U.S. image melts under incendiary cloud.(Main)

Byline: JONATHAN B. TUCKER

One of the most indelible

rr images of the Vietnam War was of a naked, severely burned Vietnamese girl screaming in pain and terror as she ran down a road in 1972. The girl, Kim Phuc, had torn off her burning clothes after a South Vietnamese aircraft had mistakenly dropped an incendiary bomb containing napalm _ jellied gasoline _ on her home. The accidental use of this gruesome weapon against innocent civilians, immortalized in Nick Ut's iconic photograph, helped to turn world public opinion against the war.

Now, more than three decades later, the United States faces a storm of criticism, particularly overseas, over its use of another incendiary weapon, white phosphorus, against Iraqi insurgents during the battle for Fallujah …