1. The Monk Who Set Fire To Himself Was Not Protesting Against American Presence In The Country... But Against Vietnamese Anti-Buddhist Policies
Alongside the picture of the girl running from the napalm, this is the most-iconic and infamous image of the Vietnam War - yet once again it was misrepresented by the American and Western press. Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc most certainly was protesting on the streets of Saigon by setting himself on fire, this much is true - but his demonstration was not against US involvement in the conflict as was reported in the West, but it was actually against the Vietnamese Ngo Dinh Diem regime's anti-Buddhist policies. In order to protest against the anti-Buddhist policies - that included a ban on the flying of Buddhist flags and several pro-Catholic laws at Buddhists' expense - Duch invited Western journalists to come and report his demonstration, which most refused to do. Photographer Malcolm Browne did capture the image, for which he won countless awards, although the picture was mis-portrayed in the Western press. Many in America even performed copy-cat burnings of themselves to protest against the war - because it had been misrepresented as to exactly what Duc was demonstrating his opposition to.
NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.
