If he had had the foresight to somehow get a reporter with camera onsite, guaranteeing a photo, I think the impact of this would have been far greater. A 1% ch

If he had had the foresight to somehow get a reporter with camera onsite, guaranteeing a photo, I think the impact of this would have been far greater. A 1% chance of ending the Vietnam War in 1965 was probably objectively worth one man's sacrifice. (Suicide is horrible, but on utilitarian grounds of greatest good for greatest number.) I'm not sure what the actual odds were. Pentagon Papers clearly had a bigger impact and no one died. There were probably other effective anti-war protests which could have been used, too. (I personally would listen to military officers breaking ranks and explaining why the war is unwinnable as it was being prosecuted much more closely than I'd listen to arbitrary hippie anti-war protestors; particularly someone who had actually served in Vietnam in a capacity to see that firsthand, and who was advocating a reasonable course. Similarly I listen to Binney/Drake/Wiebe, Snowden, etc. far more seriously than random anti-NSA-on-moral-grounds people.)