Today in Labor History Nov 2, 1965: Norman Morrison, a 31-year-old Quaker, set himself on fire in front of the Pentagon, directly below the office of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, to protest the use of napalm in the Vietnam war. Fellow Quaker and peace activist Alice Herz had set herself on fire in Detroit, Michigan a few months prior, also to protest the war, as had several Buddhist monks, including Thích Quảng Đức. Morrison had brought his one-year-old daughter, Emily, with him to the self-immolation. He died within minutes of being placed in the ambulance. Demonstrators held a vigil for Morrison, and then occupied the Pentagon for four days until they were removed and arrested. Five days after Morrison’s death, Vietnamese poet Tố Hữu wrote the poem, "Emily, My Child", assuming Morrison’s voice, speaking to Emily and telling her the reasons for his sacrifice. And one week after his death, Roger Allen LaPorte set himself on fire in front of the United Nations building in New York. By the end of the war, napalm had killed over 50,000 civilians in Vietnam.
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