Radio Boston host Megna Chakrabarty:
Napalm is a devilish brew of jellied gasoline that sticks to human skin and burns all the way to the bone. It was created in a lab across the river on the campus of Harvard University, at the height of the Second World War.
The U.S. military used the new invention to completely destroy 64 Japanese cities with firebombs. They used it in Korea too. And was images of flame-scarred civilians in Vietnam that helped to turn the public opinion against that conflict.
It’s killed more people than nuclear weapons — more than 87,500 in one night in Tokyo alone — and it was used as recently as the Iraq War. It is no wonder that Napalm has seared its way into our popular culture.
Listen to the show: