Thích Quảng Đức

• 1. Introduction

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  Thích Quảng Đức was a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk, and on the 10th of June 1963 American correspondents in Saigon received a strange message. Something important, it said, would happen the next morning on the road outside the Cambodian embassy. Most reporters ignored it. The Buddhist crisis had already dragged on for more than a month, and one more demonstration seemed unlikely to matter. Only a few journalists turned up. Among them were David Halberstam of The New York Times and Malcolm Browne, the Saigon bureau chief for the Associated Press. What they saw reached newspaper front pages around the world and landed in front of an American president. Who was the monk at the center of that morning? What had pushed Buddhists in South Vietnam to such desperation? And why did one photograph carry so much force?

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• 2. A Monk's Life

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  Lâm Văn Túc was born around 1897 in the village of Hội Khánh, in Vạn Ninh District of Khánh Hòa Province, in central Vietnam. He was one of seven children of Lâm Hữu Ứng and Nguyễn Thị Nương. What is known of his life comes from information spread by Buddhist organizations, so these details reflect how his own community remembers him.

  At the age of seven he left home to study Buddhism under Hòa thượng Thích Hoằng Thâm, his maternal uncle and spiritual master. His uncle raised him as a son, and the boy took the name Nguyễn Văn Khiết. He took the samanera vows of a novice at 15. At 20 he was ordained as a monk under the dharma name Thích Quảng Đức. The word Thích comes from "Thích Ca," which means "of the Shakya clan."

  After ordination he traveled to a mountain near Ninh Hòa and vowed to live as a solitary hermit for three years. Much later he returned to open the Thien Loc pagoda at that mountain retreat. Once his isolation ended, he wandered central Vietnam expounding the dharma. After two years of travel, he went into retreat at the Sac Tu Thien An pagoda near Nha Trang.

  In 1932 he was appointed an inspector for the Buddhist Association in Ninh Hòa. He then became inspector of monks in his home province of Khánh Hòa. In central Vietnam he was responsible for building 14 temples. In 1934 he moved to southern Vietnam and traveled through its provinces spreading Buddhist teachings. He also spent two years in Cambodia studying the Theravada tradition.

  On his return he oversaw 17 more temples, which brought his total to 31. The last was the Quan The Am pagoda in the Phú Nhuận District of Gia Định Province, on the outskirts of Saigon. He then served as Chairman of the Panel on Ceremonial Rites of the Congregation of Vietnamese Monks. He was also abbot of the Phuoc Hoa pagoda, the first home of the Association for Buddhist Studies of Vietnam. When that association moved its office to Xá Lợi Pagoda, the main pagoda of Saigon, he resigned. The street beside Quan The Am was renamed Quảng Đức Street in 1975.

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• 3. Faith And Favoritism

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  Foreign journalists in the early 1960s reported that Buddhists made up 70-80% of South Vietnam's population. Those figures were overestimated, because Westerners commonly mistook folk religion for Buddhism. The real share was at most about 27%. Even so, many Buddhists felt that President Ngô Đình Diệm, a staunch Roman Catholic, had pursued pro-Catholic policies that pushed them aside.

  The government was widely regarded as biased toward Catholics in public service and in military promotions. The same bias was alleged in the handing out of land and business favors. Weapons given to village self-defense militias, meant to repel Việt Cộng guerrillas, allegedly went only to Catholics. Land owned by the Catholic Church was exempt from land reform measures, and the Church enjoyed special exemptions when acquiring property.

  The French had imposed a "private" status on Buddhism, which required official permission for public Buddhist activities. Diệm never repealed it. In 1959 he dedicated the country to the Virgin Mary. The white and gold papal flag was allegedly flown at major public events, and U.S. aid was allegedly steered toward villages with Catholic majorities. Some of this picture was distorted by Western media at the time, and Vietnamese Buddhism in fact flourished under Diệm's First Republic.

  The breaking point came in Huế in early May. Just days earlier, Catholics had been encouraged to fly the papal flag at a celebration for Archbishop Ngô Đình Thục, who was Diệm's elder brother. Then came a ban on flying the Buddhist flag on Vesak, the birthday of Gautama Buddha. A large crowd defied the ban, raised Buddhist flags and marched on the government broadcasting station. Government forces fired into the crowd and killed nine people.

  Diệm refused to take responsibility and blamed the Viet Cong for the deaths. That denial brought more protests and louder calls for religious equality. As he remained unwilling to meet Buddhist demands, the protests became more frequent.

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• 4. The Morning Of Protest

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  Around 350 monks and nuns marched through Saigon on the morning of the 11th of June 1963. They walked in two phalanxes, preceded by an Austin Westminster sedan, and carried banners printed in both English and Vietnamese. The banners denounced the Diệm government and demanded that it keep its promises of religious equality. The procession had begun at a nearby pagoda, and Quảng Đức arrived as part of it. Another monk had offered himself for what was planned, but Quảng Đức's seniority prevailed.

  The procession stopped at the intersection of Phan Đình Phùng Boulevard, now Nguyễn Đình Chiểu Street, and Lê Văn Duyệt Street, now Cách Mạng Tháng Tám Street. The spot lay a few blocks southwest of the Presidential Palace, which is now the Reunification Palace. Quảng Đức stepped out of the car with two other monks. One placed a cushion on the road, and the second took a five-gallon petrol can from the trunk. The marchers formed a circle around him.

  Quảng Đức sat on the cushion in the traditional lotus position of Buddhist meditation. A colleague emptied the petrol over his head. He turned a string of wooden prayer beads and recited a prayer. Then he struck a match and dropped it on himself. Flames consumed his robes, and black oily smoke rose from his body.

  Halberstam later wrote that he was too shocked to cry and too confused to take notes. He described the monk's stillness this way: "As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him." The crowd was mostly stunned into silence, though some wailed and several began praying.

  Many monks and nuns prostrated themselves before the burning figure, as did some passersby. Even some of the policemen, who had orders to control the crowd, bowed to the ground. A monk repeated into a microphone, in English and Vietnamese: "A Buddhist priest burns himself to death. A Buddhist priest becomes a martyr."

  After approximately 10 minutes the body was fully consumed and toppled onto its back. Monks covered it with yellow robes and tried to fit it into a coffin. The limbs could not be straightened, and one arm protruded from the wooden box as they carried it to the Xá Lợi Pagoda. Outside, students unfurled banners that read: "A Buddhist priest burns himself for our five requests."

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• 5. A Letter Left Behind

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  Quảng Đức had left a letter, and it recorded his last words. In it he respectfully pleaded with President Diệm "to take a mind of compassion towards the people of the nation and implement religious equality." He asked that this be done so the strength of the homeland would last eternally. The letter then turned to his fellow Buddhists. He wrote: "I call the venerables, reverends, members of the sangha and the lay Buddhists to organize in solidarity to make sacrifices to protect Buddhism."

  By 1:30 p.m. around 1,000 monks had gathered inside Xá Lợi for a meeting. Outside, a large crowd of pro-Buddhist students formed a human barrier around the pagoda. The meeting ended quickly, and all but 100 monks slowly left the compound. Nearly 1,000 monks, accompanied by laypeople, then returned to the site of the cremation. Police lingered nearby.

  At around 6:00 p.m., thirty nuns and six monks were arrested for holding a prayer meeting on the street outside Xá Lợi. Police encircled the pagoda and blocked public passage. Donning riot gear, they gave observers the impression that an armed siege was imminent.

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• 6. One Photograph

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  Malcolm Browne's photographs of the event raced across the wire services and ran on the front pages of newspapers worldwide. Browne won the World Press Photo of the Year for his picture of the monk's death. The event is now regarded as a turning point in the Buddhist crisis and a critical moment in the collapse of the Diệm regime.

  President John F. Kennedy, whose government was the main sponsor of Diệm, learned of the death when he was handed the morning newspapers. He was on the phone with his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, discussing segregation in Alabama. He reportedly interrupted the conversation by exclaiming "Jesus Christ!" Kennedy later remarked: "No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one."

  Others in Washington and Saigon reached for large words. John Mecklin, an official at the US embassy, said the photograph "had a shock effect of incalculable value to the Buddhist cause, becoming a symbol of the state of things in Vietnam." Senator Frank Church of Idaho, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that "such grisly scenes have not been witnessed since the Christian martyrs marched hand in hand into the Roman arenas."

  Historian Seth Jacobs argued that once Browne's images were ingrained in the world's psyche, "no amount of pleading could retrieve Diệm's reputation." William Colby, then chief of the CIA's Far East Division, took a blunter view. He said Diệm handled the crisis badly, but added: "I really don't think there was much they could have done about it once that bonze burned himself."

  In Europe during the 1960s, the photographs were sold on the streets as postcards. China distributed millions of copies across Asia and Africa as evidence of what it called US imperialism. For Browne and the AP, the pictures were a marketing success. Ray Herndon, the United Press International correspondent who had forgotten his camera that day, was harshly criticized in private by his employer. UPI estimated that 5,000 readers in Sydney had switched to AP news sources.

  Nearly 30 years later, one of Browne's photographs became the cover art of the debut album by the American rap metal band Rage Against the Machine. Another of the photographs remains affixed to the sedan in which Quảng Đức rode, which is now part of a tourist attraction in Huế.

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• 7. The Regime Answers

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  Diệm had scheduled an emergency cabinet meeting for 11:30 a.m. on the 11th of June, believing the Buddhist crisis was winding down. After the death he canceled it and met his ministers one by one. Acting US Ambassador William Trueheart told Diệm's Secretary of State, Nguyễn Đình Thuận, that the situation was "dangerously near breaking point." Secretary of State Dean Rusk warned the US embassy that the White House would publicly dissociate itself from the regime if Diệm did not meet the Buddhists' five-point manifesto. A Joint Communiqué with concessions to the Buddhists was signed on the 16th of June.

  At 19:00 on the day of the death, Diệm made a radio address. He said he was profoundly troubled, appealed for "serenity and patriotism," and promised that stalled negotiations would resume. He stressed the role of the Catholic philosophy of personalism in his rule. He alleged that extremists had twisted the facts. The Buddhists, he said, could "count on the Constitution, in other words, me."

  The army answered his appeal with a show of loyalty. Thirty high-ranking officers, headed by General Lê Văn Tỵ, declared their resolve to carry out all missions entrusted to them. The declaration was a veneer over a developing plot to oust Diệm. Some signatories later took part in his overthrow. Generals Dương Văn Minh and Trần Văn Đôn, who were to lead the coup, were overseas at the time.

  Madame Nhu was the wife of Diệm's younger brother and chief adviser, Ngô Đình Nhu. A Catholic convert, she was regarded as First Lady because Diệm was a bachelor. She said she would "clap hands at seeing another monk barbecue show." Later that month the government charged that Quảng Đức had been drugged before being forced to die by suicide. The regime also accused Browne of bribing him. The Times of Vietnam, Diệm's English-language mouthpiece, ran headlines such as "Monks plot murder."

  The promised reforms were never carried out, and the dispute worsened. Protests continued. Eventually a US-backed coup toppled Diệm. He was assassinated on the 2nd of November 1963.

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• 8. The Embassy And The Heart

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  Why did the monk choose the road in front of the Cambodian embassy? Trueheart and embassy official Charles Flowerree felt the location showed solidarity with the Cambodian government of Prince Norodom Sihanouk. On the 22nd of May, Sihanouk had accused Diệm of mistreating Vietnamese and ethnic minority Khmer Buddhists. On the 9th of June, the pro-Diệm Times of Vietnam claimed that Cambodian monks were encouraging the crisis as part of a plot to extend Cambodia's neutralist foreign policy. Flowerree noted that Diệm was "ready and eager to see a fine Cambodian hand in all the organized Buddhist actions."

  The funeral was set for the 15th of June, and 4,000 people gathered outside Xá Lợi, only for the ceremony to be postponed. On the 19th of June his remains were carried out to a cemetery 16 km south of the city for a re-cremation and funeral. Buddhist leaders and police agreed to limit attendance to approximately 500 monks.

  During the re-cremation his heart supposedly remained intact and did not burn. It was considered holy and placed in a glass chalice at Xá Lợi Pagoda. The relic is regarded as a symbol of compassion. Vietnamese Buddhists revere him as a bodhisattva, or Bồ Tát, and he is often called Bồ Tát Thích Quảng Đức.

  On the 21st of August, the ARVN Special Forces of Nhu attacked Xá Lợi and other pagodas across the country. The secret police meant to seize Quảng Đức's ashes. Two monks escaped with the urn, jumped over the back fence, and found safety at the US Operations Mission next door.

  The last recorded case of a Vietnamese monk setting himself on fire before 1963 came in North Vietnam in 1950. Such acts had been recorded in Vietnam for centuries, usually to honor Gautama Buddha. French colonial authorities tried to eradicate the practice after conquering Vietnam in the nineteenth century, but never fully succeeded. In the 1920s they stopped one monk in Huế from burning himself, and he starved himself to death instead. Saigon newspapers in the 1920s and 1930s reported several cases in a matter-of-fact style.

  In the Chinese city of Harbin in 1948, a monk sat in the lotus position on a pile of sawdust and soybean oil and set fire to himself. He was protesting the treatment of Buddhism by the anti-religious communists of Mao Zedong. His heart, like that of Quảng Đức, remained intact.

  Five more Buddhist monks immolated themselves up until late October 1963, as protests in Vietnam escalated. Monks have followed Quảng Đức's example since, for other reasons. Americans in Saigon often found the acts surreal and made puns about "bonze fires" and "hot cross bonzes." In 1963 the young son of an American officer at the US Embassy doused himself with gasoline and set himself on fire. He was seriously burned before the flames were put out, and he later said: "I wanted to see what it was like."

  The act was also copied in the United States, with fatal results, by protesters against the Vietnam War. On the 16th of March 1965, Alice Herz, an 82-year-old peace activist, burned herself in front of the Federal Department Store in northwest Detroit. On the 2nd of November 1965, Norman Morrison, a 31-year-old Quaker pacifist, poured kerosene over himself below the third-floor window of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara at the Pentagon. A week later Roger Allen LaPorte, a member of the Catholic Worker Movement, did the same in front of the United Nations in New York City.

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