On June 11, 1963, over 300 Vietnamese monks and nuns marched through the streets of Saigon to protest President Ngô Đình Diệm’s brutal repression of Buddhists. At the center of this demonstration sat a motionless Thích Quảng Đức, assuming the lotus position while two monks doused him in gasoline. Moments later, he set himself ablaze. There he remained, completely still throughout his act of self-immolation, offering to history one of its most harrowing and profound moments of protest. 

The image, captured by Malcolm Browne for the Associated Press, shattered America’s sanitized narrative of the Vietnam War and the complacency it demanded*. A question emerged in the wake of the photograph: how could someone whose life was dedicated to nonviolence commit such a brutal act? 

The image’s impacts were manifold and rippled through political and social life: Kennedy withdrew US support for Diệm’s regime, and the masses now faced a tangible refutation of the narratives guiding their view not only of the war, but of what is deemed sane, effective, and worthwhile in efforts for social change.