For many years, Phan Thi Kim Phùc was known as the Napalm Girl. She was in an iconic photograph that pictured her running naked down a road, screaming after a napalm attack on her village. That photo won a Pulitzer Prize and changed the way the world looked at the Vietnam War. For many years, Kim Phuc was angry and in pain. But, she found a way to forgive and find peace.
It’s 50 years since the beginning of the Tet Offensive, one of the most pivotal battles of the Vietnam War. Militarily, the communist offensive was smashed. But many Americans decided the war could not be won. We hear from one Vietnamese civilian who’s family was torn apart by the battle.
The North Vietnamese surprise attack on dozens of military sites in South Vietnam, including the US embassy in Saigon, had a seismic impact on the US public. While a military failure for the North, it was a huge propaganda success. Attitudes in the US towards the war and toward President Lyndon Johnson were never the same.
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and President Lyndon Johnson worked together to achieve major civil rights victories in 1964 and 1965. But then the Vietnam War got in the way. King’s public denunciation of the war was widely condemned, even by many in his own movement, and ruined his relationship with Johnson.