The Journalist Who Photographed the Burning Monk

The Man Behind an Iconic Vietnam War Image Captured ‘the Ugliest Events of Our Time’

While President John F. Kennedy was talking by phone with his brother, U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, on the morning of Tuesday, June 12, 1963, he suddenly exclaimed: “Jesus Christ!”

The president’s outburst had nothing to do with their conversation. Rather, he was responding to a photograph taken the day before, splashed on the front pages of the newspapers just delivered to him. The photo showed 73-year-old Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc engulfed in flames on a street in Saigon, South Vietnam while sitting calmly—it seemed—in the lotus posture. He hoped …

by Ray E. Boomhower | June 8, 2023

Can Anyone Really Rule the South China Sea?

East Asian Powers Jockey for Islands and Atolls in an Ocean that Defies Man-Made Boundaries

by Aileen San Pablo-Baviera | November 22, 2016

Zócalo’s editors are diving into our archives and throwing it back to some of our favorite pieces. This week: The late political scientist and …

In My Family’s American Dream, Bootstraps Met Blocks of Government Cheese

After an Arduous Journey Emigrating from Vietnam in the ‘70s, the Author Benefitted from Both Personal Resilience and Public Assistance

By Kim Luu | August 23, 2016

I spoke my first words on a boat: “milk,” “cockroach,” and “itchy.” An unusual toddler vocabulary perhaps, but not surprising considering that I spent the second year of my …

How PTSD Nearly Stole My Life

Haunted by Guilt and the Smells of Blood and Gunpowder

by Rick Martinez | November 9, 2015

It has been 45 years since I returned to the U.S. from Vietnam. I was only 19, but the year I spent there made me feel like I had already …

Can SoCal’s Most Reluctant Patients Get Preventive Healthcare?

Try Speaking Their Language. And If You Build a Health Fair, They Just Might Come.

by Anderson Nguyen | February 3, 2014

I met Mr. Pham two years ago as he sat in line at a health fair in Garden Grove and anxiously tapped his feet. I was a volunteer that day, …

My Living, Yet Lost, Father

The Final Weeks Of South Vietnam Changed Everything Between Us

by Kyanh Tonnu | July 9, 2012

In the spring of 1975, when I was eight years old, my family, which included my parents and younger sister, moved from Vietnam, our native home, to Singapore. My father …

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