martin luther king jr vietnam war speech transcript

And that's just the Times and the Post. 0000044282 00000 n I want to thank you, as I know listeners do as well, for your service to this country. At the time, civil rights leaders publicly condemned him for it. 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. This is TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News in Washington. When we ask why they do not leap to negotiate, these things must be remembered. Because, to your point now, one, I want people to go online and read the speech so you can see the text for yourself. I'm Neal Conan. The film is the second episode of Tavis Smiley Reports. Dr. Martin Luther King's 'Beyond Vietnam' Speech - HistoryNet We must continue to raise our voices if our nation persists in its perverse ways in Vietnam. 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 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. And so he does in New York City. He was stabbed at one time. For it occurs to me that what we are submitting them to in Vietnam is not simply the brutalizing process that goes on in any war where armies face each other and seek to destroy. On April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King gave his first major public address on the war in Vietnam at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City. [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. CONAN: We're talking with Tavis Smiley about his PBS special, "Tavis Smiley Reports MLK: A Call to Conscience." 3. 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. [citation needed]. ", In 1967, a year to the day before his death, Martin Luther King, Jr. departed from his message of civil rights to deliver a speech that denounced America's war in Vietnam. Not only that, but then-President Lyndon Johnson disinvited King to the White House. 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. And I believe everyone has a duty to be in both the civil-rights and peace movements. Then we must make what reparations we can for the damage we have done. 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 rarely gave speeches from a text. 0000013408 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. Jazmyn Ford. 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. Vietnam War | The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute Vietnam War Event May 11, 1961 to April 30, 1975 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. Summary Of Martin Luther King Jr Vietnam Speech | ipl.org BlackPast.org is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and our EIN is 26-1625373. Surely we must see that our own computerized plans of destruction simply dwarf their greatest acts. 0000003996 00000 n Opposes Vietnam War, New York Times, 11 November 1965. I Have a Dream | Date, Quotations, & Facts | Britannica 0000003199 00000 n [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. 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. between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I, and others, have been waging in America. When he saw those pictures, there's a very famous picture, Neal, that we all know of a Vietnamese girl running naked in the streets who had just been, you know, had been victimized as had her village by these napalm attacks. And we are spending money for a war abroad that ought to be spent for the war on poverty here at home. I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. Your donation is fully tax-deductible. I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not of the junta in Saigon, but simply of the people who have been living under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. King delivered a speech entitled Beyond Vietnam, pointing out that the war effort was taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem (King, Beyond Vietnam, 143). For nine years following 1945 we denied the people of Vietnam the right of independence. Copyright 2010 NPR. For the peasants this new government meant real land reform, one of the most important needs in their lives. 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. 0000009985 00000 n 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! And when you see the piece on "Lens" tonight that's the part of the speech that set off so many of those who are in King's inner circle, so many scholars who have written about King. Of course, he's assassinated in Memphis a year to the day later after giving this speech. War is not the answer. Communism will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. "[24] King condemned America's "alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America", and said that the U.S. should support "the shirtless and barefoot people" in the Third World rather than suppressing their attempts at revolution. . Martin Luther King's Beyond Vietnam Speech is in many ways even more relevant today than in 1967. . 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. When you read the speech, if you replace the word Vietnam, every time it pops up, with the word Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan, you will be - it will blow your mind at how King, where he alive today at 81, could really stand up and give that same speech and just replace, again, Vietnam with Iraq and Afghanistan. They see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers. 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. And King had preached at this church any number of times before, of course. When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. 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). That's my own personal assessment. The problem was that practically everyone in his inner circle - not all, there was James Bevel and a couple of others - but practically everyone in his inner circle advised him strongly not to give this speech. Mr. SMILEY: And therein lies the rub. Beyond Vietnam: The MLK speech that caused an uproar - USA TODAY They question our political goals and they deny the reality of a peace settlement from which they will be excluded. hide caption. The United States Congress was spending more and more on the military and less and less on anti-poverty programs at the same time. Exactly one year before his assassination, on April 4, 1967, Rev. 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. A few years ago there was a shining moment. capitalism, and the Vietnam War. His speech appears below. 0000002694 00000 n King Leads Chicago Peace Rally, New York Times, 26 March 1967. 0000023610 00000 n 0000017817 00000 n 4 Powerful Martin Luther King, Jr. Speeches That Aren't 'I Have A Dream' But LBJ disinvites him to the White House. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. 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. 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. Martin Luther King's Most Controversial Speech: Beyond Vietnam - THIRTEEN We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. 4. This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the counter-revolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest. Legendary civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, organized the 1963 March on Washington, advocated for civil disobedience and. In 1957 a sensitive American official overseas said that it seemed to him that our nation was on the wrong side of a world revolution. The Institute cannot give permission to use or reproduce any of the writings, statements, or images of Martin Luther King, Jr. Fifty years ago in 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr.. The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human history. It was the speech he labored over the most. This is Howard, which you know me. And King was prescient on this. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism.. 0000009168 00000 n They see the children, degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. [12] 0000001700 00000 n PDF Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence - hawaii.edu Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King at Ebenezer Church. But for those who presently choose but one, I would hope they will finally come to see the moral roots common to both. We have cooperated in the crushing of the nations only non-Communist revolutionary political force the unified Buddhist church. 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. 0000006515 00000 n "MLK: A Call to Conscience" premieres on PBS tomorrow night. That's the problem with it. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor both black and white through the poverty program. All the while the people read our leaflets and received regular promises of peace and democracy and land reform. Smiley spoke with both scholars and friends of King, including Cornel West, Vincent Harding and Susannah Heschel. A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. King Leads Chicago). 0000004834 00000 n (2)] So practically everybody in his inner circle was against him giving it - one, because they knew the kind of pushback he was going to get. These are revolutionary times. 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. 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. So 60 year(ph) is really, really a hot year here around this particular issue. The United States got involved in the Vietnam War because they wanted to stop the spread of communism. 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. The Vietnamese people proclaimed their own independence in 1945 after a combined French and Japanese occupation, and before the Communist revolution in China. So they go primarily women and children and the aged. End all bombing in North and South Vietnam. 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. Email us: talk@npr.org. Full text of speech. Martin Luther King's Speech Against the Vietnam War On April 4, 1967 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a speech named, "Beyond Vietnam- A Time to Break Silence" addressing the Vietnam War. Mr. SMILEY: He'd wanted to give it two years earlier and had attempted a dry run at this speech, to your appoint, Neal, a couple of years prior to when he gave it. 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 get Howard(ph) on the line. But they asked and rightly so what about Vietnam? [28], A portion of this speech is used in the track "Wisdom, Justice, and Love" by Linkin Park, from their 2010 album A Thousand Suns. ", After King delivered the speech, Smiley reports, "168 major newspapers the next day denounced him." And King gives a great speech out of that hospital called "If I Had Sneezed." The True Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: Free Press. I join with you in this meeting because I am in deepest agreement with the aims and work of the organization which has brought us together: Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. 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. 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. 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. 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. 0000043425 00000 n MLK Opposed "Poverty, Racism & Militarism" in Speech One Year Before Mr. SMILEY: Indeed, he did. Perhaps the more difficult but no less necessary task is to speak for those who have been designated as our enemies. "[9], King opposed the Vietnam War because it took money and resources that could have been spent on social welfare at home. In the 1950s and 1960s, his words led the Civil Rights Movement and helped change society. 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. 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. We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. And so I think most Americans, Neal, know the "I Have A Dream" speech. And thank you for sharing what had to be a difficult story to tell. It was, to your earlier point, the most controversial speech he ever gave. And I think most Americans know the "I Have A Dream" speech. Though he avoided condemning the war outright, at the August 1965 annual Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) convention King called for a halt to bombing in North Vietnam, urged that the United Nations be empowered to mediate the conflict, and told the crowd that what is required is a small first step that may establish a new spirit of mutual confidence a step capable of breaking the cycle of mistrust, violence and war (King, 12 August 1965). Twin towers were planned from Afghanistan. %PDF-1.3 % 0000009964 00000 n If we do not act we shall surely be dragged down the long dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight. Do you find this information helpful? A small donation would help us keep this available to all. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. Due to the Vietnam War is that plenty of individuals, both Americans and Vietnamese were killed. 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 . The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways. Somehow this madness must cease. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. 0000002025 00000 n "The press is being stacked against me", King said,[13] 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 . Martin built his speech that night, Neal, around three major points: around increasing militarism, around escalating poverty and around the issue of racism. 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. We're talking with Tavis Smiley. Mr. SMILEY: Indeed he did, Neal. Shall we say the odds are too great? 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. All rights reserved. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. And we must rejoice as well, for surely this is the first time in our nations history that a significant number of its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history. The truth of these words is beyond doubt but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Indeed, you play parts of President Obama's speech to the Nobel Committee there in Stockholm where he received the award. Martin Luther King Jr. on the Vietnam War - The Atlantic How are you, sir? Of course, again, that philosophy, when the papers got a hold of him the next day, that strategy didn't work so well. 0000009147 00000 n America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. 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. 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. In that address, he articulated his reasons for his opposition to the Southeast Asian conflict. 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. His tireless work advocating for the end of. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. (1997). 0000002605 00000 n King to Weigh Civil Disobedience If War Intensifies, New York Times, 2 April 1967. He turned that into a great speech when he got out of the hospital. 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. And it was on that occasion that he - when he saw those pictures, said, I have to speak out about this. He was one of the most important and influential Civil Rights leaders in the 1950s and 1960s. "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. Delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Manhattan's Riverside Church, April 4, 1967 . JwNt YHiA:{p . 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. Martin Luther King Jr. - Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam I come to this platform tonight to make a passionate plea to my beloved nation. A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. 0000011739 00000 n He is best known for helping achieve civil equality for African Americans, but these speeches--selected because they were each presented at a turning point in the . King, Beyond Vietnam, in A Call to Conscience, ed. Dr. King And Malcolm X Teaching Resources | TPT Declare a unilateral cease-fire in the hope that such action will create the atmosphere for negotiation. Can I threaten them with death or must I not share with them my life? Take immediate steps to prevent other battlegrounds in Southeast Asia by curtailing our military buildup in Thailand and our interference in Laos. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies. They must see Americans as strange liberators. 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. "[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. Let us not join those who shout war and through their misguided passions urge the United States to relinquish its participation in the United Nations. The peasants may well wonder if we plan to build our new Vietnam on such grounds as these? 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. It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America and say: This is not just. The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. 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.. Q%F70%iR! Howard's calling us from South Bend. In describing the ways in which the . 0000010534 00000 n They were led by Ho Chi Minh. 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. If you remember the speech, tell us what it meant at that time, and does the principle of nonviolence apply in the age of al-Qaida? 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. 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 0000004621 00000 n The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. 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. Check your local listings. Paul A. Schuette, King Preaches on Non-Violence at Police-Guarded Howard Hall, Washington Post, 3 March 1965. They brought in extra chairs. 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. Cypress Hall D, 466 Via Ortega, Stanford, CA 94305-4146 During the past ten years we have seen emerge a pattern of suppression which now has justified the presence of U.S. military advisors in Venezuela. This is the calling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. 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.

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