This event's registration at capacity. We allow guests in on a first-come-first-serve basis with priority to those who have pre-registered. Walk-in's will be allowed in pending seat availability.
Speakers:
Phan Thi Kim Phuc, Peace Activist and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador
Nick Ut, Pulitzer Prize winning Photojournalist
Fox Butterfield, Pulitzer Prize winning Journalist
Moderator:
Tony Bui, Filmmaker; Artist in Residence, Weatherhead East Asian Institute; Adjunct Professor of Film, Columbia University
Does a single photo have the power to end a war?
A discussion featuring Kim Phuc, the focal point of one of the most iconic photographs of the 20th century, captured on June 8, 1972, in Trang Bang, Vietnam. On this day, a napalm attack led to a moment frozen in time by photographer Nick Ut, showcasing the tragic human cost of war. Together with Kim Phuc, we will explore the enduring legacy and significance of this photograph, examining its impact on public perception of war, its role in shaping anti-war movements, and its continued relevance in today's global discourse on peace and reconciliation. The panel will give different perspectives on the power of imagery in historical memory and the journey of healing and advocacy that followed one of history's most turbulent periods.
Speaker Bios:
Kim Phuc Phan Thi is known around the world as “The Girl in the Picture” and the “Napalm Girl.” In 1972, age 9, she was immortalized in a Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph that shows her screaming and running naked down a road in Trang Bang, Vietnam, after having her clothes burned off by napalm. A living symbol of the atrocities of war, she is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and the founder of The KIM Foundation International, a nonprofit dedicated to helping child-victims of war, violence, and deprivation. Kim is the author of Fire Road, her personal memoir, which has been translated into ten languages.
Nick Ut joined the Associated Press (AP) in 1965 after his brother, who taught Ut how to use a camera, was killed covering the Vietnam War for the same news agency. Ut's photography, covering the conflicts in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, earned him the Pulitzer Prize and World Press Photo of the Year for his iconic 1972 photo "The Terror of War" (aka "Napalm Girl"), showing children escaping a napalm attack. The photograph highlighted the war's atrocities, notably capturing Kim Phuc, whose life Ut saved by taking her to a hospital, establishing a lifelong friendship. Ut himself was wounded three times during the war. He remains the youngest to ever win the Pulitzer Prize.
After the Vietnam War, Ut moved to Japan with the AP in 1975, later transferring to Los Angeles. There, he covered significant events including wildfires, riots, pop culture, and the O.J. Simpson trial. Celebrated for his significant contributions to photojournalism, Ut became the third person inducted into the Leica Hall of Fame in 2012.
Retiring in 2017 after 51 years with the AP, Ut now focuses on documenting cultures and the natural world, sharing his work through Getty Images and engaging in teaching, speaking, and exhibitions.
Fox Butterfield was a New York Times correspondent in Vietnam from 1971 to the last day of the war in April 1975 when he was evacuated from Saigon by helicopter. On June 8, 1972, he was in Trang Bang and witnessed the tragic events that led to 9 year-old Kim Phuc running down the road after she was hit by napalm and her clothes burned off. He wrote a story about the incident for The Times. Butterfield was a member of The NY Times team that won the Pulitzer Prize for its publication of The Pentagon Papers. He also served as a Times correspondent in Taiwan, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Beijing where he opened the paper’s bureau in 1979 after the US and China normalized relations. A book Butterfield wrote about his experience in Beijing, “China: Alive in the Bitter Sea,” won the National Book Award. Butterfield majored in Chinese history at Harvard where he graduated summa cum laude. He speaks fluent Chinese.
He has written two other books: “All God’s Children,” about Willie Bosket, a black teenager in Harlem who murdered several men on the subway repeating a pattern set by his father and grandfather, and”In My Father’s House,” about a white family from Tennessee that had 60 members who went to prison. He now lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife, Elizabeth Mehren, a former correspondent for The LA Times who has just published her fourth book, “I Lived To Tell the World.”
Courtesy of the Mach Family Gift for Global Vietnamese Studies
This talk is part of the Legacies of the Vietnam War 75th Anniversary series and the 75th Anniversary Global Asia Film Series Learn more about WEAI's 75th anniversary. It co-sponsored by the Columbia Journalism School, Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, SIPA Technology, Media, and Communications, and NYSEAN.
For more information on the other talks of the series, please click here: https://weai.columbia.edu/content/legacies-vietnam-war-75th-anniversary-series.
