🔗 Share this article

One of some of the most recognizable images of modern history portrays an unclothed child, her arms extended, her face twisted in terror, her body blistered and flaking. She appears running in the direction of the photographer as escaping a napalm attack during the Vietnam War. Nearby, youngsters are racing out of the devastated hamlet of the area, with a scene featuring black clouds and military personnel.

The Global Influence from a Powerful Picture

Shortly after the distribution during the Vietnam War, this photograph—formally named The Terror of War—became a traditional phenomenon. Viewed and discussed by countless people, it is widely attributed with motivating worldwide views opposing the conflict during that era. One noted author afterwards remarked how this deeply unforgettable photograph of nine-year-old Kim Phúc suffering likely did more to increase public revulsion regarding the hostilities than lengthy broadcasts of shown barbarities. An esteemed British war photographer who covered the war described it the single best image of the so-called the televised conflict. A different experienced combat photographer stated that the picture stands as in short, among the most significant images in history, specifically of the Vietnam war.

A Decades-Long Attribution Followed by a Recent Claim

For half a century, the photo was attributed to the work of Huynh Cong “Nick” Út, a young local photojournalist employed by the Associated Press during the war. But a controversial latest documentary released by a popular platform argues that the well-known picture—widely regarded to be the apex of war journalism—was actually taken by someone else present that day during the attack.

As presented in the documentary, the iconic image was in fact taken by an independent photographer, who sold his work to the organization. The claim, along with the documentary's resulting inquiry, originates with a former editor Carl Robinson, who states that the powerful photo chief directed him to reassign the image’s credit from the freelancer to the staff photographer, the one AP staff photographer there at the time.

This Investigation to find the Truth

The source, now in his 80s, reached out to an investigator recently, asking for support in finding the unnamed stringer. He mentioned that, should he still be alive, he wished to offer an acknowledgment. The journalist thought of the unsupported stringers he knew—seeing them as the stringers of today, just as Vietnamese freelancers at the time, are frequently marginalized. Their contributions is commonly doubted, and they operate in far tougher conditions. They have no safety net, no long-term security, minimal assistance, they usually are without good equipment, and they are incredibly vulnerable as they capture images in their own communities.

The investigator asked: “What must it feel like to be the individual who took this image, if in fact he was not the author?” From a photographic perspective, he thought, it would be extraordinarily painful. As a student of photojournalism, particularly the celebrated documentation of the era, it would be reputation-threatening, perhaps reputation-threatening. The revered legacy of the photograph within Vietnamese-Americans is such that the filmmaker with a background fled during the war was reluctant to engage with the film. He said, I hesitated to disrupt this long-held narrative that credited Nick the photograph. Nor did I wish to change the existing situation within a population that consistently admired this accomplishment.”

The Investigation Progresses

But both the investigator and his collaborator felt: it was necessary raising the issue. When reporters must hold everybody else in the world,” remarked the investigator, “we have to are willing to ask difficult questions within our profession.”

The film documents the journalists while conducting their research, from eyewitness interviews, to public appeals in present-day Ho Chi Minh City, to archival research from other footage taken that day. Their search eventually yield an identity: Nguyễn Thành Nghệ, a driver for NBC at the time who occasionally worked as a stringer to international news outlets on a freelance basis. As shown, an emotional the claimant, now also advanced in age residing in California, claims that he sold the famous picture to the news organization for $20 and a copy, only to be troubled by not being acknowledged over many years.

This Response Followed by Further Analysis

The man comes across in the film, reserved and calm, but his story proved explosive among the community of journalism. {Days before|Shortly prior to