Where are the roots of the independent Vietnam we claim to be building? (Scott) King,My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr., 1969. 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. In "People and Peace, not Profits and War," Shirley Chisholm repeats the words "two more years" (42). Opposes Vietnam War, New York Times, 11 November 1965. 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. On 4 April 1967 Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his seminal speech at Riverside Church condemning the Vietnam War. Nevertheless, I am in a different position as the president of the United States. BlackPast.org is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and our EIN is 26-1625373. 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. So even McNamara eventually comes around to that point. Mr. SMILEY: Yeah, Walt, I thank you for sharing that story as well, for being courageous to tell it, number one. . Speeches, writings, movements, and protests, Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. 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. 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. A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered. My third reason moves to an even deeper level of awareness, for it grows out of my experience in the ghettoes of the North over the last three years especially the last three summers. Some 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., for the March on Washington. "[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. You can also join the conversation at our Web site. Martin Luther King Beyond Vietnam Speech Full Text and Video What liberators? 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. Beyond Vietnam: The MLK speech that caused an uproar - USA TODAY 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. Beyond Vietnam A Time To Break Silence Rhetorical Precis America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. Mr. SMILEY: Yeah. Meanwhile we in the churches and synagogues have a continuing task while we urge our government to disengage itself from a disgraceful commitment. 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. A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. 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. And that's just the Times and the Post. When Diem was overthrown they may have been happy, but the long line of military dictatorships seemed to offer no real changeespecially in terms of their need for land and peace. To speak for them is to explain this lack of confidence in Western words, and especially their distrust of American intentions now. HOWARD: How are you doing, Tavis? The Vietnamese people proclaimed their own independence in 1945 after a combined French and Japanese occupation, and before the Communist revolution in China. [11], King's opposition cost him significant support among white allies, including President Johnson, Billy Graham,[citation needed] union leaders and powerful publishers. "[9], King opposed the Vietnam War because it took money and resources that could have been spent on social welfare at home. CONAN: Walt, thank you. Their questions are frighteningly relevant. (2)] They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. 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 . Let's go to Walt(ph). But they didn't stay for the speech in its entirety. And King was prescient on this. 0000006536 00000 n 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. U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations, Martin Luther King Jr. Records Collection Act, King: A Filmed Record Montgomery to Memphis, The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306, Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story, Joseph Schwantner: New Morning for the World; Nicolas Flagello: The Passion of Martin Luther King. On April 4, 1967 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a speech named, "Beyond Vietnam- A Time to Break Silence" addressing the Vietnam War. He passed the Voting Rights Act. 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. This Hindu-Moslem-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John: Let us love one another; for love is God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. The truth of these words is beyond doubt but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. They must see Americans as strange liberators. They wander into the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. It's a powerful refrain, Neal, about what would've happened in his life, what he would've missed if he had sneezed at that very moment. After he gives it, 168 major newspapers the next day denounce him. [24], King's stance on Vietnam encouraged Allard K. Lowenstein, William Sloane Coffin and Norman Thomas, with the support of anti-war Democrats, to attempt to persuade King to run against President Johnson in the 1968 United States presidential election. 0000010534 00000 n History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. These are days which demand wise restraint and calm reasonableness. Martin Luther King, Jr. utilizes figurative to emphasize the inhumanity and immorality of the war. 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. 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. And Tavis, nice to have you back in the program. It was sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily high proportions relative to the rest of the population. 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. The Institute cannot give permission to use or reproduce any of the writings, statements, or images of Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,'s Searing Antiwar Speech, Fifty Years Later NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. We must continue to raise our voices if our nation persists in its perverse ways in Vietnam. It was the speech he labored over the most. 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. 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. 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. n the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on lifes roadside; but that will be only an initial act. For nine years following 1945 we denied the people of Vietnam the right of independence. Vietnam War - The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute Excuse me. Mr. SMILEY: Indeed, he did. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. 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. As we all know, Neal, before he died, Robert McNamara, the Defense secretary that had Walt and others over in Vietnam, before he died, of course, announced that he was wrong. 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. 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. 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. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Beyond Vietnam" was a powerful and angry speech that raged against the war. "This was a huge, huge speech," he continues, "that got Martin King in more trouble than anything he had ever seen or done. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Dr. [1][5], King was long opposed to American involvement in the Vietnam War, but at first avoided the topic in public speeches in order to avoid the interference with civil rights goals that criticism of President Johnson's policies might have created. PDF A TIME TO BREAK THE SILENCE - nps.gov 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. 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. What then can I say to the Vietcong or to Castro or to Mao as a faithful minister of this one? Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word.. 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! Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Well, it was taken in that context, anyway. 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. Could we blame them for such thoughts? 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." Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest. 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 And King had preached at this church any number of times before, of course. In Martin Luther King Jr.'s Vietnam speech, lines 413-416, he repeats the phrase "this is not just" (161). Instead, we decided to support France in its reconquest of her former colony. And about a month after that speech was given, I was wounded. And he said these three issues of racism and poverty and militarism are going to destroy this nation. 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. They see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers. If we love one another God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. 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. 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. So you got a Nobel laureate named King, a war president with a Nobel Prize named Obama, for all that we have done over the last two years to wed King and Obama together on T- shirts and everywhere else, were King alive today at 81, he and Obama would have a tension point, Neal, on this issue. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. And we are spending money for a war abroad that ought to be spent for the war on poverty here at home. Mr. TAVIS SMILEY (Host, "The Tavis Smiley Show"): Neal, always an honor to be on with you. Dr. King in a March 25, 1967 antiwar march in Chicago. Is our nation planning to build on political myth again and then shore it up with the power of new violence? 0000040748 00000 n (1967) Martin Luther King, Jr., "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence - American Rhetoric At what cost? I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose. So, too, with Hanoi. There were a lot of people inside. 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. Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? I would like to see the fervor of the civil-rights movement imbued into the peace movement to instill it with greater strength. Martin Luther King's Acceptance Speech, on the occasion of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, 10 December 1964 Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Mr. President, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen: In describing the ways in which the . There is.a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I and others have been waging in America. Accuracy and availability may vary. 0000001739 00000 n 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? 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. 5 of Martin Luther King Jr.'s most memorable speeches 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. Perhaps the more difficult but no less necessary task is to speak for those who have been designated as our enemies. 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. He gave a famous speech about the fact that he - when stabbed in New York at a book signing, the blade was just a scintilla away from his aorta. End all bombing in North and South Vietnam. 800-989-8255, email us talk@npr.org. We must move past indecision to action. 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. We must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every creative means of protest possible. But they asked and rightly so what about Vietnam? 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 . It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Beyond the calling of race or nation or creed is this vocation of sonship and brotherhood, and because I believe that the Father is deeply concerned especially for his suffering and helpless and outcast children, I come tonight to speak for them. HdTn0+=3hRnm)zK#-t\|Ha)S 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. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. Martin built his speech that night, Neal, around three major points: around increasing militarism, around escalating poverty and around the issue of racism. 0000011739 00000 n Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, GA on January 15th, 1929. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: "Beyond Vietnam" - Zinn Education Project King Scores Poverty). And his argument, basically, was that I cannot, as a practitioner and a true believer in nonviolence, espouse that nonviolent philosophy in our movement and then somehow sit idly by when I see violence being engaged around the world. 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. 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. King Scores Poverty Budget, New York Times, 16 December 1966. I Have a Dream | Date, Quotations, & Facts | Britannica 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. Martin Luther King, Jr. - Challenges of the final years | Britannica Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live. AFP/AFP/Getty Images King's "Beyond Vietnam" speech was delivered at the Riverside Church in New York exactly one year before his assassination. Martin Luther King, Jr., giving his speech Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence at Riverside Church in NYC, April 4, 1967. 0000002516 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. And Walt's with us from Cortez in Colorado. 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. 0000003996 00000 n "Beyond Vietnam" - The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education 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. 50 Years Ago: Dr. King's Anti-War Sermon at Riverside Church $25.00. Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence . On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Martin Luther King Jr. was a social activist that led the Civil Rights Movement, and other movements until his assassination in 1968. "[10], King also criticized American opposition to North Vietnam's land reforms. 0000002004 00000 n Check your local listings. 0000044282 00000 n The United States Congress was spending more and more on the military and less and less on anti-poverty programs at the same time. So they go primarily women and children and the aged. 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. He passed the Civil Rights Act. 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. ) fuG {*pZ//e,QTx)%TuS%@^2j/?Nf7nx!]OvqJG=_oD3?VUMs+tM95X )G~1b'g])!`]:|OwHh-J6ZHg{Z9N3b!\#9"zhT\]sp2WtTal =YvkO8yu 6^,n,v$+u$|^1wUF}GGc=p!e#F\]xx6l~NTYSmc /ut^*WTPO Cp =-FQW.]y#F6NsQ2Qzqz=|v94+JC?w4,|yi4T0eIaaeD2-Y1 I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. His tireless work advocating for the end of. We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways. 1967 speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. We're talking with Tavis Smiley. Peace and civil rights dont mix, they say. Now let us begin. I must cry out when I see war escalated at any point (Opposes Vietnam War). 0000002337 00000 n Watch a newsfilm clip of the speech . There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. The great initiative in this war is ours. All Rights Reserved. That's at npr.org, click on TALK OF THE NATION. We must with positive action seek to remove those conditions of poverty, insecurity and injustice which are the fertile soil in which the seed of communism grows and develops. It was a tactical mistake. A few other Americans know, of course, the "Mountaintop" speech given the night before he's assassinated in Memphis. This has driven many to feel that only Marxism has the revolutionary spirit. 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. 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. 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. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. Jazmyn Ford. Thanks, as always for your time. He turned that into a great speech when he got out of the hospital. 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). They were led by Ho Chi Minh. This speech is not addressed to Hanoi or to the National Liberation Front. PDF. But the entire speech, of course, thankfully, was recorded on audio. The Riverside Church donated largely with Rockefeller money. But two, to the audio, there are only less than 10 minutes of this speech that got covered. Dr. Martin Luther King's 'Beyond Vietnam' Speech - HistoryNet 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. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor both black and white through the poverty program. This speech was enormously controversial. 0000005717 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 . Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today my own government. "[14] Due to the Vietnam War is that plenty of individuals, both Americans and Vietnamese were killed. 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. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Howard's calling us from South Bend. [12] 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. We have cooperated in the crushing of the nations only non-Communist revolutionary political force the unified Buddhist church. 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. No, Howard, I thank you for your phone call. "The press is being stacked against me", King said,[13] Moreover I would encourage all ministers of draft age to give up their ministerial exemptions and seek status as conscientious objectors. The film is the second episode of Tavis Smiley Reports. Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. v. CBS, Inc. Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), African American founding fathers of the United States, Statue of Martin Luther King Jr. (Pueblo, Colorado), Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, San Francisco. His wife, Coretta Scott King, took a more active role in opposing the war, speaking at a rally at the Washington Monument on 27 November 1965 with Benjamin Spock, the renowned pediatrician and anti-war activist, and joined in other demonstrations.