martin luther king jr vietnam war speech transcript

They move sadly and apathetically as we herd them off the land of their fathers into concentration camps where minimal social needs are rarely met. Carson and Holloran, 1998. So they go primarily women and children and the aged. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. This oft misunderstood and misinterpreted conceptso readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly forcehas now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. Now they languish under our bombs and consider us not their fellow Vietnamese the real enemy. Now there is little left to build onsave bitterness. The initiative to stop it must be ours. Martin Luther King Jr. - Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest. But what I want - I think the question - I've always thought that Dr. King, that that speech about Vietnam was his best speech in my mind. In 1967, in the shadows of Columbia, Dr. King shifted the world again. Legendary civil rights leader Rev. Peace and civil rights dont mix, they say. 2. HdTn0+=3hRnm)zK#-t\|Ha)S "It basically ruins their relationship," says Smiley. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Beyond Vietnam" was a powerful and angry speech that raged against the war. BRC-NEWS: Black Radical Congress International News/Alerts/Announcements , Martin Luther King, Jr., delivering speech. As that noble bard of yesterday, James Russell Lowell, eloquently stated: Once to every man and nation Comes the moment to decide, In the strife of truth and falsehood, For the good or evil side; Some great cause, Gods new Messiah, Offring each the bloom or blight, And the choice goes by forever Twixt that darkness and that light. While King was personally opposed to the war, he was concerned that publicly criticizing U.S. foreign policy would damage his relationship with President Lyndon B. Johnson, who had been instrumental in passing civil rights legislation and who had declared in April 1965 that he was willing to negotiate a diplomatic end to the war in Vietnam. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. CONAN: And the place - choice of place is very interesting too. King, Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution, in A Knock at Midnight, ed. On April 4, 1967 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a speech named, "Beyond Vietnam- A Time to Break Silence" addressing the Vietnam War. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. King delivered a speech entitled Beyond Vietnam, pointing out that the war effort was taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem (King, Beyond Vietnam, 143). Answering press questions after addressing a Howard University audience on 2 March 1965, King asserted that the war in Vietnam was accomplishing nothing and called for a negotiated settlement (Schuette, King Preaches on Non-Violence). 0000001739 00000 n This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. The Institute cannot give permission to use or reproduce any of the writings, statements, or images of Martin Luther King, Jr. I Have a Dream | Date, Quotations, & Facts | Britannica Beyond Vietnam2 in that . So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such. King Scores Poverty). Then came the buildup in Vietnam and I watched the program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? But when he turns the corner and then says, essentially, that Martin's philosophy wouldn't work in today's world, he goes on to say that Dr. King didn't know al-Qaida, as if to suggest that Martin didn't understand evil, that Martin didn't understand violence, that he himself had not been subjected to it. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at the flood; it ebbs. Although the peace community lauded Kings willingness to take a public stand against the war in Vietnam, many within the civil rights movement further distanced themselves from his stance. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I and others have been waging in America. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that. King Scores Poverty Budget, New York Times, 16 December 1966. I want to thank you, as I know listeners do as well, for your service to this country. The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. We in the West must support these revolutions. 0000003454 00000 n It was they who led a second struggle against French domination at tremendous costs, and then were persuaded to give up the land they controlled between the thirteenth and seventeenth parallel as a temporary measure at Geneva. [6], King delivered the speech, sponsored by the group Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam, after committing to participate in New York's April 15, 1967 anti-Vietnam war march from Central Park to the United Nations, sponsored by the Spring Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. Moreover when the issues at hand seem as perplexed as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty; but we must move on. Fearful of being labeled a Communist, which would diminish the impact of his civil rights work, King tempered his criticism of U.S. policy in Vietnam through late 1965 and 1966. HT0WJ3 O$L Mr. SMILEY: That's right. 0000017817 00000 n Copyright 2010 NPR. There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I, and others, have been waging in America. The film is the second episode of Tavis Smiley Reports. Fifty years ago in 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr.. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. April 30, 1967: "Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam" Speech Martin Luther King Jr. announced his strong opposition to the war in Vietnam, the media attacked him for straying outside of his civil rights mandate. For nine years following 1945 we denied the people of Vietnam the right of independence. For it occurs to me that what we are submitting them to in Vietnam is not simply the brutalizing process that goes on in any war where armies face each other and seek to destroy. On April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King gave his first major public address on the war in Vietnam at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City. "[9], King opposed the Vietnam War because it took money and resources that could have been spent on social welfare at home. Dr. Martin Luther King's 'Beyond Vietnam' Speech - HistoryNet Opposes Vietnam War, New York Times, 11 November 1965. A complete unit of instruction - include ALL answer documents - comparing and contrasting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Malcom X's early lives & speeches.This unit of study, which can be taught as a complete unit, or separated into 13 distinct activities . If we continue, there will be no doubt in my mind and in the mind of the world that we have no honorable intentions in Vietnam. Because he received a letter from a little white girl who said, Dr. King, I read the newspaper that had you sneezed that blade would've moved, ruptured your aorta and you would've drowned in your own blood. This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the counter-revolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. With that tragic decision we rejected a revolutionary government seeking self-determination, and a government that had been established not by China (for whom the Vietnamese have no great love) but by clearly indigenous forces that included some Communists. Tomorrow, the latest installment with the political junkie. Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence - Wikipedia I just wanted to say that I was an 18-year-old Marine in Vietnam when the speech was given, and I didn't hear it until three or four years ago. King 's work to eradicate racial segregation was abruptly halted when he was assassinated on April 4, 1968, on the balcony of Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. Even before the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu, they began to despair of the reckless action, but we did not. Martin built his speech that night, Neal, around three major points: around increasing militarism, around escalating poverty and around the issue of racism. They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. He was stabbed at one time. The first signs of opposition to King's tactics from within the civil rights movement surfaced during the March 1965 demonstrations in Selma, Alabama, which were aimed at dramatizing the need for a federal voting-rights law that would provide legal support for the enfranchisement of . And Walt's with us from Cortez in Colorado. But Martin understood very clearly that what we ought to be doing at home is being - we are being distracted, rather, by our engagement around the world. He turned that into a great speech when he got out of the hospital. But Carson makes a powerful point in the special that you just identified, about whether or not Martin King himself would be welcome in some of these mega-churches, at certain political gatherings. Is our nation planning to build on political myth again and then shore it up with the power of new violence? In that address, he articulated his reasons for his opposition to the Southeast Asian conflict. In 1968, King was planning a national occupation of Washington, D., to be called the Poor People's Campaign, when he was assassinated on April 4 in . 0000046786 00000 n And I think most Americans know the "I Have A Dream" speech. When you read the speech, if you replace the word Vietnam, every time it pops up, with the word Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan, you will be - it will blow your mind at how King, where he alive today at 81, could really stand up and give that same speech and just replace, again, Vietnam with Iraq and Afghanistan. Howard's calling us from South Bend. Ho Chi Minh has watched as America has spoken of peace and built up its forces, and now he has surely heard of the increasing international rumors of American plans for an invasion of the north. That's what I feel. I have not urged a mechanical fusion of the civil rights and peace movements. 0000002427 00000 n A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. 2/QB(yQVz^*oU.FW Paul A. Schuette, King Preaches on Non-Violence at Police-Guarded Howard Hall, Washington Post, 3 March 1965. From Harlem to Hanoi: Dr. King and the Vietnam War I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. And they, as news crews tend to do, they stayed to get just enough B-roll, as we call it Mr. SMILEY: for the news that night. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose. What of the National Liberation Front that strangely anonymous group we call VC or Communists? Had the president stopped by giving Martin King his just respect - as he did, to his credit - it would have been okay. But two, to the audio, there are only less than 10 minutes of this speech that got covered. hide caption. One of the things, I hope, Neal, will happen here is that when people get a chance to see the special, they will be moved - I think they will be - to Google or Bing, whatever search engine you use, to go online, because the speech is so readily available, Neal, as you know. 0000011437 00000 n Seeking to reduce the potential backlash by framing his speech within the context of religious objection to war, King addressed a crowd of 3,000 people at Riverside Church in New York City. Some 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., for the March on Washington. 0000003503 00000 n A few days later, King made it clear that his peace work was not undertaken as the leader of the SCLC, but as an individual, as a clergyman, as one who is greatly concerned about peace (Dr. Five years ago he said, Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. "[24] King quoted a United States official who said that from Vietnam to Latin America, the country was "on the wrong side of a world revolution. Martin Luther King, Jr. 4 April 1967. CONAN: We (unintelligible) to see it. Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence when it helps us to see the enemys point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. So he was no longer on that particular list. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor. And I believe everyone has a duty to be in both the civil-rights and peace movements. So when the president suggests - and whether directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally diminishes in that Nobel speech Martin's powerful, nonviolent philosophy, it tweaked some people, and you'll see that in the presentation Wednesday night. "The press is being stacked against me", King said,[13] "[24] King condemned America's "alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America", and said that the U.S. should support "the shirtless and barefoot people" in the Third World rather than suppressing their attempts at revolution. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world a world that borders on our doors. If Dr. King were to say to the organizers of these events, I'd like to show up at your church on Sunday morning, at your rally this weekend, and here's what I want to say, there is a good argument to be made that Dr. King himself might not be welcome - might not be allowed to say what was in his heart, what his conscience really was, given the political correctness of the world that we live in today. (Unintelligible) on this program about, you know, the chances he took and even, you know, speaking truth to power to LBJ helped him so much in civil rights. In his last Sunday sermon, delivered at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., on 31 March 1968, King said that he was convinced that [Vietnam] is one of the most unjust wars that has ever been fought in the history of the world (King, Remaining Awake, 219). On April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King gave his first major public address on the war in Vietnam at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City. Mr. SMILEY: It's a powerful point made by Clayborne Carson at Stanford who is in charge, as you know, Neal, of the King papers. Mr. SMILEY: And therein lies the rub. I think of them too because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution there until some attempt is made to know them and hear their broken cries. If Americas soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read Vietnam. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. So practically everybody in his inner circle was against him giving it - one, because they knew the kind of pushback he was going to get. 0000011068 00000 n We had to do a whole lot of work in the booth trying to get that audio right. PDF. You can also join the conversation at our Web site. Martin Luther King, Jr., giving his speech Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence at Riverside Church in NYC, April 4, 1967. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: Too late. There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. They asked if our own nation wasnt using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Four years after President John F. Kennedy sent the first American troops into Vietnam, Martin Luther King, Jr., issued his first public statement on the war. But LBJ disinvites him to the White House. Martin Luther King's Speech Against the Vietnam War

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