Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc

11:31 AM | Posted by

Thích Quảng Đức (1897 – 11 June 1963, born Lâm Văn Túc, was a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk who burned himself to death at a busy Saigon road intersection on 11 June 1963.


 Quang Duc was protesting the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government led by Ngô Đình Diệm. 

Photographs of his self-immolation were circulated widely across the world and brought attention to the policies of the Diệm government. 


John F. Kennedy said in reference to a photograph of Duc on fire, "No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one." 

Malcolm Browne won a Pulitzer Prize for his photograph of the monk's death. After his death, his body was re-cremated, but his heart purportedly remained intact.


Thursday, February 27, 2014

Dark Heart of Walter E. Kurtz

8:08 AM | Posted by
Walter E. Kurtz served two tours of duty in Vietnam before he established his Cambodian outpost and became a pariah to the U.S. military establishment.


During those two tours of duty, Walter E. Kurtz was a part of the Gamma Program, the recruitment of montagnard tribesmen from the highlands of Vietnam and Cambodia to conduct a war of attrition against the North Vietnamese.








Friday, February 14, 2014

Sergeant Wilke from "Dark Heart of Walter E. Kurtz"

8:34 AM | Posted by

 
Sergeant Wilke was a grizzled, yet deceptively refined, veteran of the Korean War who has been in Southeast Asia since the mid-1950s.  He is an expert in the field of guerrilla warfare, and well-versed in several Southeast Asian languages, including several dialects spoken by the many montagnard tribes living in Cambodia and Vietnam.  In the early 1960s Wilke played a major role in a U.S. funded program to arm and train these indigenous peoples to fight the Vietminh, but has since been discontinued, at least officially. 

Walter was intrigued by Wilke and spent a lot of time studying him as they both tried to pass the initial long, hot, seemingly endless moments of inactivity, and was fascinated by Wilke’s animal-like mannerisms and instincts.  He walked in and out of the jungle as quiet as a ghost and seemed to have eyes in the back of his head, catching Walter staring at him from behind on several occasions.  Sudden sounds emanating from the jungle could not catch Wilke unprepared for fight-or-flight no matter how quickly they erupted.  Years of constantly living only seconds away from death by way of man, nature, and beast, has sharpened his senses like that of fine cutlery, putting him in perfect harmony with the jungle.
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

Designed by JMJ Website Design.