492 - Who really took the "Napalm Girl" photo? - Carl Robinson

About this episode

In this episode, Ken interviews Carl Robinson about the controversial history behind the 'Napalm Girl' photo and its impact on photojournalism.

In this episode, Ken sits down with Carl Robinson, a man who carried a secret for over five decades that could have rewritten the history of photojournalism. Carl was a key editor for the Associated Press (AP) during the Vietnam War and is the central figure in the Emmy-nominated Netflix documentary, The Stringer. We dive deep into the moment Carl was ordered by his boss to put the wrong name on the iconic "Napalm Girl" photo—an image credited with changing the course of the war. Now 80 years old, Carl reveals the "moral weight" he carried, his journey to find the real photographer in the Vietnamese countryside, and his raw, unfiltered take on the political "balloon" he’s popping in 2026. Inside this high-stakes conversation: The "Whisper" in Saigon: The exact moment Carl was told to lie and why he felt he couldn't stand up to the "celebrity machine" at the time. Finding the Ghost: How Carl tracked down the real photographer, Hoang Van Tuoi, just 24 hours before a near-fatal stroke almost silenced the truth forever. The "Divorce" Theory: Why Carl views the North vs. South conflict as a family divorce where the children (the diaspora) are still fighting over the house. Substack…

People in this episode

Host: Kenneth Nguyen

Guest: Carl Robinson

Topics covered

• photojournalism
• Vietnam War
• iconic photography
• moral dilemmas
• historical narrative
• Vietnamese history

Keywords

• Napalm Girl
• Carl Robinson
• photojournalism
• Vietnam War
• Hoang Van Tuoi
• Associated Press
• The Stringer
• moral weight
• Vietnamese history

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Associated Press

Books & works: The Stringer

Places: Vietnam, Saigon

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