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Power of iconic image taken on June 8, 1972!

KARACHI: Iconic snap, titled The Terror of War, featuring a minor (namely Phan Thi Kim Phuc) running sans clothes, was taken by Associated Press photographer Huynh Cong Ut on June 8, 1972.

It is a 46-year-old reminder of the era when over one million Vietnamese and 58,000 American troops lost their lives as a result of Vietnam War.

The picture managed to describe War’s cruelty in such an effective manner that played a crucial role in ending the most deadly war in history.

The picture did play a role to stop the Vietnam War. But that did not stop the war, as Vietnam tragedy goes on till today in Palestine, Kashmir, Syria, and Afghanistan.

Besides, it touches the deepest emotions of the viewers’ hearts and they could feel the suffering and excruciating pain of the girl.

This article illustrates the significance of this photo: how it impacts  the spectators, what does it try to communicate and how it managed to stop the War being the most powerful picture!

According to details, the photographer was 25 miles northwest of Saigon outside Trang Bang on June 8, 1972, when the South Vietnamese air force dropped explosives stuffed with napalm* on the village.

While the photographer was taking pictures of the massacre, he suddenly saw some soldiers and a group of children. Wherein a nude minor, screaming, crying and keeping her arms flung away her body in extreme pain, rushed towards him and he clicked that iconic photo with his Leica M2 (35-mm. f2 lens).

As the photo was developed and printed, the editor of AP (namely Carl Robinson) refused to run the photograph in America as the child was sans clothes. However, when the AP Saigon photo editor Horst Faas looked at the snap, he sent the picture to be printed immediately. The picture published around three or four o’clock Saigon time and was diffused from Saigon to Tokyo to New York by radiophoto transmitter.

As soon as the snap was published it swept like a wildfire across the States. It is known for being the most powerful image as it managed to manifest that the wars could only bring anguish, pain, and loss.

Innumerable publications run the photo and started talking and writing about the war. Newsroom debates commenced regarding running a nude photo, resulting in commanding known publications (including The New York Times) to reverse their policies.

It has further been reported that the picture lent  South Vietnamese military into trouble and American army started criticizing their men as to why they let the photographer take the picture.

The photo sparked debates about the rights, wrongs, and brutality of the Vietnam War. Consider it the power of the picture or the media, its significance resulted in forcing the government to end the war on January 23, 1973.

While reviewing the picture, Guardian ascertained, “Ut’s photo galvanized American public opinion and expedited the end of the Vietnam War.”

Pundits reckoned the photograph as the game changer in the Vietnam War that led the world to the extreme agony; this iconic photo made people pay heed to the dread of war. The power of the image was so intense that it shook the moral sense of the world while playing a considerable role in changing US public opinion apropos the war.

American President Richard Nixon once claimed that the snap was fake. However, his insinuation was proved bogus when the photograph got Ut the Pulitzer Prize.

In 2016, Facebook ousted the napalm girl photograph saying that it was against the policy to demonstrate nude picture of a child. Upon this instance, the CEO of the Facebook Mark Zuckerberg faced a backlash. As a result, Facebook brought back the snap.

It is pertinent to mention here that on 2nd of September, 2015, the picture of a three-year-old Syrian boy Alan Kurdi, who drowned along with his family in the Mediterranean Sea while escaping the war, made ledes on the global level. The snap was taken by a Turkish journalist namely Nilufer Demir. Similarly, on August 17, 2016, a snap of a five-year-old Omran Daqneesh from Syria went viral. The innocent child – who was rescued from a building in Aleppo – could be seen covered in dust from head to toe with blood coming out of his head. The picture was taken by an activist Mahmoud Raslan. Lately, on April 8, 2018, the image of a child, taking up oxygen via respirators following a poison gas attack in the rebel-held town of Douma, near Damascus, was released by the Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets. 

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However, despite the passage of time, situation remains the same and the war looms over Syria,  Palestine, Kashmir, and Afghanistan etc.

Sometimes words are not enough to articulate the pain and sufferings of the victims. And hence, there is a need for strong visuals to communicate the message as we see in the napalm girl photograph. Its impact was so strong that it forced the government to announce ceasefire. It communicated the agony of naive children – particularly the minor girl, who can be seen running without clothes with burning, dying and weak body. The snap, even four and a half decades after the war, has the potential to jolt the emotions of beholders. (Aiman Inam)

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*Napalm is an extremely flammable adhesive jelly used in making bombs and flame-throwers. It adheres to its victims and burns the layers of skin and muscle.

M M Alam

M. M. Alam is a Pakistan-based working journalist since 1981. Karachi University faculty gold medalist Alam began his career four decades ago by writing for Dawn, Pakistan’s highest circulating English daily. He has worked for region’s leading publications, global aviation periodicals including Rotors (of USA) and vetted New York Times as permanent employee of daily Express Tribune. Alam regularly covers international aviation and defense-related events including Salon Du Bourget (France), Farnborough (United Kingdom), Dubai (UAE). Alam has reported thousands of events and interviewed hundreds of people in Pakistan, UAE, EU, UK and USA. Being Francophone Alam also coordinates with a number of French publications.