The Burning Monk
In 1963, South Vietnam was seething with discontent, fueled by widespread governmental corruption and a steadily intensifying insurgency. Moreover, the country’s Catholic president, Ngo Dinh Diem, was pursuing discriminatory policies that favored Catholics for public service and military positions, land distribution, tax concessions, and business arrangements.
Some Catholic priests even ran their own private armed militias, which they put to use demolishing Buddhist pagodas and forcing people to convert – activities to which the government turned a blind eye. Since Catholics were a distinct minority, and about 90% of South Vietnamese were Buddhists, Diem’s pro-Catholic tilt did not sit well with most of his countrymen.
Protests erupted in May, when Diem’s government banned the flying of Buddhist flags – only days after it had encouraged Catholics to fly Vatican flags at a celebration of Diem’s elder brother, a Catholic archbishop. Government troops opened fire on protesters flying Buddhist flags in defiance of the ban, killing and wounding dozens, which only led to more protests.
On June 10th, 1963, American correspondents were tipped that “something important” would happen the following day near the Cambodian embassy in Saigon. Most ignored it, but not photographer Malcolm Browne of the Associated Press. He showed up on the 11th, and as his camera clicked, two monks doused with gasoline a serene elderly monk, seated lotus style. The monk, Thich Quang Duc, then struck a match and dropped it on himself, and maintained his serene while flames engulfed him.
At the time, few Americans knew where Vietnam was on a map. After the photo of the Burning Buddhist appeared on newspapers across the country, there was no forgetting that war torn country. As president Kennedy commented: “No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one“. It made people question American support for Diem’s government, and contributed to Kennedy’s decision not to oppose a coup that overthrew Diem a few months later.
