Forgiveness did not come easy for Phuc, who endured 17 medical operations and struggled with hatred, bitterness and anger for many years after Nick Ut captured the famous, Pulitzer Prize-winning image.
"The doctors helped me heal my wounds, but they couldn't heal my heart," she said, adding that 65% of her body was burned in the attack. "I hated my life, and I hated everyone who was just normal because I was not normal."
Pulled from medical school by the Vietnamese government so she could focus her time on media interviews, Phuc spent the early '80s rummaging through the library's religion section in search for life's purpose.
"I had so many questions in my mind that I couldn't answer, and then I found the Bible," she said. "I learned from Jesus to love my enemies, and I pray for peace and for love and for compassion — I pray for the pilot who dropped the bomb."
Gradually, she "poured out" the darkness that had consumed her heart, which she likened to a cup of black coffee.
"Even though I still have so many scars, my heart is cleansed," Phuc said, rolling up her sleeve to reveal the white blotches of severe burns. "It's not easy to change, but I had to pour out that coffee in my heart a little bit every day until God could fill it with his love."
In addition to taking her message all over the world, Phuc formed the Kim Foundation, an international nonprofit dedicated to child victims of poverty, war and slavery. She is involved in projects in Uganda, Vietnam, Romania, East Timor and Tajikistan.
