Peace and civil rights dont mix, they say. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. That's my own personal assessment. Surely we must see that our own computerized plans of destruction simply dwarf their greatest acts. This is the calling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. He would no longer be respected. This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the counter-revolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. On April 4, 1967 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a speech named, "Beyond Vietnam- A Time to Break Silence" addressing the Vietnam War. Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305. 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. Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence - Wikipedia 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. [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". "[10], King also criticized American opposition to North Vietnam's land reforms. And that's just the Times and the Post. dH(*b(jGB@'k1zTR~{dA9|\b. Surely we must understand their feelings even if we do not condone their actions. 4 Powerful Martin Luther King, Jr. Speeches That Aren't 'I Have A Dream' Martin Luther King Jr - n/a - Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. Beyond Vietnam2 in that . Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. 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. We appreciate that. 0000001616 00000 n The MLK Speech We Need Today Is Not the One We Remember Most I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. 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. 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. I come to this platform tonight to make a passionate plea to my beloved nation. 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! W. E. B. Nor is it an attempt to overlook the ambiguity of the total situation and the need for a collective solution to the tragedy of Vietnam. But this is, again, precisely what King was concerned about, putting the lives of everyday Americans on the line in a fight that was not winnable and a war that was unjust. I must cry out when I see war escalated at any point (Opposes Vietnam War). BlackPast.org is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and our EIN is 26-1625373. That night Dr. King shocked the world and his followers when . Screenshots are considered by the King Estate a violation of this notice. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose. I want to thank you, as I know listeners do as well, for your service to this country. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, for example, issued a statement against merging the civil rights and peace movements. How Martin Luther King, Jr.'s multifaceted view on human rights still 0000008347 00000 n Now, it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. 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." King's "Beyond Vietnam" speech was delivered at the Riverside Church in New York exactly one year before his assassination. Martin Luther King, Jr. utilizes figurative to emphasize the inhumanity and immorality of the war. 0000005717 00000 n Delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Manhattan's Riverside Church, April 4, 1967 . We must continue to raise our voices if our nation persists in its perverse ways in Vietnam. Dr. Martin Luther King's 'Beyond Vietnam' Speech - HistoryNet 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. 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. Of course, he's assassinated in Memphis a year to the day later after giving this speech. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. Copy of full text of the "Beyond Vietnam" speech. All the while the people read our leaflets and received regular promises of peace and democracy and land reform. Hb```f``; 6Pco;{Q. 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Part of our ongoing commitment might well express itself in an offer to grant asylum to any Vietnamese who fears for his life under a new regime which included the Liberation Front. For the peasants this new government meant real land reform, one of the most important needs in their lives. It was a tactical mistake. A Baptist minister and founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), King had led the civil rights movement since the mid-1950s, using a combination of impassioned speeches. I'm Neal Conan. And that's the issue that King was raising. Thanks, as always for your time. When Martin Luther King Jr. Spoke Out Against the Vietnam War 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. And I think most Americans know the "I Have A Dream" speech. They wander into the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. That Vietnam was a mistake. 0000004855 00000 n A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. CONAN: Indeed. Smiley spoke with both scholars and friends of King, including Cornel West, Vincent Harding and Susannah Heschel. The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. 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. Beyond Vietnam A Time To Break Silence Rhetorical Precis Had the president stopped by giving Martin King his just respect - as he did, to his credit - it would have been okay. And he said these three issues of racism and poverty and militarism are going to destroy this nation. Of course, again, that philosophy, when the papers got a hold of him the next day, that strategy didn't work so well. In Martin Luther King Jr.'s Vietnam speech, lines 413-416, he repeats the phrase "this is not just" (161). If it is, let us trace its movement well and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. 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'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. So all that we have is less than 10 minutes of video of the speech. 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. [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. When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. 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. These too are our brothers. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor. King, Excerpts, Address at mass rally on 12 August 1965, 13 August 1965, MLKJP-GAMK. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. 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. King to Weigh Civil Disobedience). 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. This speech was enormously controversial. Smiley continues, "it was the most controversial speech he ever gave. Martin Luther King: Beyond Vietnam and Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution, 90th Cong., 2d sess., Congressional Record 114 (9 April 1968): 93919397. 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. 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. [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. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is known for being one of the greatest orators of the twentieth century, and perhaps in all of American history. Forego a bottle of soda and donate its cost to us for the information you just learned, and feel good about helping to make it available to everyone. 0000009985 00000 n But for those who presently choose but one, I would hope they will finally come to see the moral roots common to both. Not only that, but then-President Lyndon Johnson disinvited King to the White House. At what cost? 0000004621 00000 n The speech and its echoes for Afghanistan and Iraq are the subject of "Tavis Smiley Reports MLK: A Call to Conscience.". They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. 0000007161 00000 n The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism.. April 4, 1967: Martin Luther King Jr. Delivers "Beyond Vietnam" Speech 0000003199 00000 n We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world a world that borders on our doors. 0000012541 00000 n We must move past indecision to action. CONAN: Walt, thank you. PDF Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence ~ MLK Speech 1967 - CRM Vet Undeterred, King, Spock, and Harry Belafonte led 10,000 demonstrators on an anti-war march to the United Nations on 15 April 1967. On 4 April 1967 Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his seminal speech at Riverside Church condemning the Vietnam War. It will become clear that our minimal expectation is to occupy it as an American colony and men will not refrain from thinking that our maximum hope is to goad China into a war so that we may bomb her nuclear installations. In describing the ways in which the . He rarely gave speeches from a text. 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. Mr. SMILEY: Yeah. 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. In so many words, powerful interests told him: "Mind your own business.". 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.