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The common perception is that they are fleeing the South Vietnamese military.

Kim Phuc joined a group of civilians and South Vietnamese soldiers who were fleeing from the Caodai Temple to the safety of South Vietnamese–held positions. A South Vietnamese Air Force pilot mistook the group for enemy soldiers and diverted to attack.

They are fleeing the napalm from friendly fire in the company of soldiers. Just as the so-called "War in Iraq" ended with the fall of Saddam when the US then was fighting foreign trained/supplied/staffed "insurgents" alongside Iraqi soldiers.

She was an innocent victim. She was a pawn of international Communists for decades. If U.S. imperialism is so bad, why is all talk of global Communist imperialism "a Red Scare" and "paranoia"? The Vietnamese Communists dominated (and eradicated) South Vietnamese financed by the Soviet Communists and others. The Vietnamese Communists thought she would be okay in Castro's Cuba and the USSR.

But die hard American Reds insist "none of that is REAL Communism". It was good enough for Hanoi Jane to partner with it and wish its imposition on all of us.

Communism in Việt Nam has deteriorated over the years to something more like a government by Mafia.The government sees no problem being allied to the USA and will do domestically whatever the USA wants short of dissolving their jobs. Clinton and Bush leaned on them persistently to relax socially and politically and they did until 2008. The president who was elected in that year has a very different view of Human rights and such and does not care for liberties and suchlike in the US population or any other population. The USA has quit pushing for reform and the bosses are tightening ropes again. I could see the deterioration when I was back last year. If the USA collapses economically and the Việt honchos think the US has no more perceived interest in blocking China in the area then Hà Nội will clamp down for real because they know they will have to propitiate China.