Phan Thị Kim Phúc OOnt (Vietnamese: [faːŋ tʰɪ̂ˀ kim fúk͡p̚]; born April 6, 1963), referred to informally as the girl in the picture[1] and the napalm girl, is a South Vietnamese-born Canadian woman best known as the nine-year-old child depicted in the Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph, titled The Terror of War, taken at Trảng Bàng during the Vietnam War on June 8, 1972.

The image, taken for the Associated Press by a 21-year-old Vietnamese-American photographer named Nick Ut, shows her at nine years of age running naked on a road after being severely burned on her back by a South Vietnamese napalm attack.

[5] The Republic of Vietnam Air Force pilot flying an A-1E Skyraider mistook the group for enemy soldiers and diverted to attack.

[10] After snapping the photograph, Ut took Phúc and the other injured children to Barsky Hospital in Saigon, where it was determined that her burns were so severe that she probably would not survive.

After a few seconds, she encounters the reporters dressed in military fatigues,[23] including Christopher Wain (top-right frame), who gave her water and poured some over her burns.

Sections of the film shot were included in Hearts and Minds (1974), the Academy Award-winning documentary about the Vietnam War directed by Peter Davis.

[25] After the release of this tape, Ut commented, "Even though it has become one of the most memorable images of the twentieth century, President Nixon once doubted the authenticity of my photograph when he saw it in the papers on 12 June 1972...

[4] In 1993, on the way to their honeymoon in Moscow, they left the plane during a refuelling stop in Gander, Newfoundland, and asked for political asylum in Canada, which was granted.

[30] In 2015, it was reported that she was receiving laser treatment, provided free of charge at a hospital in Miami, US, to reduce the scarring on her left arm and back.

[37] In 2004, Phúc spoke at the University of Connecticut about her life and experience, learning how to be "strong in the face of pain" and how compassion and love helped her heal.

[36] In the programme, Phúc related how she was involved through her foundation in the efforts to secure medical treatment in Canada for Ali Abbas, who had lost both arms in a rocket attack on Baghdad during the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

This led directly to her conversion to Christianity, which she credits with healing the psychological trauma of living over forty years being known to the world as "Napalm Girl".

"[40] In July 2022, Phúc in person welcomed 236 Ukrainian refugees with children aboard a special flight, arranged by an organization called Solidaire, from Warsaw to Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, in an airplane displaying her iconic 1972 photo on its side.

It was released on Flying Snowman Records, with all profits going to the Kim Phúc Foundation, and re-released in 2021 as part of Eric's album Leave a Mark.

[44] On October 22, 2004, Phúc was made a member of the Order of Ontario, and received an honorary Doctorate of Law from York University for her work supporting child victims of war around the world.

Phúc and her mother, Nu, provide the lens through which readers of The Girl in the Picture experience war, strife, and the development of communism in Vietnam.