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Norman Morrison
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Norman Morrison (December 29, 1933 - November 2, 1965), born in Erie, Pennsylvania, was a Quaker best known for committing suicide by self-immolation at age 31 to protest the United States involvement in the Vietnam War.
On November 2, 1965, Morrison set himself on fire in front of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara's Pentagon office, after dousing himself in gasoline. He left his wife Anne Welsh and three children; Ben, Christina and Emily - Morrison took his one-year-old daughter Emily with him, either setting her down or handing her off to someone in the crowd, before setting himself ablaze. His wife later recalled:
- "Whether he thought of it that way or not, I think having Emily with him was a final and great comfort to Norman,"..."And she was a powerful symbol of the children we were killing with our bombs and napalm-who didn't have parents to hold them in their arms." [1]
In a letter he mailed to his wife, Morrison reassured her of the faith in his act. "Know that I love thee," Morrison wrote, "but I must go to help the children of the priest's village."
Supporters of his actions portrayed Morrison as devoutly and sincerely sacrificing himself for a cause greater than himself, and Morrison quickly became a folk hero in Vietnam where his name was rendered Mo Ri Xon.[2] North Vietnam named a Hanoi street after him, and issued a postage stamp in his honour. Possession of the stamp was prohibited in the US.
Seven days after Morrison's action, Roger Allen LaPorte performed a similar act in New York City, in front of the United Nations building.
On May 9, 1967, as part of the start to the 1967 Pentagon camp-in, demonstrators held a vigil for Morrison, before occupying the Pentagon for four days before being removed and arrested.
Morrison's widow and two daughters (Ben had died of cancer years earlier) visited Vietnam in 1999 where they met with To Huu, the poet who had written the popular Emily, My Child.
Contents |
Morrison's death was a tragedy not only for his family but also for me and the country. It was an outcry against the killing that was destroying the lives of so many Vietnamese and American youth -Robert McNamara[1]
- ^ http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj9507&article=950752
- ^ http://www.mylaipeacepark.org/dedicate.html
- Profile of Morrison
- Sojourners, interview with Anne Morrison Welsh, Morrison's widow