Video: 'Vietnam: A Television History (Ep-3) America's Mandarin (1954-1963)' (Buddhist Crisis at 33:53)

(Tuesday, June 11, 1963, 9:22 a.m. Saigon Standard Time; during the Buddhist crisis, part of the Vietnam War, the Indochina Wars and the Cold War) — South Vietnamese Buddhist monk  Thich Quang Duc, 65, committed suicide by self-immolation, burning himself to death today at a major intersection in Saigon to protest the oppression of Buddhists by the government of President Ngo Dinh Diem, who belonged to the Catholic minority and was supported by the United States.

Buddhists were regularly subjected to discriminatory policies that ranged from limited access to United States aid to employment.

In early May 1963, the government banned the Buddhist flag. This coincided with Phot Dan, otherwise known as Vesak, the birthday of Gautama Buddha.

Video: 'Vietnamese Buddhist monk who burned himself to death. 1963'

Buddhists were incensed by the ban and, on May 8, a number of Buddhists in the city flew the flag and later marched on the government-controlled radio station where government troops repelled the protesters with live ammunition.

Nine people were killed, but Diem blamed the violence on the Viet Cong. His refusal to hold the local authorities to account or to grant religious equality triggered yet more protests around the country.

On the morning of June 11, 350 Buddhist monks and nuns processed along the road outside the Cambodian embassy in Saigon.

Video: '11th June 1963: Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thích Qu?ng ??c burns himself to death'

Quang Duc calmly emerged from a car and adopted the lotus position on a cushion in the intersection where he was doused in petrol from a five-gallon can.

After chanting a prayer he struck a match and his body was engulfed in flames.

Photographs of the act shocked the world and increased international pressure on Di?m who failed to implement the reforms that he promised in the aftermath.

On Nov. 1, 1963, he was overthrown in a coup and assassinated the following day.