Norman Morrison
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Template:Reqimage Norman Morrison (born December 29, 1933, Erie, Pennsylvania, died November 2, 1965) is best known as a protester of the Vietnam War who set himself on fire (self-immolation) in front of The Pentagon building on November 2, 1965, to protest the United States involvement in the war. At the time, he was a 32-year old devout Quaker, and father of three.
His widow, Anne Morrison Welsh, recalled in an interview the morning he committed the protest said that he had taken their then one-year-old daughter Emily with him, either setting her down or handing her off to someone in the crowd, before dying:
- "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] (http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj9507&article=950752)
Morrison became a hero to the Vietnamese;[2] (http://www.mylaipeacepark.org/dedicate.html) North Vietnam issued in his honour a postage stamp, possession of which was prohibited in the US.[3] (http://www.sammler.com/bm/images/vietnam15.jpg)
![[3]](http://www.sammler.com/bm/images/vietnam15.jpg){kind=link}
Seven days later, Roger Allen LaPorte performed a similar act in New York City, in front of the United Nations building.
In a letter 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."
See Susan Sontag's essay in Styles of Radical Will, p. 236.
See also
External links
- Profile of Morrison (http://www.leinsdorf.com/political_suicide.htm)
- Sojourners (http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj9507&article=950752), interview with Anne Morrison Welsh, Morrisson's widow