THE GIRL IN THE PHOTOGRAPH

A footnote to the excellent article on Kim Phuc. It stated that the only other cameraman to record the event was a free-lance TV cameraman. Not quite true.

Le Phuc Dinh, a staff cameraman for NBC News, stood shoulder to shoulder with Nick Ut and filmed the entire event. (I was the only TV reporter there that day--Dinh was my cameraman.) When the film reached the satellite transmission point, a news producer decided that the sight of a 9-year-old girl’s naked body and the horror of the event were too much for the American television audience.

Nick Ut won a well-deserved Pulitzer Prize; Le Phuc Dinh won nothing for his courageous and skillful work. Today, Dinh and his family live in Louisville, Ky., where he is a cameraman for the ABC affiliate.

ARTHUR A. LORD, DIRECTOR, SPECIAL NEWS OPERATIONS, NBC NEWS, Burbank

Editors’ note: Shortly after publication of the Los Angeles Times Magazine story, Kim Phuc’s trip to the United States was postponed. The sponsoring committee cited her worsening diabetes and concern about new school commitments as reasons for the delay. Further information can be obtained by writing the National Committee to Welcome Kim Phuc, P.O. Box 303, Prince Station, New York, N.Y. 10012.