martin luther king jr vietnam war speech transcript

0000017817 00000 n Dr. Benjamin Spock (2nd-L), Martin Luther King, Jr. (C), Father Frederick Reed and Cleveland Robinson lead a huge pacifist rally protesting U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war, Mar. When we ask why they do not leap to negotiate, these things must be remembered. AFP/AFP/Getty Images But most Americans, I think, do not know this speech, "Beyond Vietnam.". 0000012562 00000 n A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. To speak for them is to explain this lack of confidence in Western words, and especially their distrust of American intentions now. Martin Luther King Jr. was deeply troubled by the Vietnam War for years, but the "Beyond Vietnam" speech was his first major policy statement on the issue. 0000043425 00000 n The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality we will find ourselves organizing clergy- and laymen-concerned committees for the next generation. So, that's all I had to say. Beyond Vietnam: The MLK speech that caused an uproar. They see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers. President Obama, this is one campaign promise that he has kept. 0000001427 00000 n On April 15, 1967, King participated and spoke at an anti-war march from Manhattan's Central Park to the United Nations. For those who ask the question, Arent you a civil rights leader? and thereby mean to exclude me from the movement for peace, I have this further answer. And at that march, he knew there would be people, as you point out in the film, waving Vietnamese flags and chanting CONAN: Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh, NLF is going to win, and that sort of thing and it would clearly be taken in a very different context. A few other Americans know, of course, the "Mountaintop" speech given the night before he's assassinated in Memphis. Undeterred, King, Spock, and Harry Belafonte led 10,000 demonstrators on an anti-war march to the United Nations on 15 April 1967. Beyond Vietnam A Time To Break Silence Rhetorical Precis BlackPast.org is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and our EIN is 26-1625373. 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. But they chose Riverside because King was going to be speaking some days later at a huge rally and march in New York City, and they knew that that rally was going to bring out a different kind of element, a more controversial element. Martin Luther King, Jr. 4 April 1967. capitalism, and the Vietnam War. Kings opposition to the war provoked criticism from members of Congress, the press, and from his civil rights colleagues who argued that expanding his civil rights message to include foreign affairs would harm the black freedom struggle in America. We encouraged them with our huge financial and military supplies to continue the war even after they had lost the will. Hanoi remembers how our leaders refused to tell us the truth about the earlier North Vietnamese overtures for peace, how the president claimed that none existed when they had clearly been made. PDF A TIME TO BREAK THE SILENCE - nps.gov Martin Luther King Jr - n/a - Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King The message directly challenged the president who'd taken great political risks to support civil rights legislation and also challenged many of his colleagues in the movement who've called it a tactical mistake. The Riverside Church donated largely with Rockefeller money. I Have a Dream, speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., that was delivered on August 28, 1963, during the March on Washington. between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I, and others, have been waging in America. King, Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution, in A Knock at Midnight, ed. April 4, 1967: Martin Luther King Jr. Delivers "Beyond Vietnam" Speech P: (650) 723-2092 | F: (650) 723-2093 | kinginstitute@stanford.edu| Campus Map. I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. Martin Luther King April 4, 1967 Riverside Church, New York City . [citation needed]. We had to do a whole lot of work in the booth trying to get that audio right. And so the question was, Martin, why would you antagonize the president who has been our friend? What must they think of us in America when they realize that we permitted the repression and cruelty of Diem which helped to bring them into being as a resistance group in the south? Martin Luther King: Beyond Vietnam and Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution, 90th Cong., 2d sess., Congressional Record 114 (9 April 1968): 93919397. So even McNamara eventually comes around to that point. The question is, is it a war of necessity or a war of choice at this point? It is not addressed to China or to Russia. And let's see if we can get another caller on the line. He passed the Civil Rights Act. 0000002427 00000 n [26], The same year, King nominated Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize, but the prize was not awarded to anyone that year. We must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every creative means of protest possible. Tonight, however, I wish not to speak with Hanoi and the NLF, but rather to my fellow Americans, who, with me, bear the greatest responsibility in ending a conflict that has exacted a heavy price on both continents. Check your local listings. On April 4, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a controversial sermon opposing the Vietnam War at Riverside Church in Morningside Heights, then helped lead a large antiwar march from Central Park to the United Nations later that month. "I've Been to the Mountaintop" is the popular name of the last speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. King spoke on April 3, 1968, at the Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters) in Memphis, Tennessee. But anyway, where he says, I am mindful of those who spoke at this podium, this spot before me, including Martin Luther King and that I stand on his shoulders as a champion of civil rights. And thank you for sharing what had to be a difficult story to tell. n/a martin luther king jr. (born michael king january 15, 1929 april 1968) was an american baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in . 0000005717 00000 n Martin Luther King Jr. was a social activist that led the Civil Rights Movement, and other movements until his assassination in 1968. And I can't tell young black men, who are being denied right here in the streets of America, that they should offer themselves up and to sign themselves up to go - to do harm to people around the world who they do not know. Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence - American Rhetoric So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such. In "People and Peace, not Profits and War," Shirley Chisholm repeats the words "two more years" (42). We most provide the medical aid that is badly needed, making it available in this country if necessary. For the peasants this new government meant real land reform, one of the most important needs in their lives. Part of our ongoing commitment might well express itself in an offer to grant asylum to any Vietnamese who fears for his life under a new regime which included the Liberation Front. 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. We must move past indecision to action. 0000005696 00000 n We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy. 0000046786 00000 n In the north, where our bombs now pummel the land, and our mines endanger the waterways, we are met by a deep but understandable mistrust. In the light of such tragic misunderstandings, I deem it of signal importance to try to state clearly, and I trust concisely, why I believe that the path from Dexter Avenue Baptist Church the church in Montgomery, Alabama, where I began my pastorate leads clearly to this sanctuary tonight. Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word.. Ken Rudin joins guest host Rebecca Roberts. Copy of full text of the "Beyond Vietnam" speech. trailer << /Size 93 /Info 36 0 R /Root 40 0 R /Prev 148547 /ID[<8f2b4dd6f2f061944c7ff807c44fcc1f><651247ae294a1a197a948cb3bc3f8412>] >> startxref 0 %%EOF 40 0 obj << /Type /Catalog /Pages 38 0 R /Metadata 37 0 R /Threads 41 0 R /Names 43 0 R /OpenAction [ 44 0 R /XYZ null null null ] /PageMode /UseNone /PageLabels 35 0 R >> endobj 41 0 obj [ 42 0 R ] endobj 42 0 obj << /I << /Title (A)>> /F 45 0 R >> endobj 43 0 obj << /Dests 33 0 R >> endobj 91 0 obj << /S 76 /E 200 /L 216 /Filter /FlateDecode /Length 92 0 R >> stream It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. (Scott) King,My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr., 1969. 0000010534 00000 n "[10], King also criticized American opposition to North Vietnam's land reforms. Dr. King in a March 25, 1967 antiwar march in Chicago. (AFP via Getty Images) "Why are you speaking about the war, Dr. King? It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. His speech appears below. He criticized the Vietnam War and praised Muhammad Ali for being a conscientious objector. It was the speech he labored over the most. In so many words, powerful interests told him: "Mind your own business.". Martin Luther King's Speech Against the Vietnam War by David Bromwich May 16, 2008 O ne of the greatest speeches by Martin Luther King, Jr., "A Time to Break Silence," was delivered at Riverside Church, New York City, on April 4, 1967. "It basically ruins their relationship," says Smiley. But instead there came the United States, determined that Ho should not unify the temporarily divided nation, and the peasants watched again as we supported one of the most vicious modern dictators our chosen man, Premier Diem. During the last year of his life, King worked with Spock to develop Vietnam Summer, a volunteer project to increase grassroots peace activism in time for the 1968 elections. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. 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). They asked if our own nation wasnt using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another message, of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world a world that borders on our doors. 0000040748 00000 n All Rights Reserved. Mr. SMILEY: Yeah. WALT (Caller): Yes. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. We must speak for them and raise the questions they cannot raise. 0000008326 00000 n His house was bombed. 0000012541 00000 n It was the speech he labored over the most. Email us: talk@npr.org. Therefore, communism is a judgment against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions we initiated. How Did Martin Luther King Jr Use Of Figurative Language (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. 2. A small donation would help us keep this available to all. 0000011739 00000 n And Tavis, nice to have you back in the program. Life magazine called the speech "demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi",[9] and The Washington Post declared that King had "diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people. In Hanoi are the men who led the nation to independence against the Japanese and the French, the men who sought membership in the French commonwealth and were betrayed by the weakness of Paris and the willfulness of the colonial armies. [citation needed] Content [ edit] Later that year King framed the issue of war in Vietnam as a moral issue: As a minister of the gospel, he said, I consider war an evil. I've Been to the Mountaintop - Wikipedia 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. As I have walked among the desperate, rejected and angry young men I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. Somehow this madness must cease. Speeches, writings, movements, and protests, Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. Surely we must see that our own computerized plans of destruction simply dwarf their greatest acts. These too are our brothers. Carson and Holloran, 1998. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave a speech that may have helped put a target on . Soon the only solid physical foundations remaining will be found at our military bases and in the concrete of the concentration camps we call fortified hamlets. 0000003503 00000 n 0000009168 00000 n So, too, with Hanoi. 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. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. [11], King's opposition cost him significant support among white allies, including President Johnson, Billy Graham,[citation needed] union leaders and powerful publishers. So all that we have is less than 10 minutes of video of the speech. 0000009985 00000 n He had fallen off already the list, as you mentioned, had already fallen off the list of the most admired Americans as tallied by Gallup every year. Jazmyn Ford. (1997). Because, to your point now, one, I want people to go online and read the speech so you can see the text for yourself. We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. To me the relationship of this ministry to the making of peace is so obvious that I sometimes marvel at those who ask me why I am speaking against the war. This is the message of the great Buddhist leaders of Vietnam. 0000004855 00000 n Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Vietnam War Speech Analysis 0000004834 00000 n The speech primarily concerns the Memphis sanitation strike.King calls for unity, economic actions, boycotts, and nonviolent protest, while challenging the United States to live . Surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their violence. Since I am a preacher by trade, I suppose it is not surprising that I have seven major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral vision. Some civil rights leaders urged King not to speak out on the Vietnam War, but he said he could not separate issues of economic injustice, racism, war, and militarism. King Scores Poverty Budget, New York Times, 16 December 1966. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - Zinn Education Project Delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Manhattan's Riverside Church, April 4, 1967 . And when I hear them, though I often understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling. MLK Opposed "Poverty, Racism & Militarism" in Speech One Year Before All the while the people read our leaflets and received regular promises of peace and democracy and land reform. Martin Luther King Beyond Vietnam Speech Full Text and Video 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). Martin Luther King, Jr., giving his speech Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence at Riverside Church in NYC, April 4, 1967. And King gives a great speech out of that hospital called "If I Had Sneezed." W. E. B. 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. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. So he was no longer on that particular list. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. And the last poll taken in his life by Harris, the Harris Poll, Neal, found that nearly three quarters of the American people, nearly three quarters, had turned against Martin on this issue, and 55 percent of his own people, black folk, had turned against him. We were 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. Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination - HISTORY Even before the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu, they began to despair of the reckless action, but we did not. The initiative to stop it must be ours. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. CONAN: Indeed, it was Oslo. CONAN: Tavis Smiley, author, journalist, political commentator, host of his talk show on PBS, joins us today from the Sheryl Flowers Studios in Los Angeles. In the 1950s and 1960s, his words led the Civil Rights Movement and helped change society. So 60 year(ph) is really, really a hot year here around this particular issue. They question our political goals and they deny the reality of a peace settlement from which they will be excluded. It is curious that the Americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory, do not realize that in the process they are incurring deep psychological and political defeat. 16, 1967 in New York. This is TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News in Washington. JwNt YHiA:{p . In that address, he articulated his reasons for his opposition to the Southeast Asian conflict. When Martin Luther King Jr. Spoke Out Against the Vietnam War A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. People And Peace Not Profits And War Rhetorical Devices ", After King delivered the speech, Smiley reports, "168 major newspapers the next day denounced him." Please contact Intellectual Properties Management (IPM), the exclusive licensor of the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. atlicensing@i-p-m.comor 404 526-8968. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their governments policy, especially in time of war. 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. America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. A call for equality and freedom, it became one of the defining moments of the civil rights movement and one of the most iconic speeches in American history. 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. But LBJ disinvites him to the White House. If we do not stop our war against the people of Vietnam immediately the world will be left with no other alternative than to see this as some horribly clumsy and deadly game we have decided to play. I say we must enter the struggle, but I wish to go on now to say something even more disturbing. A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. King Leads Chicago). 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. Dr. King And Malcolm X Teaching Resources | TPT 0000002337 00000 n "The press is being stacked against me", King said,[13] Do you find this information helpful? So we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools. He summed up this aspect by saying, "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. It was a tactical mistake. The only change came from America as we increased our troop commitments in support of governments which were singularly corrupt, inept and without popular support. Before he was assassinated at age 39, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Beyond Vietnam" was a powerful and angry speech that raged against the war.

martin luther king jr vietnam war speech transcript 2023