Buddhist crisis

Thich Tri Quang, leader of the Buddhist protests.

The Buddhist crisis was a period of political and religious tension in South Vietnam from May 1963 to November 1963, which was sparked by the shootings of nine unarmed civilians on May 8 in the central city of Hue on Vesak who were protesting a ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag by the Catholic regime of Ngo Dinh Diem. They died at the hands of government troops, and Diem's refusal to rectify discrimination against the Buddhist majority led to a mass movement against his government. This helped to foment a coup on November 1963 by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, leading to Diem's death.

Protests after Hue

The probability of reform was considered to be remote, as Diem and Nhu considered the Buddhists to be a front for promoting the cause of the Vietcong. They felt that the Buddhists supported neutralism in foreign policy and would seek an accommodation with the communists. They pointed to the gains made in Cambodia and Ceylon by Buddhism, two countries intensely disliked by the Diem regime. Both advocated a non-aligned position in the Cold War.[1] Diem's Secretary of State Nguyen Dinh Thuan accused the Vietcong of exploiting Buddhist unrest and declared that Diem could not make concessions without fuelling further demands. The Vietnam Press, a Diemist mouthpiece, published a government declaration confirming the existence of religious freedom and emphasizing the supremacy of the country's flag. Diem's National Assembly affirmed this statement, but words alone were not enough to quieten the Buddhists. On June 1, Diem's authorities announced the dismissal of the three major officials involved in the Hue incident: the province chief and his deputy, and the government delegate for the Central Region of Vietnam. The stated reason was that they had failed to maintain order, rather than wrongdoing. By this time, the situation appeared to be beyond reconciliation.[2]

In the meantime, Xa Loi had become a centre of Buddhist dissident organization. There the monks produced and mimeographed pamphlets attacking Diem's policies for dissemination, organised mass meetings, demonstrations and hunger strikes. They compiled daily news items to motivate followers and campaigned among relatives in the civilian public sector and the armed forces.[3] The Hue shootings were kept on the agenda by a memorial service at the An Quang Pagoda in the Chinese district of Cholon which was addressed by prominent members of the sangha. Hundreds of sangha then formed a procession to take the memorial tablets back into Xa Loi in the city centre. On May 30, more than 500 monks demonstrated in front of the National Assembly in Saigon. The Buddhists had evaded a ban on public assembly by hiring four buses and filling up and pulling the blinds down. They drove around the city before the convoy stopped at the designated time and the monks disembarked.[4] They unfurled banners and sat down for four hours before disbanding and returning to the pagodas to begin a nationwide 48 hour hunger strike organised by the Buddhist patriarch Thich Tinh Khiet.[5][6]