STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Fifty-three years ago, an image from the Vietnam War shocked the world - a Vietnamese girl, who was naked, and other children ran down the road after a Napalm attack. They were photographed, and this became known as the Napalm Girl photo. It led to a Pulitzer Prize for Associated Press staffer Nick Ut. Now that photo credit is being challenged. NPR's Mandalit del Barco has our report. And we'll let you know so you're not surprised that you will hear the explosive sounds of war.
MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE: The photo, officially titled "The Terror Of War," captures 9-year-old Kim Phuc fleeing naked, her arms outstretched, after South Vietnamese bomber planes mistakenly targeted her village, Trang Bang.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
KIM PHUC: I saw exactly four bombs. (Vocalizing).
(SOUNDBITE OF EXPLOSION)
KIM PHUC: And then that is moment exploded. And then the fire burned off all my clothes.
DEL BARCO: Kim Phuc has recounted her story many times, like she did in "From Hell To Hollywood," a 2021 documentary about the man she calls Uncle Nick. Nick Ut was then a 21-year-old photojournalist working for the AP's Saigon bureau.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
NICK UT: I saw the girl with her arms running, screaming.
DEL BARCO: Since that day on June 8, 1972, Ut has repeated his recollection as he did for this AP video and in the film.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UT: When she passed me, I saw Kim come up. The body burned so badly.
DEL BARCO: Ut remembers rushing Kim Phuc and other children to a nearby hospital, and the photo he says he shot ended up on the front pages of American newspapers, galvanizing the anti-war movement. Ut won the Pulitzer, the World Press Photo of the Year and other awards. He continued working for the AP in Southern California until his retirement in 2017. Until now, his legacy was unchallenged.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "THE STRINGER")
GARY KNIGHT: The photograph of Kim Phuc is perhaps the most iconic, famous photograph of a war ever made. And the idea that it might have been made by somebody else other than Nick Ut was devastating, actually.
DEL BARCO: In his documentary, "The Stringer," photojournalist Gary Knight investigates an allegation made by Carl Robinson, who worked at the AP's Saigon bureau. Robinson claims the late photo editor Horst Faas ordered him to write the photo credit.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "THE STRINGER")
CARL ROBINSON: And Horst Faas, who had been standing right next to me, said, Nick Ut. Make it Nick Ut. Make it staff.
KNIGHT: Hearing Carl's story that he had deliberately miscredited this photograph, I very quickly started thinking about the person that Carl said had taken the photograph.
DEL BARCO: Knight runs The VII Foundation, an organization based in France that trains photojournalists. He and his team hired a French forensics firm to analyze photos, videos, and satellite images. They also tracked down a Vietnamese man named Nguyen Thanh Nghe, who was also there that day with a camera. At the premiere of "The Stringer" at this year's Sundance Film Festival, Nguyen stood up from the audience.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
NGUYEN THANH NGHE: (Non-English language spoken).
BAO NGUYEN: He said, I took the photo, and he got a standing ovation.
(APPLAUSE)
B NGUYEN: No matter which perspective you have on that story, him being able to say that after 53 years was important.
DEL BARCO: The film's director, Bao Nguyen, who's not related to the stringer, says he grew up revering Nick Ut's work. He says challenging the photo's credit does not take away from the impact of that image.
B NGUYEN: My parents are refugees from Vietnam. My dad was a soldier in the Southern Vietnamese Army, as well, and I often think about my mother and her being around that same age. And so that photograph is deeply personal to me.
DEL BARCO: Last month, in response to the film, World Press Photo suspended its authorship attribution of the photo. The Associated Press had its own investigation. They concluded they still have questions about who shot the photo, but they kept Nick Ut's credit. Kim Phuc, the girl in the picture, and other eyewitnesses continue to back up Ut's account, and more than 400 photographers have signed an open letter supporting him. David Burnett not only co-wrote that letter. He was also outside Trang Bang in 1972, photographing for The New York Times.
DAVID BURNETT: I have this very distinct memory looking down the road and seeing the kids finally run through the field and onto the road. Nick was the only one who was down the road far enough to make that picture.
DEL BARCO: Just this week, Ut and his legal team watched the documentary for the first time.
JIM HORNSTEIN: This is not journalism. This is fantasy filmmaking.
DEL BARCO: Jim Hornstein is Ut's attorney.
HORNSTEIN: Nick Ut is disgusted by the film. It's a alternative universe created by Gary Knight and The VII Foundation, and they have chosen to rely on totally unreliable witnesses and an alleged forensic workup, which is completely destroyed by the AP report, and will be destroyed by our own expert.
DEL BARCO: Hornstein told NPR Nick Ut did take that famous photo, and he's preparing to file a defamation action against the filmmakers.
Mandalit del Barco, NPR News, Los Angeles. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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