Vietnam War, June 8, 1972: US ally South Vietnam dropped bombs with a mixture of incendiary napalm & white phosphorus jelly on children fleeing from the bombing of their village in South Vietnam.

Phan Thanh Tam, the boy in the left foreground, lost an eye. His sister, 9-year-old Kim Phuc was naked from having her clothes burned off by the napalm. She was not expected to survive the severity of her burns & has endured countless painful surgical procedures, including skin transplantations. The bombing killed two of their cousins & two other villagers.

Then US president Richard Nixon questioned the authenticity of this photo for the same reason Assadists deny Syria gassed civilians in Khan Sheikhoun. They do not want Assad’s war crimes used against him to expose the character of his dictatorship in the way this photo exposed US war crimes in Vietnam & strengthened international antiwar opposition.

(Photo by Nick Ut/AP)