C151_B6_Napalm
Flesh burns brightly. Flames dash across the length of a young girl’s left arm, leaving a
roaring fire in its wake. She tries to wipe off the oily residue with her right hand, only to find that
she has spread the fire to the other half of her body. Black smoke coalesces into a curtain that
surrounds her family. She tears off her clothes and runs, naked and panicked, in streets scorched
with liquid fire. The girl, Phan Thi Kim Phuc, is nine years old. The most terrifying moment in
her life is caught on camera. The image sears into the American psyche. The photograph, called
“The Terror of War,” also stands as the most recognized portrait of napalm.
The idea is to burn. An explosive might blow the doors of an enemy’s garrison off the
hinges, shatter the windows as flames billow out of every available cavity, and demolish wooden
scaffolds and sturdy walls into splinters and sawdust. But buildings can be rebuilt. The idea is to
burn, to purge German and Japanese holdouts until they become nothing more than modern day
versions of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Since its introduction in 1942, napalm had undergone numerous revisions. Louis Fieser, a
Harvard chemistry professor and researcher, was drafted to design a powerful explosive to
subdue the Axis during World War II. His original formula contains naphthenic acid and
palmitic acid, with lauric acid and oleic acid being added later. By the time napalm was used in
Vietnam and Southeast Asia, the formula contained polystyrene, benzene, and gasoline. Despite
the alterations, the chemical constituents all served the same function: to burn brighter, hotter,
and longer.
Naphthenic acid, palmitic acid, lauric acid, and oleic acid all contain long hydrocarbon
chains. Styrene, which is composed of an ethenyl constituent bonded to benzene, can react with
other styrene molecules to produce chains of polystyrene. Benzene, of course, is an aromatic
hydrocarbon composed of six carbon atoms. The combined effect of this mixture is a viscous,
highly hydrophobic, and lipophilic gel that can burn up to 2000°F for up to ten minutes.
Eradication was what the United States government aimed for during the optimization
phase. Once Fieser and his cohorts discovered a combination of fuels that could “be distributed
over a target area in the form of burning, adherent masses,”[1] they optimized the method of
delivery. Feiser redesigned the steel cylinder to facilitate the expulsion of globs of napalm over
greater surface areas and readjusted the ratios of each chemical constituent to ensure maximum
efficiency. To deploy the bombs, pilots dropped canisters of napalm from their planes, followed
by thermite or phosphorus grenades to provide the spark. What followed was a prolonged
combustion reaction, facilitated by the high hydrocarbon content of the acids.
Although napalm was conceived as a weapon of war against enemy soldiers, civilian
homes were also targeted. The American government commissioned researchers from Standard
Oil and Factory Mutual to test napalm on replicas of civilian homes. To properly evaluate the
potential damage, the homes were furnished with rugs and furniture. In addition, the government
also commissioned researchers to optimize and enhance damages to human skin by setting fire to
pig skin coated with different ratios of naphtenic, palmitic, and lauric acid.
[2]
(Confused about
whether or not actual civilian homes were targeted. Replicas does not equate real homes being
occupied by civilians)
Once satisfied with their results, the bombings began on Japanese troops in Okinawa, Iwo
Jima, Saipan, and the Philippines. However, for all the care devoted to ensuring the efficiency of
the napalm bombs, little attention was given to the accuracy of the targets. It was reported that
70-80% of bombing missions in 1944 utilized “blind bombing” rather than “precision bombing”
devices. As a result, “Only slightly more than one-third of all bombs […] fell within 1,00 feet of
their target”[2]. Not only that, friendly forces were also mistakenly bombed. Eager to drive the
Germans out of France, American troops unleashed “460,000 gallons of liquid fire” over Royan.
Unfortunately, fire burns indiscriminately; friendly forces and German strong points alike were
scorched. A French observer noted, “Royan has gone down with the civilized world, by the error,
the bestiality, the folly of man” [3].
What was conceived as a weapon against German and Japanese forces quickly became an
indiscriminate blood bath. Rather than call an end to the testing, the American air force
continued to drop napalm bombs on civilian land, leaving a trail of ashes in their wake. Of the
many nations that suffered from napalm bombings, Japan was a major target. Several accounts
named the innocent dead. Sumiko Morikawa was a mother of three when the air raid dropped
napalm over her city. She carried her twin girls, Atsuko and Ryoko, and her son Kiichi to shelter.
The twins, only 8 months old, died along the way. Kiichi, only four years old, died in her arms.
Katsubo Higashikawa, one year and seven months old, died on his older sister’s back as she tried
to carry him to safety.[2]
As it soon turns out, destruction is an ill-kept secret. After its first use in Germany and
Japan, other nations began manufacturing napalm. In fact, the US supplied napalm to Asia, Latin
America, and the Middle East. Israel used napalm against Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon between
1956 and 1973. The French used napalm in Vietnam and Tunisia and the British in Kenya. Little
mention was made of the civilian bodies that burned, coated by mixtures of carboxylic acids or
benzene. Death became a sport. After each bombing, a trophy was issued in the form of a
Budweiser. As one journalist notes, “Normally the entire operation takes only 20 minutes. The
beer never gets warm before the pilot climbs back […] to take off on another sortie”
[2]
. It
becomes something like a drinking game. The more destruction done, the more one is rewarded.
Although napalm quickly become widely used, it just as highly fell out of favor.
American adoration of napalm and its destructive powers waned during the Vietnam War.
Highly publicized photographs of the bombings, such as the one depicting Kim Phuc, circulated
amongst the American public. Protests and boycotts were staged against the Dow Chemical
Company, napalm’s main producer during the Vietnam and Korean Wars. University students
led demonstrations against indiscriminate bombings of civilian land. Pamphlets depicting
Vietnamese children maimed by napalm circulated amongst Americans. Public opinion of
napalm came to a complete turning point once Americans conceded defeat in Vietnam in 1973.
The American government continued its use of incendiary devices such as napalm, though with
less public support. Finally, on President Barack Obama’s first day in office, the United States
agreed to the United Nation’s Certain Conventional Weapons ban of incendiary devices and
discontinued its use of napalm.
The napalm that rained over Germany and Japan in the 1940s was a mixture of
carboxylic acids: naphthenic, palmitic, lauric, and oleic. The mixture that flooded the villages of
Vietnam and Laos with flames contained polystyrene, benzene, and gasoline. Napthenic acid,
oleic acid, palmitic acid, and lauric acid are used in production of detergents, soaps, or cosmetics.
Benzene, though toxic, is used to produce of drugs and pesticides. Polystyrene is found in
packing peanuts. Gasoline powers automobiles. Together, these constituents make up napalm, a
sticky, hydrophobic gel that burns brightly. Still, even with its insidious history, napalm shows
constructive potential. As Fieser, the father of napalm states:
“According to an officer who inspected some of the Japanese areas devastated by the
B-29 raids […], a few of the more enterprising civilians salvaged a dud or two and
made good use of recovered napalm for cooking and heating. Certain other uses of a
more novel and scientific character are being investigated with promising results. It is
too early as yet to know whether napalm will find significant application in times of
peace.”[1]
Molecules and chemicals hold no inherent morality, no sense of intentionality. But when they are
implicated in the sport of destruction, they share the guilt of their creator, at least in the eyes of
the public. The Harvard scientists never found a use for napalm in times of peace. Neither did the
Dow Chemical Company. The public wanted nothing to do with it. What was hailed as the
weapon that defeated morally corrupt nations was later considered an act of excessive force and
folly, a war crime so terrible that not even fire can purge its stain.
Sources
1. Fieser, Louis F., George C. Harris, E. B. Hershberg, Morley Morgana, Frederick C.
Novello, and Stearns T. Putnam. "Napalm." Industrial & Engineering Chemistry
38.8 (1946): 768-73. Print.
2. Neer, Robert M. Napalm: An American Biography. Cambridge, MA: Belknap of Harvard
UP, 2013. Print.
3. Zinn, Howard. The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy. New York:
Seven Stories, 1997. Print.