Quảng Đức's act increased international pressure on Diệm and led him to announce reforms with the intention of mollifying the Buddhists. However, the promised reforms were not implemented, leading to a deterioration in the dispute. As protests continued, the ARVN Special Forces loyal to Diệm's brother, Ngô Đình Nhu, launched raids across South Vietnam on Buddhist pagodas, seizing Quảng Đức's heart and causing deaths and widespread damage. Several Buddhist monks followed Quảng Đức's example, also immolating themselves. Eventually, a US-backed coup toppled Diệm, who was assassinated on 2 November 1963. (Full article...)
Image 1Water puppetry, lit. "Making puppets dance on water") is a tradition that dates back as far as the 11th century when it originated in the villages of the Red River Delta area of northern Vietnam.
Image 2Hồ Chí Minh attended French Communist Congress in Marseilles in 1921 under the name Nguyễn Ái Quốc.
Image 3The painting depicts the retired emperor Trần Nhân Tông who has now become a monk and returned to Hanoi from his hermitage in Vũ Lâm.
Image 10Dong Ho painting is a line of Vietnamese folk painting originating in Đông Hồ village (Song Hồ commune, Thuận Thành District, Bắc Ninh Province.
... that war correspondent Jurate Kazickas financed her plane ticket to Vietnam in 1967 with a US$500 win on the game show Password?
... that the township of Hồ Xá in Vietnam was once known as the "B-52 bomb pocket"?
... that "Arnold's Christmas", now considered one of the most memorable episodes from the animated series Hey Arnold!, was almost rejected by network executives because it depicted the Vietnam War?
... that Don Luce led a group of Americans to a secret part of a South Vietnamese prison where inmates were kept in squalor in what were called "tiger cages"?
... that Charles Larson became one of the first Americans to teach African literature, after working in Nigeria for the Peace Corps to avoid the Vietnam draft?
Image 819th-century manuscript of "Mysterious tales of the Southern Realm" (Lĩnh Nam chích quái), a copy of 15th-century original tale. (from Culture of Vietnam)
Image 15A trio of Vietnamese musicians performing together. The man on the far left plays kèn đám ma, the man in the middle plays the đàn nhị and the man on the right plays the trống chầu. (from Culture of Vietnam)