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- I am your new president!
- Manifesto of Vietnamese Buddhist Clergy and Faithful
- At the beginning of the Vietnam War, Ngo Dinh Diem declared himself president of the South but it was by means of a fraudulent election. He ruled with a Catholic-dominated government which meant that even though a majority of South Vietnam's population was Buddhist they were subjected to discrimination by Catholic ruling elites.
- After celebrating Buddha's birthday police began to tear down the Buddhist flags that were put up for the celebration. This ignited many protests where police and military forces retaliated with brute force leaving some injured or dead. The horrific incident only spurred on more protests and strikes from the Buddhist monks who showed no signs of backing down.
- Several days later, the Buddhist clergy decides to draft up a list of demands they wanted the government to grant. The demands were presented to President Diem but were only paid little attention. Even though the Buddhists were not going to receive a negotiation from President Diem they did not let that stop them.
- Protests continue onwards even though the protestors were victims of even more violence. Some even went as far as to participate in hunger strikes to highlight the conditions they were fighting and being put in. President Diem also continued to attempt at shutting down their protesting efforts but they were beginning to gain attention from people around the world.
- On June 10th the Buddhists called off their fast and police withdrew making it seem as if there was peace at last but in downtown Siagon a monk named Thich Quang Duc burned himself to death in protest, a practice that is known by the name of self-immolation.
- Though the Buddhists still struggled with discrimination, as all their problems were not fixed, they were able to bring awareness to their crisis and to the unjust way President Diem chose to rule.
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