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Denise Chong
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The Girl In The Picture: The Remarkable Story Of Vietnam's Most Famous Casualty Paperback – 4 June 2001

by Denise Chong (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars 219 ratings
On 8 June 1972, nine-year-old Kim Phuc, severely burned by napalm, ran from her burning village and into the eye of history. Her photograph, seen around the world, helped turn public opinion against the Vietnam War and is one of a handful of images that remain branded in the public consciousness. This book is the story of how that photograph came to be - but also of what happened to Kim Phuc after it was taken. It opens up to readers an unknown world - the world of Vietnam after the US army left. Kim became a pawn in the Communist regime's propaganda campaign, even as her own family fought a losing battle to support itself in a physically and economically devastated country, now plagued with corruption. Kim's recovery and rehabilitation from her terrible wounds was long and arduous and, after years of manipulation by Vietnamese officials, she made a dramatic escape to Canada, where she now lives. Denise Chong has written a detailed, humanistic account of everyday life in the wake of the Vietnam War, as well as a meditation on the aftermath of celebrity, and the power of an image.
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  1. Print length
    384 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Simon & Schuster UK
  4. Publication date
    4 June 2001
  5. Dimensions
    12.9 x 2.5 x 19.8 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    0743207033
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0743207034
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Product description

About the Author

DENISE CHONG is the author of the spellbinding memoir THE CONCUBINE'S CHILDREN: PORTRAIT OF A FAMILY DIVIDED. This book won numerous awards and was on the Canadian bestseller list for 100 weeks. Denise lives in Ottawa with her husband and two children. KIM PHUC is now happily married with two children and lives in Ajax, Canada. She is a goodwill ambassador for UNESCO to 'spread the message of the need for reconciliation, mutual understanding, dialogue and negotiation to replace confrontation and violence'. She is also the founder of the Chicago-based Kim Phuc Foundation to help child victims of war.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster UK (4 June 2001)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0743207033
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0743207034
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 2.5 x 19.8 cm
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 out of 5 stars 219 ratings

About the author

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Denise Chong

Denise Chong

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4.4 out of 5 stars
219 global ratings

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  • Carno Polo
    5.0 out of 5 stars enlightening and passionate account
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 June 2012
    Verified Purchase
    A most intersting book about the most famous picture of an infamous war. it has been used for four decades as an indictement of America's war crimes. Indeed, use of napalm was horrible, though not illegal. Of course, almost no one chronicled the crimes of the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. Oriana Fallaci, the Italian journalist, was one of the few who did so, but her reports were mostly brushed aside.

    Yet the story the "girl" tells us is a very different one. She was manipulated by Vietnamese propaganda, deprived of her freedom to speak up, and saw no hope for her future. At the first possible opportunity, a stopover in Canada on a flight back from the USSR to Cuba, where she was studying, she fled from communism and chose freedom, capitalism, pluralism.

    Her story is a telling one of the years that followed the Communists' victory in Vetnam. "Liberation" from the Americans' occupation in fact meant indoctrination, brain-washing, distortion of the truth for the purpose of propaganda. All this while Vietnam, paradoxically, was ditching extreme communism and opening up to private enterprise and even new friendly relations with the United States.
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  • Dr.Aniruddha. Kar
    5.0 out of 5 stars Stop war
    Reviewed in India on 12 March 2016
    Verified Purchase
    This story is an eye opener that what war can really bring in our life. Two great wars have not made us feel this and even after the horrific nuclear bombing.America should seriously think what role he must play to keep the children of yhr world safe. We dont want another Kim.
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  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars A gripping story of determination
    Reviewed in Canada on 6 June 2013
    Verified Purchase
    Denise Chong wrote a great documentary of this amazing woman who despite tragedies and huge constraints in life managed to tell her stories and become an ambassador for peace. The documentary also fill in the gaps between all the war events that also took place around the Vietnam war.
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  • S. Chaplin
    5.0 out of 5 stars A Book Full of Hope and Inspiration
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 December 2017
    Verified Purchase
    This book is the story of Kim Phuc, her family, before and during the war, and her life afterwards, and how it affected those around her, and those closest to her.

    When I first ordered this book, I knew it was going to be heart wrenching, and hard to read. But what I didn’t expect was to feel my heart actually break, and to tear up countless times whilst reading this. Denise Chong has written in such a way that it’s almost like you’re there. Although the writing seems professional, distant and almost surgical, there’s still something about it that really wrenches your heart, slowly cuts the heart strings one by one, and makes you ache. I’ve read books about war before, but never a non fiction one like this. Reading this has really changed my perspective on a lot of things, and it’s scary to think that this revelation came only about 18% into the book.

    The more I read of this book, a chapter at a time, the more I feel sick to my stomach. To see how everything happened throughout Vietnam, and how the war affected them, and their own government, makes this a really hard read. Continuing to read how the injustice in Vietnam continued to affect Kim Phuc throughout the years, continuing into her adult life was just unfair. So many tears came to my eyes reading the words on the page, and it was heart breaking. It was heart breaking to see her own government use her for their own selfish gain, because of this horrible thing that happened to her. I just couldn’t believe it; I couldn’t believe it at all. What I was reading was just. Unbelievable. Heart wrenching. But also awe-inspiring. Phuc went through so much, and yet she still stood so strong, and did what she could to be her own person, and I just. Felt so inspired reading this.

    There was so much in this that I want to talk about from this book, but I want to keep my review relatively short because there’s no way I could ever do this beautiful book justice. This book is going to haunt my nightmares; the way that this was written merely puts into perspective the victim and survivor’s view of the war. The images painted in my mind through this was horrifying. But also, Kim Phuc’s story is one of hope. Inspiration. One that shows the true amount of forgiveness, and how forgiveness and hope can be healing.

    Kim Phuc’s story is not one that should be thought of in a bad light. It should not be thought of with pity, or as just the girl in the photo. Kim Phuc should be remembered for the work she has done, for the hope and forgiveness she has inspired within thousands, maybe millions of people. She should be thought of with hope. Her name should be synonymous with inspiration and hope.
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  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars TOPS!!
    Reviewed in the United States on 14 August 2018
    Verified Purchase
    A fantastic book! Well researcher . We!l written. Holds your interest! Hard to put down!
    Nicely done giving a better than typical perspective look at what the Vietnam War was really about ... And especially the evils of Socialism \ Comunism ... And the INCREDIBLE value of Christianity!!!
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