simply:
“Dear Lord Jesus, I want to know you personally. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank you for forgiving me of my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of my life and make me the kind of person You want me to be. Amen.”
For more of Kim’s story:
- Kim’s Story: The Road to Vietnam
- Address At The United States Vietnam War Memorial – Veterans’ Day 1996 by Kim Phuc
