Did the self-immolating monks of Vietnam have a direct impact on ending the Vietnam War?

by [deleted]

[deleted]

psychocanuck

I'm assuming you are referring to the self-immolation of Thích Quảng Đức on June 11th 1963 and the subsequent monks who followed his example. If that is the case then the answer is no, because those monk's were not directly protesting the war. Đức and his followers were protesting the persecution of Vietnamese Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government, led by Prime Minister Diệm, a Catholic. Although the events garnered international attention and built support for the U.S. backed coup that killed Diệm later that year, they hardly had an impact on the continuation of the war. To put it in perspective Thích Quảng Đức died in 1963 and the fall of Saigon, the commonly accepted end of the war didn't happen until 1975 over 10 years later.