What exactly was the reason why the Buddhist monk to set himself on fire during the Vietnam war?

Question

I know it was supposed to be a form of a peaceful protest but why exactly did he decide to set himself on fire? Provide a website that explains this please.

Answer 1

Because the US had put into place in South-Vietnam, where 70 to 90% is Buddhist, a fanatical Catholic dictator, because he happened to be an anti-communist.

"A number of Buddhist monks, including Thích Quảng Đức in 1963, self-immolated in protest of the discriminatory treatment endured by Buddhists under the authoritarian administration of President Ngô Đình Diệm in South Vietnam."

"Self-immolation : History" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-immolation

"Thích Quảng Ðức was protesting against the way the administration of South Vietnamese President Ngô Đình Diệm was oppressing the Buddhist religion."

"Madame Nhu, the first lady of South Vietnam at the time, commented with regard to this that she would "clap hands at seeing another monk barbecue show". This supposedly resulted in her receiving the alias of "Dragon Lady"."

"Thích Quảng Đức" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Qu%E1%BA%A3ng_%C4%90%E1%BB%A9c

"In a country where estimates of the religious composition overwhelming estimated the Buddhist majority to be between 70 and 90%, Diem's policies generated claims of a religious bias. As a member of the Catholic Vietnamese minority, he is widely regarded by historians as having pursued pro-Catholic policies that antagonized many Buddhists. Specifically, the government was regarded as being biased towards Catholics in public servant and military promotions, as well as allocation of land, business favours and tax concessions. Diem also once told a high-ranking officer, forgetting that he was a Buddhist "Put your Catholic officers in sensitive places. They can be trusted." Many officers in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam converted to Catholicism in the belief that their military prospects depended on it. The Catholic church was the largest landowner in the country, and the "private" status that was imposed on Buddhism by the French, which required official permission to conduct public Buddhist activities, were not repealed by Diem. The land owned by the Catholic church was exempt from land reform. Catholics were also de facto exempt from the corvee labor that the government obliged all citizens to perform and distributed US aid disproportionately to Catholic majority villages. Under Diem, the Catholic church enjoyed special exemptions in property acquisition, and in 1959, Diem dedicated his country to the Virgin Mary."

"In May [1963], in the central city of Huế, where Diệm's elder brother was the archbishop, Buddhists were prohibited from displaying Buddhist flags during Vesak celebrations commemorating the birth of Gautama Buddha when the government cited a regulation prohibiting the display of non-government flags. A few days later, Catholics were allowed to fly religious flags at another celebration where the regulation was not enforced. This led to a protest lead by Thich Tri Quang against the government, which was suppressed by Diệm's forces, killing nine unarmed civilians. Diem and his supporters blamed the Vietcong for the deaths and blamed the protestors for the violence. Although the province chief expressed sorrow for the killings and offered to compensate the victims' families, they resolutely denied that government forces were responsible for the killings and blamed the Vietcong."

"A turning point came in June when a Buddhist monk, Thích Quảng Đức, set himself on fire in the middle of a busy Saigon intersection in protest at Diem's policies, photos of which were transmitted around the world and for many people came to represent the failure of Diem's government. A further number of monks publicly self-immolated themselves, and the U.S. grew increasingly frustrated with the unpopular leader's public image in both Vietnam and the United States. Diệm used his conventional argument, equating dissenters to communists."

"As demonstrations against his government continued throughout the summer, the special forces loyal to Diem's brother Nhu raided the Xa Loi Pagoda in Saigon in August. The Pagodas were vandalised, monks beaten, the cremated remains of Thích Quảng Đức, which included a heart which did not disintegrate, were confiscated. Simultaneous raids were carried out across the country, with the Tu Dam Pagoda in Hue being looted, the statue of Gautama Buddha demolished and a body of a deceased monk confiscated. When the populace came to the defence of the monks, the resulting clashes saw 30 civilians killed and 200 wounded. In all 1400 monks were arrested, and some thirty were injured across the country. The US indicated their disapproval of Diem's administration when their ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge visited the Pagoda in the aftermath.[41] No further mass Buddhist protests occurred during the remainder of his rule."

"During this time, Madame Nhu, who was a defacto first lady due to Diem's bachelor life, inflamed the situation by mockingly applauding the suicides, referring to them as "barbeques" while Nhu stated "if the Buddhists want to have another barbeque, I will be glad to supply the gasoline"."

"Ngo Dinh Diem : Government policy towards Buddhists & Buddhist crisis" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ngo_Dinh_Diem#Government_policy_towards_Buddhists

"As a wealthy Catholic, Diem was viewed by many ordinary Vietnamese as part of the old elite that had helped the French rule Vietnam. The majority of Vietnamese people were Buddhist. So his attack on the Buddhist community only served to deepen mistrust. Diem's human rights abuses increasingly alienated the population. As opposition to Diem's rule in South Vietnam grew, a low-level insurgency began to take shape in 1957. Four hundred government officials were assassinated in that year."

"Chief among the proposed changes was the removal of Diem's younger brother Ngo Dinh Nhu. Nhu controlled the secret police and was seen as the man behind the Buddhist repression. As Diem's most powerful adviser, Nhu had become a hated figure in South Vietnam. His continued influence was unacceptable to the Kennedy administration. Eventually, the administration concluded that Diem was unwilling to change."

"Vietnam War" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War

Answer 2

It was a protest against oppression by US puppet Ngo Dinh Diem, who was installed as South Vietnamese president and who ruled the country by oppressing opposition groups. This included fighting the communists and generally being vicious to everyone else, and installing family members and cronies in positions of power, while misappropriating US humanitarian and military aid for himself.

He used his army not to fight the Viet Cong, but to attack dissidents such as Buddhists, and several times protests at Buddhist pagodas were assaulted by South Vietnamese troops with heavy loss of life.

Diem was a Catholic, which was probably partly why he enjoyed the support of Kennedy. Eventually, both his own military leaders and the US administration grew tired of him and the way he played into the hands of the communists, so he was killed in a CIA-sanctioned military coup, just days before Kennedy himself was shot.

His wife, nicknamed 'the Dragon Lady', shocked Western and US television audiences by referring to the monks' self-immolation protests and 'Buddhist barbecues'.

Answer 3

To protest the war.

Answer 4

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/VietnamWar.htm