Napalm

**Napalm** is a mixture of a gelling agent and a volatile petrochemical. It is a flammable liquid (liquid that is easy to burn) that has been used in war.  When it is mixed with gasoline, the thickener makes a sticky gel that is easy to burn, and burns for a long time. A team of Harvard chemists in the U.S. made napalm during World War II. The team leader was Louis Fieser. The name *napalm* comes from the ingredients that were first used to make it: coprecipitated aluminum salts of **na**phthenic and **palm**itic acids.

One of the major problems of the first fluids used for lighting fires (such as those used in flamethrowers) was that they splashed and drained too easily. Flamethrowers that use a gasoline gel can shoot farther and are more useful. Gasoline gel was hard to make because it used natural rubber, which was in high demand and expensive. Napalm was much cheaper. It solved the problems involved with rubber-based things made to cause fire. Napalm bombs were first used in the Pacific Theatre during the Battle of Tinian by Marine pilots. Its use was made difficult by problems with mixing, fusing and the release mechanisms. In World War II, Allied forces bombed cities in Japan with napalm, and used it in bombs and flamethrowers in Germany and the Japanese-held islands. It was used by the Greek army against communist guerrilla fighters during the Greek Civil War, by United Nations forces in Korea, by Mexico in the late 1960s against guerrilla fighters in Guerrero and by the United States during the Vietnam War.

The most well-known method of using napalm for war is from air-dropped incendiary bombs. A lesser-known method is flame throwers. Flamethrowers use a thinner version of the same fuel to destroy prepared locations of guns, bunkers and cave hideouts. U.S. Marines fighting on Guadalcanal found them very effective against Japanese positions. The Marines used fire as a weapon to cause damage and as a psychological weapon. People have a natural fear of fire. They found that Japanese soldiers would abandon positions when napalm was used. Prisoners of war confirmed that they were scared of napalm more than any other weapon thrown at them.

Napalm became one of the more used weapons of the Korean War. Pilots returning from the war zone often said that they would rather have a couple of gasoline tanks full of napalm to drop than any other weapon, bombs, rockets or guns. The U.S. Air Force and Navy used napalm with great effect against all types of targets including troops, tanks, buildings and even rail road tunnels. The fear napalm had on the enemy became obvious when North Korean troops began to surrender to aircraft flying overhead. Pilots noted they saw surviving enemy troops waving white flags on following passes after dropping napalm. The pilots radioed to ground troops and the North Koreans were captured.

Napalm has been used recently in wartime by or against: Iran (1980–88), Israel (1967, 1982), Nigeria (1969), Brazil (1972), Egypt (1973), Cyprus (1964, 1974), Argentina (1982), Iraq (1980–88, 1991, 20th March 2003 – 15th December 2011), Serbia (1994), Turkey (1963, 1974, 1997), Angola, United States.

In some cases, napalm disables and kills its victims very quickly. Those who do survive suffer up to 5th degree burns. These damage parts of the skin which do not have pain receptors. However, victims who suffer 2nd degree burns from splashed napalm will be in a lot of pain.
Phuc had third-degree burns to half her body and was not expected to live. Thanks to assistance from South Vietnamese photographer Nick Ut, and after surviving a 14-month hospital stay and 17 operations, she became an outspoken peace activist.

International law does not prohibit the use of napalm or other incendiaries against military targets,

ian air force IAI Kfir aircraft drops napalm on a target range during the joint US and Ecuadorian Exercise BLUE HORIZON.]]
Reports by the *Sydney Morning Herald* suggested that *napalm* was used in the Iraq War by US forces. The U.S. Department of Defense denied this. In August 2003, the San Diego Union Tribune said that U.S. Marine pilots and their commanders confirmed the use of Mark 77 firebombs on Iraqi Republican Guards during the start of combat. Official denials of the use of 'napalm' were disingenuous. The Mk 77 bomb that was in service at this time, the Mk 77 Mod 5, did not use actual napalm (e.g. napalm-B). The last U.S. bomb to use actual napalm was the Mark 77 Mod 4, the last of which were destroyed in March 2001. The substance used now is a different incendiary mixture. It is still a controversial incendiary, and can still be referred to colloquially as 'napalm.'

"We napalmed both those (bridge) approaches," said Col. Randolph Alles in a recent interview. "Unfortunately, there were people there because you could see them in the (cockpit) video." (...) "They were Iraqi soldiers there. It's no great way to die," he added. (...) The generals love napalm. ... It has a big psychological effect." - *San Diego Union-Tribune, August 2003*

The Mk-77 firebombs used in the Gulf were kerosene based. It is a napalm-like liquid in its effect.

## In popular culture 
Napalm itself became well known by the American public after it was used in the Vietnam war. Since then, it has been mentioned in the media and arts many times. Some of the examples are:
* In the film *Apocalypse Now*, assault helicopter pilot Colonel Kilgore (Robert Duvall) famously says "I love the smell of napalm in the morning... It smells like... victory."
* In the American newspaper comic Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin's favorite comic book superhero (and a character he wants to become) is Captain Napalm. To add an aspect of irony (especially when considered with the usage of napalm in *Apocalypse Now*), the motto for Captain Napalm is "Defender of the American Way".
* In the film *An Officer and a Gentleman*, Sgt. Foley (Louis Gossett, Jr.) leads a quick-step march with a cadence call that has the chorus, "And napalm sticks to kids!", a real U.S. Air Force cadence call at the time.
* In ''Skippy's list'', item 58 is '“Napalm sticks to kids” is *not* a motivational phrase.'
* In the film *Fight Club*, the screenwriters were originally going to have Tyler Durden (played by Brad Pitt) recite a working recipe for napalm. However, after questions of safety were brought to the attention of the producers, they substituted his lines with a fake recipe claiming it to be equal parts of gasoline and orange juice concentrate. Contrary to popular belief, the original recipes in the *Fight Club* book were also modified by its publisher. The book's altered recipes claim that, in addition to orange juice, mixing equal parts gasoline and diet cola, or thickening gasoline with cat litter, will work.
* In the 1973 Japanese kaiju film *Godzilla vs. Megalon*, the enemy Megalon, was shown to be able to spit napalm bombs that explode on contact.
* There is a metal band called Napalm Death.

## Related pages
* Flame fougasse
* Phan Thị Kim Phúc

## Notes 
## Other websites 
* *Tracking Wildfire *