A scene from “Unfinished Business”

Bill Zimmerman: I first became aware of Vietnam because of a burning monk. We had watched the civil rights movement in the South, and it had set the standard for us to stand up against injustice. Allow yourself to be beaten up, allow yourself to be attacked by a dog or hit by a police truncheon. We had enormous respect for people who were willing to go that far. And then one day in 1963, we saw on television a picture of a monk in Saigon. This was an extraordinary act. Why was a Buddhist monk burning himself on the streets of Saigon?