Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Kim Phuc Phan Thi
On June 8, 1972, South Vietnamese planes dropped a napalm bomb on the village of Trang Bang , Vietnam, suspected by US Army forces of being a Viet Cong stronghold. Kim Phuc Phan Thi (born 1963) was a resident of Trang Bang, and after being severely burned in the attack she fled naked from her village. Her escape was caught on film by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut and the image became one of the most remembered images of the Vietnam War. The photograph earned Ut a Pulitzer Prize.
After taking the photograph, Ut promptly took Thi to a hospital in Saigon where it was determined that her burns were so severe that she would not survive. However, after 14 months of medical attention, she returned home.
When she was an adult, due to pressure from people to use her as an anti-war symbol she requested permission from the Vietnam government to go to Cuba to resume her studies. By this time she had converted from her family's religion of Caodai to Christianity. Pham Van Dong, the then Prime-Minister of Vietnam, became a friend and patron of hers.
She then moved to Cuba, after receiving permission, and met Bui Huy Tuan. They married and, in 1992, they went on a honeymoon. During an airplane refueling in Gander, Newfoundland, Canada, they got off the plane and defected to Canada. They now live in Toronto and have two children.
In 1996, she met with (and expressed forgiveness for) the American officer who ordered the strike; she also met the surgeons who saved her life.
On November 10, 1997, Thi was named a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador.
On October 22, 2004, Thi was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws from York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada for her work to aid child victims of war around the world.
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