Several articles have been written this week about “the girl in the picture.” Hard to believe it’s been 40 years since this iconic image from the Vietnam War was splashed across the front page of newspapers everywhere, penetrating America’s consciousness.
 

 
In was June 8, 1972 when napalm rained down around the pagoda in the village of Trang Bang. The UK Mail Online recounts what happened then:

Kim Phuc heard the soldier’s scream: ‘We have to run out of this place! They will bomb here, and we will be dead!’
 
Seconds later, she saw the tails of yellow and purple smoke bombs curling around the Cao Dai temple where her family had sheltered for three days, as north and south Vietnamese forces fought for control of their village.
 
The little girl heard a roar overhead and twisted her neck to look up. As the South Vietnamese Skyraider plane grew fatter and louder, it swooped down toward her, dropping canisters like tumbling eggs flipping end over end.
 
‘Ba-boom! Ba-boom!’
 
The ground rocked. Then the heat of a hundred furnaces exploded as orange flames spit in all directions.

 
Two war correspondents were in the village that day and it was photojournalist Nick Ut who snapped the now-famous picture of Kim Phuc and the other children running running from the fire. The young girl was suffering from third degree burns over her entire back and along her arms.
 
The two men ran to her aid and visited the hospital the next day to check on Kim’s progress. Because the Vietnamese facility wasn’t equipped to deal with such extensive burn injuries, her prognosis was dire. It was Christopher Wain, Ut’s fellow journalist and a correspondent for the British Independent Television Network, who fought to have her transferred to the American-run Barsky unit.
 

After seventeen surgeries and fourteen months in the hospital Kim, whose name means “Golden Happiness,” returned home. But for the next several years, life was anything but happy for the young woman. Kim tells her own story in “The Long Road to Forgiveness:”

It was a very difficult time for me when I went home from the hospital. Our house was destroyed, we lost everything, and we just survived day-by-day.
 
Although I suffered from pain, itching, and headaches all the time, the long hospital stay made me dream to become a doctor. But my studies were cut short by the local government. They wanted me as a symbol of the state. I could not go to school any more.
 
The anger inside me was like a hatred as high as a mountain. I hated my life. I hated all people who were normal because I was not normal. I really wanted to die many times.
 
I spent my daytime in the library to read a lot of religious books to find a purpose for my life. One of the books that I read was the Holy Bible. On Christmas 1982, I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior. It was an amazing turning point in my life. God helped me to learn to forgive — the most difficult of all lessons. It didn’t happen in a day and it wasn’t easy. But I finally got it.
 
Forgiveness made me free from hatred. I still have many scars on my body and severe pain most days, but my heart is cleansed.

 
Kim Phuc was asked to become a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador to help victims of war. She and Nick Ut have since reunited many times to tell their story, even traveling to London to meet the Queen ~
 

 
Kim’s “Long Road” ends with these lines:

Napalm is very powerful but faith, forgiveness, and love are much more powerful. We would not have war at all if everyone could learn how to live with true love, hope, and forgiveness. If that little girl in the picture can do it, ask yourself: Can you?

 
Now 49, today Kim lives in Canada with her husband and son. She has finally found “Golden Happiness,” peace and forgiveness in Jesus Christ.
 

 
Related:
Most of the updates on Kim Phuc fail to mention her conversion to Christianity and its impact on her life. These two do discuss that critical part of her tale ~
How an iconic photo of naked girl made a lasting impact
‘The girl in the picture’ tells story of recovery