Vietnam

13 Pages 3292 Words

to jail f!
or talking bad about the government and he gave jobs to his family instead of those who were capable. And when the United States gave South Vietnam money for economic reform he spent it on the military and kept for himself what he didn’t spend. At the point that all this had happened I had been in Vietnam for a couple of years. I just got pictures of what seemed interesting and what ever Life wanted me to get. I made friends with other reporters and some soldiers who I had interviewed. I have a few good stories about some of them. I will get to those in a little. But there is something that I want to share with you. Maybe by sharing this it will help me get over it. Kind of like therapy.

What I am about to tell you is what has caused me a lot of sleepless nights and is probably the single worst moment of my life. Let me tell you what led up to it first. Well Diem, my favorite leader, was a catholic in a mostly Buddhist country. Then Diem set laws that made Buddhists obey catholic laws. This was a serious problem for the Buddhists who lived in South Vietnam. And on a beautiful June day I received a note that I should go to Saigon. I did what it said since I had received tips before and they had always been good, but this was the first time it had been anonymous. So I was in Saigon with my camera looking around talking to some of the locals. It was all the same as it always was. The only thing that was out of place was the monk that was doing his daily pray. I stared at him and flashed a picture and just like that I returned to my conversation. Then it was only 30 seconds later when it had happened. The monk had set himself on fire in protest to Diem!
’s decision about catholic laws. I just stared at him. He didn’t make a noise. He didn’t announce to all the people in the street what he was doing. He didn’t say anything as he lit himself on fire. And he didn’t even scream as he burn...