Vietnam is a country of many religions, most of which being folk religions. Even though Catholicism, Buddhism, and Protestantism are some of the largest religions of the country, they pale in comparison to how many people believe in their folk religions. Majority of these folk religions were originaly doctrined by the ideas of Cofucianism and Daoism; however, although some of the base princibles may be the same, most of these folk religions are polytheistic, believing in gods for many things such as water, soil, and love. This gives a good indication that these religions have followed their own path and became largley different religions with some common base ideas to what they are said to have derived from, even though they haven't became neatly as large. Because these are folk religions, the followers want to keep their religions separete as to not have it assimilated into the universalizing religions, making themselves an ethnic religion. However, these religions havn't stayred without struggle. In 1955 Buddhist organizations used the birthday event of the supreme Buddha ro protest the oppressive policies of the Ngo Dinh Diem. Or even more recently, during the Vietnam war, a Buddhist monk had dowsed himself in gasoline ans then lit himself on fire outside the office of secretary of defense Robert McNamara's office as an act of condemnation oin the war. This also inspired another person to do the same thing in front of the United Nations Headquarters one week later.