Nearly 40 years have passed since an Associated Press photographer, Nick Ut, took one of the most memorable photographs of the Vietnam War â?? the image of a 9-year-old girl screaming in terror as she fled, naked, from a misdirected napalm attack.
In a recent retrospective article, the AP said the famous photo, taken June 8, 1972, â??communicated the horrors of the Vietnam War in a way words could never describe, helping to end one of the most divisive wars in American history.â?
Thereâ??s no denying the stunning quality of what often is called the â??napalm girlâ? image. But whether it helped â??endâ? the Vietnam War is improbable: Thatâ??s an exaggeration, a case of locating far too much significance in a single image.
By mid-June 1972, after all, most U.S. combat units had been removed from South Vietnam. For American forces, the ground war was quickly winding down.
The â??napalm girlâ? image figured in a recent New York Times obituary about Horst Faas, a gruff, German-born photographer who spent years in Vietnam, covering the conflict for the AP.
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