This week, 56 years ago, monk Thích Quảng Đức sat down at a busy Saigon intersection, doused himself in petrol and set himself alight. He did not utter a sound as he died.
The Buddhist crisis in Vietnam throughout 1963 precipitated the downfall and assassination of South Vietnamese president Ngô Đình Diệm. It began with the shooting of nine civilians in Hue who were protesting the ban on the Buddhist flag. Malcolm Browne, the photographer, won a Pulitzer Prize for the image.
Decades later, in 1992, Los Angeles’ rap metal squad Rage Against The Machine featured the picture as the cover for their debut album.
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Text on the first and second paragraph via History Everyday.
