martin luther king jr vietnam war speech transcript

"[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. Then we must make what reparations we can for the damage we have done. Now there is little left to build onsave bitterness. 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. You can also join the conversation at our Web site. Some, like civil rights leader Ralph Bunche, the NAACP, and the editorial page writers of The Washington Post[3] and The New York Times[4] called the Riverside Church speech a mistake on King's part. These are the times for real choices and not false ones. 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. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, Washington, D.C. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, San Jose, April 15, 1967 Anti-Vietnam war demonstrations, 1968 Democratic National Convention protests, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, Fifth Avenue Vietnam Peace Parade Committee, National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, John F. Kennedy's speech to the nation on Civil Rights, Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States, Chicago Freedom Movement/Chicago open housing movement, Green v. County School Board of New Kent County, Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, Council for United Civil Rights Leadership, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), "Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind Stayed On Freedom)", List of lynching victims in the United States, Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument, Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Beyond_Vietnam:_A_Time_to_Break_Silence&oldid=1133369048, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from January 2023, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2023, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 13 January 2023, at 12:35. 4. 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 speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. Martin Luther King: Beyond Vietnam and Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution, 90th Cong., 2d sess., Congressional Record 114 (9 April 1968): 93919397. In "People and Peace, not Profits and War," Shirley Chisholm repeats the words "two more years" (42). 159. He turned that into a great speech when he got out of the hospital. That Vietnam was a mistake. And thank you for sharing what had to be a difficult story to tell. At the time, civil rights leaders publicly condemned him for it. Accuracy and availability may vary. 0000003503 00000 n A few other Americans know, of course, the "Mountaintop" speech given the night before he's assassinated in Memphis. The major speech at Riverside Church in New York City, followed several interviews[2] and several other public speeches in which King came out against the Vietnam War and the policies that created it. A Comparative Study of Martin Luther King Jr & Malcolm X. by. In 1967, in the shadows of Columbia, Dr. King shifted the world again. For the peasants this new government meant real land reform, one of the most important needs in their lives. 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. "[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. Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? And what really got him to the point of figuring that he really, really had to address this again back to the children, he couldn't say to young folks in this country who were being denied, that they should engage nonviolence as a philosophy when he saw the children, when he saw these pictures of these Vietnamese children being bombed and the impact - the effect that napalm was having on their bodies. [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. They question our political goals and they deny the reality of a peace settlement from which they will be excluded. 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. And that's just the Times and the Post. Mr. SMILEY: Indeed, he did. This I believe to be the privilege and the burden of all of us who deem ourselves bound by allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than nationalism and which go beyond our nations self-defined goals and positions. The initiative to stop it must be ours. Over the past two years, as I have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam, many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path. We're talking with Tavis Smiley. On April 4, 1967 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a speech named, "Beyond Vietnam- A Time to Break Silence" addressing the Vietnam War. 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. 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. [citation needed]. Realistically accept the fact that the National Liberation Front has substantial support in South Vietnam and must thereby play a role in any meaningful negotiations and in any future Vietnam government. 4 Powerful Martin Luther King, Jr. Speeches That Aren't 'I Have A Dream' For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition. Such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God. 3. Freedom's Ring: King's "I Have a Dream" Speech, Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution, Martin Luther King, Jr. - Political and Social Views, Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam (CALCAV). This is Howard, which you know me. This call for a world-wide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond ones tribe, race, class and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all men. 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. P: (650) 723-2092 | F: (650) 723-2093 | kinginstitute@stanford.edu| Campus Map. [12] 0000003996 00000 n For nine years following 1945 we denied the people of Vietnam the right of independence. We must move past indecision to action. I Have a Dream, speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., that was delivered on August 28, 1963, during the March on Washington. Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Take immediate steps to prevent other battlegrounds in Southeast Asia by curtailing our military buildup in Thailand and our interference in Laos. 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. While they both may have justifiable reason to be suspicious of the good faith of the United States, life and history give eloquent testimony to the fact that conflicts are never resolved without trustful give and take on both sides. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. Surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their violence. [19][20], In a 1952 letter to Coretta Scott, he said: "I imagine you already know that I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic"[21] In one speech, he stated that "something is wrong with capitalism" and claimed, "There must be a better distribution of wealth, and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism. 0000002516 00000 n 0000002874 00000 n 0000030467 00000 n The truth of these words is beyond doubt but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. But LBJ disinvites him to the White House. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. Moreover I would encourage all ministers of draft age to give up their ministerial exemptions and seek status as conscientious objectors. Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305. 0000002605 00000 n Dr. King And Malcolm X Teaching Resources | TPT 0000012541 00000 n Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter but beautifulstruggle for a new world. 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. After the French were defeated it looked as if independence and land reform would come again through the Geneva agreements. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. We had to do a whole lot of work in the booth trying to get that audio right. ", After King delivered the speech, Smiley reports, "168 major newspapers the next day denounced him." King, Beyond Vietnam, in A Call to Conscience, ed. Martin Luther King, Jr. 4 April 1967. And King was prescient on this. They asked if our own nation wasnt using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. 1967 speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. CONAN: And there's an interesting point you also make in the film that - or at least some of the participants in your film make - that were he alive today and saying the kinds of things you would expect him to say, given that speech, he probably would not be invited to many Martin Luther King Day celebrations. 39 0 obj << /Linearized 1 /O 44 /H [ 1739 286 ] /L 149455 /E 105346 /N 8 /T 148557 >> endobj xref 39 54 0000000016 00000 n 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. 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. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. And let's see if we can get another caller on the line. HOWARD: How are you doing, Tavis? So even McNamara eventually comes around to that point. 0000043425 00000 n Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination - HISTORY JwNt YHiA:{p . We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world a world that borders on our doors. And so he does in New York City. We must not engage in a negative anti-communism, but rather in a positive thrust for democracy, realizing that our greatest defense against communism is to take offensive action in behalf of justice. 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. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Beyond Vietnam" was a powerful and angry speech that raged against the war. King to Weigh Civil Disobedience). 0000003199 00000 n Fifty years ago in 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr.. The New York Times calls it wasteful and self-defeating. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at the flood; it ebbs. Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. The peasants may well wonder if we plan to build our new Vietnam on such grounds as these? 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. 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. 0000040748 00000 n 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. So, that's all I had to say. Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence - American Rhetoric Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest. Due to the Vietnam War is that plenty of individuals, both Americans and Vietnamese were killed. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. In 1957 when a group of us formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, we chose as our motto: To save the soul of America. We were convinced that we could not limit our vision to certain rights for black people, but instead affirmed the conviction that America would never be free or saved from itself unless the descendants of its slaves were loosed completely from the shackles they still wear. Some 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., for the March on Washington. 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. And number two, at what cost? On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 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. So practically everybody was opposed to him giving this speech. CONAN: Indeed, it was Oslo. 0000003415 00000 n King contemplated but ultimately decided against the proposal on the grounds that he felt uneasy with politics and considered himself better suited for his morally unambiguous role as an activist.[25]. 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. 0000007161 00000 n 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. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Ken Rudin joins guest host Rebecca Roberts. Soon we would be paying almost the full costs of this tragic attempt at recolonization. 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 . Because, to your point now, one, I want people to go online and read the speech so you can see the text for yourself. On the evening of April 4, 1967, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King lent his full-throated oratory to a growing chorus of opposition to the rapidly expanding American role in the Vietnam War. The Institute cannot give permission to use or reproduce any of the writings, statements, or images of Martin Luther King, Jr. 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. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. As if the weight of such a commitment to the life and health of America were not enough, another burden of responsibility was placed upon me in 1964; and I cannot forget that the Nobel Prize for Peace was also a commission a commission to work harder than I had ever worked before for the brotherhood of man. This is a calling that takes me beyond national allegiances, but even if it were not present I would yet have to live with the meaning of my commitment to the ministry of Jesus Christ. Carson and Holloran, 1998. 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. AFP/AFP/Getty Images They brought in extra chairs. 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. 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. So far we may have killed a million of them mostly children. 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. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. CONAN: Howard, thanks very much for the call. 800-989-8255. American Rhetoric: Martin Luther King, Jr: A Time to Break Silence (Declaration Against the Vietnam War) M artin L uther K ing, J r. Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence Delivered 4 April 1967, Riverside Church, New York City [Photo Credit: John C. Goodwin] [AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio. There are people who have come to see the moral imperative of equality, but who cannot yet see the moral imperative of world brotherhood. 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. Martin Luther King Beyond Vietnam Speech Full Text and Video 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. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - Zinn Education Project All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression and out of the wombs of a frail world new systems of justice and equality are being born. 0000046786 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. 0000001739 00000 n 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. War is not the answer. Hb```f``; 6Pco;{Q. 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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. And that is precisely what concerned Dr. King so much, that these young boys were being sent halfway around the world to fight a war that was unwinnable, that resources were being used there that should've been used here at home. 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. Afghanistan, not so much. Martin Luther King Jr. was a social activist that led the Civil Rights Movement, and other movements until his assassination in 1968. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. What do the peasants think as we ally ourselves with the landlords and as we refuse to put any action into our many words concerning land reform? We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. Even before the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu, they began to despair of the reckless action, but we did not. Let me say this right quick: The comparisons between what King was addressing then about militarism, poverty and racism sound familiar 45 years later. 0000002025 00000 n The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, for example, issued a statement against merging the civil rights and peace movements. At the heart of their concerns this query has often loomed large and loud: Why are you speaking about war, Dr. King? "[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 the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent. It was the speech he labored over the most. They see the children, degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. King Scores Poverty Budget, New York Times, 16 December 1966. It includes a portion of his speech. If Americas soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read Vietnam. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. I'm Neal Conan. It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. 0000001700 00000 n Thanks, as always for your time. This is the calling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. The speech and its echoes for Afghanistan and Iraq are the subject of "Tavis Smiley Reports MLK: A Call to Conscience.". 0000011068 00000 n When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. The New York Times editorial suggested that conflating the civil rights movement with the Anti-war movement was an oversimplification that did justice to neither, stating that "linking these hard, complex problems will lead not to solutions but to deeper confusion." What then can I say to the Vietcong or to Castro or to Mao as a faithful minister of this one? 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. It tells why American helicopters are being used against guerrillas in Colombia and why American napalm and green beret forces have already been active against rebels in Peru. Email us: talk@npr.org. Of course, the Nobel Peace Laureate, a man who clearly believed in nonviolence down to his very soul CONAN: but he'd wanted to give that speech two years earlier. Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence - Wikipedia Carson and Shepard, 2001. By the time King made the "Beyond Vietnam" speech, Smiley tells host Neal Conan, "he had fallen off already the list of most-admired Americans as tallied by Gallup every year." April 4, 1967: Martin Luther King Jr. Delivers "Beyond Vietnam" Speech 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. (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. 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. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King at Ebenezer Church. And I think most Americans know the "I Have A Dream" speech. Therefore, communism is a judgment against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions we initiated. Martin Luther King April 4, 1967 Riverside Church, New York City . 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 . He was one of the most important and influential Civil Rights leaders in the 1950s and 1960s. Benjamin Hedin on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, anti-Vietnam War speech at Riverside Church in New York, which risked King's relationship with Lyndon Johnson.