Malcolm Browne Dies: Photographer of Burning Monk Dead at 81

Photographer Malcolm Browne died at the age of 81 on August 27. Browne, who captured the photograph of a monk setting himself on fire in Vietnam in 1963, passed away on Monday evening after he was rushed to the hospital with breathing difficulties.

Browne was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2000 and was on a wheelchair in his last days. Browned worked at the New York Times for 30 years. He spent most of that time in war zones. He was shot down three times in combat aircraft and expelled from six countries. He was put on a death list in Saigon.

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His photograph of the burning monk had a significant impact on President John F. Kennedy's Vietnam policy. It became one of the first iconic news photos of the Vietnam War.

"Malcolm Browne was a precise and determined journalist who helped set the standard for rigorous reporting in the early days of the Vietnam War," said Kathleen Carroll, AP executive editor and senior vice president. "He was also a genuinely decent and classy man."

"That picture put the Vietnam War on the front page more than anything else that happened before that," said Hal Buell, who was the deputy photo editor in NYC at that time. "That's where the story stayed for the next 10 years or more."

Browne got a degree in chemistry from Swarthmore College. He was sent to Korea as a tank driver in 1956. He then ended up getting a job writing for a military newspaper by chance and had since continued his career in journalism, rather than chemistry.

He had earned a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage in Vietnam, along with photographer Horst Faas and reporter Peter Arnett.