The person credited as the creator is photographer Nick Ut, who when the picture was taken in 1972 worked for the news agency AP. The achievement was rewarded with a Pulitzer.
The documentary in question, "The stringer", however, presents a different picture that began to take shape after Carl Robinson, AP's picture editor in Saigon at the time, shared his experience of the whole thing.
In the film, which was recently shown at the Sundance film festival, he claims that he was ordered by his then-boss Horst Faas to write a caption crediting the wrong person.
I started writing the caption. Horst Faas, who was standing next to me, said: "Nick Ut, it should be credited to Nick Ut".
Instead, the relatively unknown Nguyen Thanh Nghe, who is interviewed in "The stringer", claims that it was he who took the photograph.
Nick Ut was with me on the assignment. But he didn't take the photo, it was me who did.
AP denies the allegations and refers to an internal investigation that shows that "no evidence exists to suggest that Nick Ut did not take the photo". According to a statement published on Sunday, AP says it is "willing to go through all evidence and new information regarding this photo".
