Norman R. Morrison
(December 29, 1933 – November 2, 1965) was an American
anti-war activist
An anti-war movement (also ''antiwar'') is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term anti-war can also refer to ...
best known for his act of
self-immolation at age 31 to protest
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
involvement in the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
. On November 2, 1965, Morrison doused himself in kerosene and set himself on fire below the office of
Secretary of Defense
A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...
Robert McNamara at
the Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase ''The Pentagon'' is often used as a metony ...
. This action may have been taken after
Thích Quảng Đức
Thích Quảng Đức (; vi-hantu, , 1897 – 11 June 1963; born Lâm Văn Túc) was a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk who burned himself to death at a busy Saigon road intersection on 11 June 1963. Quảng Đức was protesting the persec ...
and other Buddhist monks, who burned themselves to death to
protest the repression committed by the
South Vietnam
South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...
government of Catholic President
Ngo Dinh Diem.
Background
Morrison was born in
Erie,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
and was raised
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
. At 13, his family moved to
Chautauqua,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
, where Morrison joined the
Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded i ...
and entered the
God and Country Program
A variety of religious emblems programs are used by the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) to encourage youth to learn about their faith and to recognize adults who provide significant service to youth in a religious environment. These religious program ...
, becoming the youngest BSA member in
Chautauqua County to earn a
God and Country award. Morrison graduated from the
College of Wooster in 1956. He had gained an interest in the
Quakers
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...
and their ideals, but continued to attend Presbyterian seminars in
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
and at the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
in
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
. Morrison became a member of the
Religious Society of Friends
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...
in 1959 and by 1965, he ran Stony Run Friends Meeting in
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
as its Executive Secretary. As an ardent believer in the principle of
pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...
, he condemned the actions of the U.S. military in the Vietnam War.
Six months before the act, on March 9,
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
Lyndon B. Johnson had authorized the use of
napalm
Napalm is an incendiary mixture of a gelling agent and a volatile petrochemical (usually gasoline (petrol) or diesel fuel). The name is a portmanteau of two of the constituents of the original thickening and gelling agents: coprecipitated al ...
in the Vietnam War, which, by the end of the war, would end up killing at least 50,000 civilians in
airstrikes
An airstrike, air strike or air raid is an offensive operation carried out by aircraft. Air strikes are delivered from aircraft such as blimps, balloons, fighters, heavy bombers, ground attack aircraft, attack helicopters and drones. The offici ...
. This decision had spurred fellow Quaker and
peace activist
A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals, such as the ending of a particular war (or wars) or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world peac ...
Alice Herz
Alice Herz (née Straus; May 25, 1882 – March 26, 1965) was a longtime peace activist who was the first person in the United States known to have immolated herself in protest of the escalating Vietnam War, following the example of Buddhist mon ...
to set herself on fire in an open street in
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
on March 26 of the same year, in similar vein as Thích Quảng Đức had done in 1963. At the time of his death, Morrison was married to Anne Welsh, also a Quaker, with whom he had two daughters and a son.
[Profile](_blank)
, wooster.edu; accessed December 11, 2014.
Death
Morrison took his daughter Emily, then one year of age, to the Pentagon, and either set her down or handed her off to someone in the crowd before setting himself ablaze. Morrison's reasons for taking Emily are not entirely known. However, Morrison's wife Anne 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...
e 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."
In a letter he mailed to Welsh, Morrison reassured her of the faith in his act. "Know that I love thee ... but I must go to help the children of the priest's village". McNamara described Morrison's death as "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." He was survived by Anne Welsh and three children, Ben (who died of cancer in 1976), Christina and Emily.
Legacy
Morrison was seen as devout and sincere in sacrificing himself for a cause greater than himself. In Vietnam, Morrison quickly became a folk hero to some, his name rendered as ''Mo Ri Xon''. Five days after Morrison died, Vietnamese poet
Tố Hữu
Tố Hữu (4 October 1920 – 9 December 2002) was a Vietnamese revolutionary poet and politician. He published seven collections of poems, the first of which was the 1946 collection entitled ''Từ ấy'' (Thenceforth), which included many of his ...
wrote a poem, "Emily, My Child", assuming the voice of Morrison addressing his daughter Emily and telling her the reasons for his sacrifice.
One week after Morrison,
Roger Allen LaPorte
Roger Allen LaPorte (July 16, 1943 – November 10, 1965) was a protester of the Vietnam War who set himself on fire in front of the United Nations building in New York City on November 9, 1965, to protest the United States involvement in th ...
performed a similar act in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, in front of the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
building. On May 9, 1967, as part of the start to the 1967 Pentagon camp-in, demonstrators held a
vigil
A vigil, from the Latin ''vigilia'' meaning ''wakefulness'' (Greek: ''pannychis'', or ''agrypnia'' ), is a period of purposeful sleeplessness, an occasion for devotional watching, or an observance. The Italian word ''vigilia'' has become genera ...
for Morrison, before occupying the Pentagon for four days until being removed and arrested.
Morrison's widow, Anne, and the couple's two daughters visited Vietnam in 1999, where they met with Tố Hữu, the poet who had written the popular poem ''Emily, My Child''.
Anne Morrison Welsh recounts the visit and her husband's tragedy in her monograph, ''Fire of the Heart: Norman Morrison's Legacy In Vietnam And At Home''.
On his visit to the United States in 2007,
President of Vietnam Nguyễn Minh Triết visited a site on the
Potomac near the place where Morrison immolated himself and read the poem by Tố Hữu to commemorate Morrison.
Cultural depictions
Filmmaker
Errol Morris
Errol Mark Morris (born February 5, 1948) is an American film director known for documentaries that interrogate the epistemology of its subjects. In 2003, his documentary film '' The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara ...
interviewed Secretary McNamara at length on camera in his documentary film, ''
The Fog of War
''The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara'' is a 2003 American documentary film about the life and times of former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, illustrating his observations of the nature of modern warfa ...
'', in which McNamara says, "
orrison Orrison is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bob Orrison (1928–2011), American film and television stunt performer
* Carrol Orrison (born 1929), American politician
* Katherine Orrison (born 1948), American set decorator, prod ...
came to the Pentagon, doused himself with gasoline. Burned himself to death below my office ... his wife issued a very moving statement – 'human beings must stop killing other human beings' – and that's a belief that I shared, I shared it then, I believe it even more strongly today". McNamara then posits, "How much evil must we do in order to do good? We have certain ideals, certain responsibilities. Recognize that at times you will have to engage in evil, but minimize it."
Perhaps the most detailed treatment of Morrison's death appears in ''The Living and the Dead: Robert McNamara and Five Lives of a Lost War'', by prizewinning author
Paul Hendrickson
Paul Hendrickson (born April 29, 1944) is an American author, journalist, and professor. He is a senior lecturer and member of the Department of English at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a former member of the writing staff at the ''Washin ...
, published in 1997.
Morrison's widow Anne Welsh appears, with her young children, in a segment of the French
documentary, ''
Far from Vietnam
''Far from Vietnam'' (french: Loin du Vietnam) is a 1967 French documentary film directed by Joris Ivens, William Klein, Claude Lelouch, Agnès Varda, Jean-Luc Godard, Chris Marker and Alain Resnais.
Cast
* Anne Bellec
* Karen Blanguern ...
'', in which she calmly describes the circumstances of her husband's death and expresses approval of his act. This footage is interspersed with an interview with a Vietnamese expatriate, Ann Uyen, living in Paris, who describes what Morrison's sacrifice meant to the Vietnamese people.
Morrison's immolation is portrayed in the HBO film ''
Path to War
''Path to War'' is a 2002 American biographical television film, produced by HBO and directed by John Frankenheimer. It was the final film directed by Frankenheimer, who died seven weeks after the film debuted on HBO. It was also the last film pr ...
'', in which he is portrayed by
Victor Slezak
Victor Slezak (born July 30, 1957) is an American stage, television and screen actor who has appeared in numerous films, including '' The Bridges of Madison County'' (1995), '' Beyond Rangoon'' (1995), ''The Devil's Own'' (1997), ''The Siege'' ...
.
Morrison is the subject of a poem by
Amy Clampitt
Amy Clampitt (June 15, 1920 – September 10, 1994) was an American poet and author.
Life
Clampitt was born on June 15, 1920, of Quaker parents, and brought up in New Providence, Iowa. In the American Academy of Arts and Letters and at nearby Gr ...
called "The Dahlia Gardens" in her 1983 book ''The Kingfisher''.
The incident inspired
George Starbuck
George Edwin Starbuck (June 15, 1931 in Columbus, Ohio – August 15, 1996 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama) was an American poet of the neo-formalist school.
Life
Starbuck studied at Chadwick School, the California Institute of Technology, the Universi ...
's poem ''Of Late''.
A play by Canadian playwright
Sean Devine
Sean Thomas Devine (born 6 September 1972) is a retired professional footballer who played as a striker.
Biography
He began his career with Millwall. Having spent time on loan with Woking in 1992, he spent two years with Bromley and one with ...
, ''Re:Union'', imagines a meeting between Morrison's daughter Emily and Robert McNamara. The play was published by Scirocco Drama in 2013.
Memorials
In the Vietnamese city of
Đà Nẵng
Nang or DanangSee also Danang Dragons ( ; vi, Đà Nẵng, ) is a class-1 municipality and the fifth-largest city in Vietnam by municipal population. It lies on the coast of the East Sea of Vietnam at the mouth of the Hàn River, and is one ...
, a road is named after Norman Morrison in memory of his act against American involvement in South Vietnam. Parallel to it also is a road named after Francis Henry Loseby.
North Vietnam named a
Hanoi
Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...
street after him, and issued a postage stamp in his honor. Possession of the stamp was prohibited in the United States due to the U.S. embargo against North Vietnam.
See also
*
Alice Herz
Alice Herz (née Straus; May 25, 1882 – March 26, 1965) was a longtime peace activist who was the first person in the United States known to have immolated herself in protest of the escalating Vietnam War, following the example of Buddhist mon ...
*
Roger Allen LaPorte
Roger Allen LaPorte (July 16, 1943 – November 10, 1965) was a protester of the Vietnam War who set himself on fire in front of the United Nations building in New York City on November 9, 1965, to protest the United States involvement in th ...
*
Florence Beaumont
This is a list of notable people who committed suicide by setting themselves on fire for political reasons. Non-political self-immolations are not included in the list.
List Before 1900
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s ...
*
George Winne, Jr.
George Winne Jr. (April 2, 1947 – May 11, 1970) was an American student who, in protest of the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War, set himself on fire in an act of self-immolation at Revelle Plaza on the campus of the University of ...
*
Thích Quảng Đức
Thích Quảng Đức (; vi-hantu, , 1897 – 11 June 1963; born Lâm Văn Túc) was a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk who burned himself to death at a busy Saigon road intersection on 11 June 1963. Quảng Đức was protesting the persec ...
*
Nhat Chi Mai
* ''
Path to War
''Path to War'' is a 2002 American biographical television film, produced by HBO and directed by John Frankenheimer. It was the final film directed by Frankenheimer, who died seven weeks after the film debuted on HBO. It was also the last film pr ...
''
References
Further reading
* Welsh, Anne Morrison & Joyce Hollyday. ''Held in the light: One Man's Sacrifice for Peace and His Family's Search for Healing'', Orbis (2008);
*
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morrison, Norman
1933 births
1965 deaths
1965 suicides
American anti–Vietnam War activists
American Quakers
American pacifists
People from Erie, Pennsylvania
Self-immolations in protest of the Vietnam War
Suicides in Virginia
Deaths from fire in the United States
20th-century Quakers
College of Wooster alumni