martin luther king jr vietnam war speech transcript martin luther king jr vietnam war speech transcript

So even McNamara eventually comes around to that point. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. The march was organized by the Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam and initiated by its chairman, James Bevel. Neither is it an attempt to make North Vietnam or the National Liberation Front paragons of virtue, nor to overlook the role they can play in a successful resolution of the problem. complaining of what he described as a double standard that applauded his nonviolence at home, but deplored it when applied "toward little brown Vietnamese children. Set a date that we will remove all foreign troops from Vietnam in accordance with the 1954 Geneva agreement. Have they forgotten that my ministry is in obedience to the one who loved his enemies so fully that he died for them? But two, to the audio, there are only less than 10 minutes of this speech that got covered. And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond to compassion my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr ., head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, delivers a speech entitled "Beyond Vietnam" in front of 3,000 people at Riverside Church in. 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. 0000003415 00000 n I'm Neal Conan. (1997). It makes for an excellent teaching tool for a unit on the Civil Rights Movement, Cold War and Vietnam, or as a bridge to combine the two! Martin Luther King, Jr. 4 April 1967. Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investment. [citation needed]. 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. Mr. SMILEY: Yeah, Walt, I thank you for sharing that story as well, for being courageous to tell it, number one. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest. Mr. SMILEY: Yeah. 0000040748 00000 n 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. "[9] He stated that North Vietnam "did not begin to send in any large number of supplies or men until American forces had arrived in the tens of thousands", and accused the U.S. of having killed a million Vietnamese, "mostly children. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks out against the war - HISTORY BlackPast.org is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and our EIN is 26-1625373. Perhaps only his sense of humor and of irony can save him when he hears the most powerful nation of the world speaking of aggression as it drops thousands of bombs on a poor weak nation more than eight thousand miles away from its shores. V)U5v\@apkk;#WF. "It basically ruins their relationship," says Smiley. [citation needed] Content [ edit] It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, GA on January 15th, 1929. 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. $25.00. Robert B. Semple, Jr., Dr. These are days which demand wise restraint and calm reasonableness. That's the problem with it. 0000002427 00000 n 0000002004 00000 n And we are spending money for a war abroad that ought to be spent for the war on poverty here at home. And there was a 18-year-old black Marine that picked me up since I couldn't walk, got me away from bombs and saved my life. Or will there be another message, of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. 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 . The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. We in the West must support these revolutions. He supported Johnsons calls for diplomatic negotiations and economic development as the beginnings of such a step. "[23], King also stated in "Beyond Vietnam" that "true compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. 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. 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. Copyright 2010 NPR. He would no longer be respected. A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence", also referred as the Riverside Church speech,[1] is an antiVietnam War and prosocial justice speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1967, exactly one year before he was assassinated. As we counsel young men concerning military service we must clarify for them our nations role in Vietnam and challenge them with the alternative of conscientious objection. HT0WJ3 O$L So this was a huge, huge speech that got Martin King in more trouble than anything he had ever said or done. In order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war. The Story Of King's 'Beyond Vietnam' Speech : NPR [27] Thich Nhat Hanh, who publicly held a news conference in Chicago with King in 1966, was acknowledged for urging King to oppose the Vietnam War. 0000001739 00000 n Let's go to Walt(ph). We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers. The United States got involved in the Vietnam War because they wanted to stop the spread of communism. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on lifes highway. There are people who have come to see the moral imperative of equality, but who cannot yet see the moral imperative of world brotherhood. 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. Paul A. Schuette, King Preaches on Non-Violence at Police-Guarded Howard Hall, Washington Post, 3 March 1965. However, you argue strongly in the film that it was completely consistent with the nature and the character of Dr. King and something he needed to say. Meanwhile we in the churches and synagogues have a continuing task while we urge our government to disengage itself from a disgraceful commitment. ", After King delivered the speech, Smiley reports, "168 major newspapers the next day denounced him." The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. Smiley continues, "it was the most controversial speech he ever gave. On 4 April 1967 Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his seminal speech at Riverside Church condemning the Vietnam War. M ost Americans remember Martin Luther King Jr. for his dream of what this country could be, a nation where his children would "not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content. I would like to see the fervor of the civil-rights movement imbued into the peace movement to instill it with greater strength. No, Howard, I thank you for your phone call. 0000004621 00000 n 0000007566 00000 n And I think that if nothing else what we need to wrestle with in a contemporary sense, Neal, is the question of whether or not there is another way that King would have us consider were he allowed to do. Recently one of them wrote these words: Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. And about a month after that speech was given, I was wounded. Copy of full text of the "Beyond Vietnam" speech. 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. They see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers. I've Been to the Mountaintop - Wikipedia In his 1967 speech on the Vietnam War, Martin Luther King, Jr. employs figurative language and syntactical elements to construct his argument against the hypocrisy and cruelty of American involvement in the war. Fifty-years ago in April 1967, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered one of his most memorable, if not controversial sermons, at Riverside Church just steps away from the Columbia University campus. And so I think most Americans, Neal, know the "I Have A Dream" speech. [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. And after I was wounded, we had four or five 100-pound bomb dropped on us, and 10 Marines were killed outright and 24 were wounded. . In "People and Peace, not Profits and War," Shirley Chisholm repeats the words "two more years" (42). 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. 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. And Walt's with us from Cortez in Colorado. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. 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 . With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just. He rarely gave speeches from a text. 0000044282 00000 n But they didn't stay for the speech in its entirety. Thanks, as always for your time. Because, to your point now, one, I want people to go online and read the speech so you can see the text for yourself. Beyond Vietnam: The MLK speech that caused an uproar. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. The cornerstones of his activism were based on non-violence and civil disobedience, both of which were inspired by his Christian faith and the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. This speech was written and basically read word for word so that they could have a copy to give to mainstream newspapers across the country for their consideration, because King did not want to be misquoted Mr. SMILEY: or misunderstood, although that didn't work. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that. The film is the second episode of Tavis Smiley Reports. hide caption. "[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. Dr. King is trying to get the point across that our country is being unfair to others. Keep in mind now that 1967, Neal, as you know, is the same year that Muhammad Ali, the world champion, decides to not accept that draft to go and fight in Vietnam. In December 1966, testifying before a congressional subcommittee on budget priorities, King argued for a rebalancing of fiscal priorities away from Americas obsession with Vietnam and toward greater support for anti-poverty programs at home (Semple, Dr. At this point I should make it clear that while I have tried in these last few minutes to give a voice to the voiceless on Vietnam and to understand the arguments of those who are called enemy, I am as deeply concerned about our troops there as anything else. King, Beyond Vietnam, in A Call to Conscience, ed. JwNt YHiA:{p . 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. He did say he was going to increase troop levels in Afghanistan, so he's kept that promise. There is something seductively tempting about stopping there and sending us all off on what in some circles has become a popular crusade against the war in Vietnam. 5. This quote is from a sermon by Dr. King on April 30, 1967 at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, drawing from his infamous April 4 sermon at Riverside Church. Carson and Holloran, 1998. It was a wonderful, I think, place to give the speech in the sense that it's pretty cavernous. As Arnold Toynbee says : Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and good against the damning choice of death and evil. 0000003199 00000 n Not only that, but then-President Lyndon Johnson disinvited King to the White House. 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. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within ones own bosom and in the surrounding world. Screenshots are considered by the King Estate a violation of this notice. 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. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. And thirdly, I think the main point here in this MLK "Beyond Vietnam" speech is that there is another way. 0000002874 00000 n Read The Full Text And Listen To Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Beyond Vietnam" Speech. Dr. This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense against communism. "[14][15], The "Beyond Vietnam" speech reflected King's evolving political advocacy in his later years, which paralleled the teachings of the progressive Highlander Research and Education Center, with which he was affiliated. For as popular as King was, he was a Nobel laureate, there were only one or two news crews who actually came to see the speech that night, Neal. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor. HdTn0+=3hRnm)zK#-t\|Ha)S Undeterred, King, Spock, and Harry Belafonte led 10,000 demonstrators on an anti-war march to the United Nations on 15 April 1967. Mr. SMILEY: Neal, thank you for the opportunity. On April 4, 1967 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a speech named, "Beyond Vietnam- A Time to Break Silence" addressing the Vietnam War. The Washington Post says he has done a discredit to himself, to his people, to his country. [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. He turned that into a great speech when he got out of the hospital. 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. CONAN: Howard, thanks very much for the call. 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 . Perhaps the more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. James L. Bevel dies at 72; civil rights activist and top lieutenant to King", "Martin Luther King Jr. made our nation uncomfortable", "The Uncompromising Anti-Capitalism of Martin Luther King Jr", "Why Martin Luther King Didn't Run for President", "Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Master and Political Reformer, Dies at 95", "The Story Of King's 'Beyond Vietnam' Speech", "Dragons, legos, and solitary: Ai Weiwei's transformative Alcatraz exhibition", Full transcript of the speech from Commondreams.org. In the 1950s and 1960s, his words led the Civil Rights Movement and helped change society. And it was on that occasion that he - when he saw those pictures, said, I have to speak out about this. The speech and its echoes for Afghanistan and Iraq are the subject of "Tavis Smiley Reports MLK: A Call to Conscience.". And they are surely right to wonder what kind of new government we plan to help form without them the only party in real touch with the peasants. The peasants watched and cringed as Diem ruthlessly routed out all opposition, supported their extortionist landlords and refused even to discuss reunification with the north. Martin Luther King's Speech Against the Vietnam War Though the cause of evil prosper, Yet tis truth alone is strong; Though her portion be the scaffold, And upon the throne be wrong: Yet that scaffold sways the future, And behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow Keeping watch above his own. His tireless work advocating for the end of. Had the president stopped by giving Martin King his just respect - as he did, to his credit - it would have been okay. He was stabbed at one time. 0000023610 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. 0000001616 00000 n n the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on lifes roadside; but that will be only an initial act. The Institute cannot give permission to use or reproduce any of the writings, statements, or images of Martin Luther King, Jr. Q%F70%iR! 0000011068 00000 n 1967 speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. In a way we were agreeing with Langston Hughes, that black bard of Harlem, who had written earlier: O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath America will be! Finally, as I try to delineate for you and for myself the road that leads from Montgomery to this place I would have offered all that was most valid if I simply said that I must be true to my conviction that I share with all men the calling to be a son of the living God. Is our nation planning to build on political myth again and then shore it up with the power of new violence? This speech was enormously controversial. Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? 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. 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. Delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Manhattan's Riverside Church, April 4, 1967 . Martin Luther King's Beyond Vietnam Speech is in many ways even more relevant today than in 1967. . Beyond Vietnam A Time To Break Silence Rhetorical Precis Soon we would be paying almost the full costs of this tragic attempt at recolonization. What must they be thinking when they know that we are aware of their control of major sections of Vietnam and yet we appear ready to allow national elections in which this highly organized political parallel government will have no part? "[8] He connected the war with economic injustice, arguing that the country needed serious moral change: A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. Now they languish under our bombs and consider us not their fellow Vietnamese the real enemy. 0000002516 00000 n We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. I would like to suggest five concrete things that our government should do immediately to begin the long and difficult process of extricating ourselves from this nightmarish conflict: 1. This is TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News in Washington. Moreover I would encourage all ministers of draft age to give up their ministerial exemptions and seek status as conscientious objectors. Martin built his speech that night, Neal, around three major points: around increasing militarism, around escalating poverty and around the issue of racism. If we love one another God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. I say we must enter the struggle, but I wish to go on now to say something even more disturbing. Mr. SMILEY: We - let me just tell you this. 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. Our government felt then that the Vietnamese people were not ready for independence, and we again fell victim to the deadly Western arrogance that has poisoned the international atmosphere for so long. Sorry, I'm a little bit emotional here. At the time, civil rights leaders publicly condemned him for it. So, too, with Hanoi. That's what I feel. And King was prescient on this. 0000009985 00000 n 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. But LBJ disinvites him to the White House. 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. So practically everybody was opposed to him giving this speech. 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. I've always thought that was, to me, his best speech, his most consequential speech, even better than I have a dream in the mountain top speech. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor both black and white through the poverty program. Indeed, you play parts of President Obama's speech to the Nobel Committee there in Stockholm where he received the award. King linked his anti-war and civil rights work in speeches throughout the country, where he described the three problems he saw plaguing the nation: racism, poverty, and the war in Vietnam. [27], In 2010, PBS commentator Tavis Smiley said that the speech was the most controversial speech of King's career, and the one he "labored over the most". Is it among these voiceless ones? If Americas soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read Vietnam. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. King led his first anti-war march in Chicago on 25 March 1967, and reinforced the connection between war abroad and injustice at home: The bombs in Vietnam explode at homethey destroy the dream and possibility for a decent America (Dr. With this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status quo and unjust mores and thereby speed the day when every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain.. These are revolutionary times. Now there is little left to build onsave bitterness. 0000002247 00000 n Instead, we decided to support France in its reconquest of her former colony. "Beyond Vietnam" - The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education King's "Beyond Vietnam" speech was delivered at the Riverside Church in New York exactly one year before his assassination. King spoke strongly against the U.S.'s role in the war, arguing that the U.S. was in Vietnam "to occupy it as an American colony" and calling the U.S. government "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today. When the Rev. And I think most Americans know the "I Have A Dream" speech. CONAN: And one thing that I was unaware of was the timing of the speech in that he had wanted to say something along these lines. 0000001700 00000 n PDF Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence - hawaii.edu [16][17] King began to speak of the need for fundamental changes in the political and economic life of the nation, and more frequently expressed his opposition to the war and his desire to see a redistribution of resources to correct racial and economic injustice. 0000002964 00000 n End all bombing in North and South Vietnam. His house was bombed. Dr. All rights reserved. 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. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. 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. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways. 0000017817 00000 n What do they think as we test our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe? They must see Americans as strange liberators. 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. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence - American Rhetoric What liberators? And that's the issue that King was raising. Those pictures turned Dr. King's stomach. 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?