Unfriendly Fire: The Terror of War

The road from Saigon to Ajax, Ontario was paved with pain and forgiveness

Written by Neil Gonsalves for Seeking Veritas on Substack

“I am not a victim of war anymore. I am a survivor… I am so thankful that all social media all over the world is just talking about my picture. I think that is so powerful. We have to have the truth. The story has to be told. To show people what happened” - (Kim Phúc Phan Thi - 2022)

Why do we call it ‘friendly fire’? There is nothing friendly about it. On June 8, 1972, Kim Phúc Phan Thi was nine years old, she lived in the village of Trang Bang northwest of Saigon - now called Ho Chi Minh City - along with other members of her family she had been sheltering at a nearby temple; North Vietnamese forces had occupied their village. - Mistakenly believing they had spotted enemy soldiers fleeing, a South Vietnamese airforce pilot “flying in at around 2,000 feet and 500 mph, had seconds to identify the group… assumed that the group were armed North Vietnamese Army, and so he dropped his ordnance on their position” - Two of Kim Phúc’s cousins were killed, along with several of South Vietnam’s own people. A terrible mistake commonly referred to as friendly fire.

In a 2022 interview with CBC producer Sylvia Thomson, Kim Phúc recalled,

“As soon as the napalm touched me, the clothes burned off. I still remember my arm and seeing all the fire. I was so terrified, and I was so scared. And I thanked God my feet weren't burned, and I was able to run out of that fire…. We just kept running and running and running for a while … and I cried out 'Too hot! Too hot!' The soldiers tried to help me. They tried to pour the water over me, and at that moment, I lost consciousness”

The now iconic picture was captured by a then 21 year old Vietnamese-American photographer named Nick Ut for the Associated Press. On seeing her suffering, Nick helped her and other survivors to a hospital - burns covered roughly 50 percent of the her body, and her odds of survival were considered extremely low. Over the next 14 months, Phúc received 17 surgeries, but she was left with serious restrictions in her range of movement that would last for a decade until receiving reconstructive surgery in West Germany in 1982. - The picture was officially titled, ‘The Terror of War’ but has informally been referred to as ‘Napalm Girl’ ever since - it received a Pulitzer Prize, recognition for the function of journalism in shedding light on the terror inherent in war. - Kim Phúc and Nick Ut keep in contact to this day more than 50 years later.

According to a CNN article by Oscar Holland, Kim Phúc had dreamed about becoming a doctor, however the Vietnamese government removed her from medical school to use her in propaganda campaigns. - She initially hated the photograph and struggled with all the attention. The government eventually allowed her to study in Havana Cuba, where she met her now husband, Bui Huy Toan, the couple married in 1992.

While on route to their honeymoon in Moscow, their plane stopped over to refuel in Gander, Newfoundland. The couple left the international transit area and asked the Canadian government for political asylum. In 1997 they became Canadian citizens. The couple now live in Ajax, Ontario

When asked how she felt about her picture being shared around the world and about all the interviews, Kim replied,

“I am not a victim of war anymore. I am a survivor. I feel like 50 years ago, I was a victim of war but 50 years later, I was a friend, a helper, a mother, a grandmother and a survivor calling out for peace. And I work to fulfil my dream to give back to children who are victims of war. I am so thankful that all social media all over the world is just talking about my picture. I think that is so powerful. We have to have the truth. The story has to be told. To show people what happened”. 

She founded the Kim Foundation International providing aid to child victims of war. Her road from Saigon to Ajax was paved with pain but also forgiveness.

The fact that she now lives in a town less than 15 minutes away from me is a stark reminder that behind every iconic photo lies a real person, whose life is complex and multidimensional; whose whole story is worth knowing and retelling - so that lessons from history do not wither and fade from our collective memory.

Bio: Neil Gonsalves is an Indian-born Canadian immigrant who grew up in Dubai, U.A.E. and moved to Canada in 1995. He is an Ontario college professor, a TEDx speaker, a columnist, a recreational dog trainer and an advocate for new immigrant integration.