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May 31, 2012 5:14 PM | CBS News

AP "napalm girl" photo from Vietnam War turns 40


In this June 8, 1972 file photo, crying children, including 9-year-old Kim Phuc, center, run down Route 1 near
Trang Bang, Vietnam after an aerial napalm attack on suspected Viet Cong hiding places as South Vietnamese
forces from the 25th Division walk behind them. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

(AP) TRANG BANG, Vietnam - In the picture, the girl will always be 9 years old and wailing
"Too hot! Too hot!" as she runs down the road away from her burning Vietnamese village.

She will always be naked after blobs of sticky napalm melted through her clothes and layers of skin
like jellied lava.

She will always be a victim without a name.

It only took a second for Associated Press photographer Huynh Cong "Nick" Ut to snap the iconic
black-and-white image 40 years ago. It communicated the horrors of the Vietnam War in a way words
could never describe, helping to end one of America's darkest eras.

But beneath the photo lies a lesser-known story. It's the tale of a dying child brought together by chance
with a young photographer. A moment captured in the chaos of war that would serve as both her savior
and her curse on a journey to understand life's plan for her.