Vietnam War: ‘My clothes burned and fell off my body’ Survivor reveals horrific events

napalm

‘My clothes burned and fell off my body. I remember thinking I was going to be ugly’, Kim Phuc (Image: AP)

Until her life changed for ever. Kim Phuc had just turned nine when a South Vietnamese bomber accidentally dropped napalm as she fled an air attack. It was June 1972, the height of the war. South Vietnam, backed by the US to contain the communist, China-funded North, was losing. 

Three days earlier Kim’s village had been taken over by the North’s People’s Army of Vietnam and she had been sent to seek shelter at a Cao Dai temple with her brothers and cousin. 

Any hope of safety was lost on June 8 because of South Vietnamese bombers carrying napalm, supplied by the US, and designed to react to oxygen and burn at 1,200C. 

Recalling the horrific events from her home in Canada, Kim, 56, said: “I remember running fast. I turned my head to see the plane overhead. Four bombs were landing. 

“Suddenly there was fire all around me, all over me. My clothes burned and fell off my body.” 

More than 60 per cent of her body suffered third degree burns. 

“My left arm was on fire and I used my right arm to wrap it up,” she said. “I remember thinking that I was going to be ugly, that people would look at me differently.” 

kim phuc

Kim – whose photo captures the horrors of the Vietnam war – now campaigns for peace (Image: Getty)

It was at the moment that Associated Press photographer Nick Ut captured the photograph. 

“I was crying ‘Too hot, too hot’,” she said. “I ran until I was exhausted. One soldier poured water over me. I blacked out.” 

She came to at Saigon Hospital: “I wished I never woke up. They put me in a burn bath. They cut the dead skin off. I’d never felt such pain. When I couldn’t bear it I’d pass out again. All I ever did was cry.” 

After 14 months and 17 surgical procedures, she was able to go home although it was only after treatment at a clinic in West Germany that she was able to properly move again. 

Kim was beset by more than pain. Though keen to study medicine, she was yanked from university by authorities wanting her for propaganda. At 19, she was in Saigon, alone and filled with anger. 

“I still had so much hatred in my heart. I couldn’t go to school. There was no emotional support, no therapy. I wanted to end my life.” 

kim phuc

Kim was awarded the International Peace Prize earlier this year (Image: Getty)

It was then that she discovered the New Testament at Saigon Library and became a Christian. She had previously followed the Vietnamese religion Caodaism. 

“My parents were furious. I said, ‘Mum, I love you both, you love me, but you can only cry with me. I followed Cao Dai. None of this brought me peace like Jesus does’.” 

Having befriended Vietnamese PM Pham Van Dong, she begged him to allow her to study far away. He let her go to Cuba where she met fellow student Bui Huy Toan and they married in 1992. They went to Moscow on honeymoon. 

“It was on our way back that we defected,” she said. “I needed freedom. I honestly believed that once I had freedom I’d have everything. 

“We knew our airplane would refuel at Newfoundland. I’d heard rumours that some students escaped this way, but I had no plan.” 

She had an hour and her first thought was to hide in the toilet but she couldn’t leave her husband, “I knew there were spies among us. I started to walk around the terminal. I was counting the minutes. I only had 25 left. I was sweating. 

“Then I heard my small voice tell me God would help me. I closed my eyes and started to pray. 

“I spotted seven people, saw they were Cuban. I used my Spanish to ask them what they were doing. They said they wanted to stay. I replied, ‘Me too, please help me.’ 

“One said give your passport to that officer. I said to my husband, ‘Give me your passport’. Luckily, he did. If not I could never have left. 

“I gave both to the officer. I can still remember his face. My English was poor but I was able to tell him, ‘We want to stay.’ He checked our pictures and said, ‘Yes, OK’, I couldn’t believe it. He smiled.” 

Yet it wasn’t over. Kim needed an interview. “The officer was on a break and we only had 10 minutes. They’d miss us any moment. Finally the door opened and we went in. 

“At that moment the Cuba passengers were called. I saw the others walk to the gate. We had no money, we couldn’t speak English, we had no friends, but we had faith and 
we had each other and we had freedom. So we had everything.” Her main ambition was to leave that nine-year-old girl behind. 

vietnam

Blindfolded prisoners are taken away by South Vietnamese troops in 1972 (Image: Getty)

vietnam

Bombs and Training Airplanes at Military Base in Laos (Image: Getty)

“The more famous that picture became the more it trapped me. I didn’t want anyone to know it was me,” she said. The birth of her son two years later changed that. 

“I realised I never wanted my baby to suffer like that girl. I needed to dedicate my life to work for children, to work for peace.” 

She set up The Kim Foundation which has built orphanages, libraries and churches. Last week in Mexico she received her seventh honorary degree. 

“I never talk about the picture unless someone asks me. I don’t live in the past, but I learned from it,“ she said. “I refuse to be a negative person. Being negative just let me down. So I remain positive.” 

 Photos That Changed The World, History Channel, tomorrow, 10pm 

source: express.co.uk