martin luther king jr vietnam war speech transcript

The True Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: Free Press. They see the children, degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. (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. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Beyond Vietnam" was a powerful and angry speech that raged against the war. Declare a unilateral cease-fire in the hope that such action will create the atmosphere for negotiation. 0000003199 00000 n Why are you joining the voices of dissent? 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 destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. Less than two weeks after leading his first Vietnam demonstration, on 4 April 1967, King made his best known and most comprehensive statement against the war. 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? Screenshots are considered by the King Estate a violation of this notice. They asked if our own nation wasnt using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination - HISTORY 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. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. 0000005717 00000 n And I believe everyone has a duty to be in both the civil-rights and peace movements. I Have a Dream | Date, Quotations, & Facts | Britannica Accuracy and availability may vary. If we love one another God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. 0000002874 00000 n HT0WJ3 O$L If Americas soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read Vietnam. Is it among these voiceless ones? 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. Recently one of them wrote these words: Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. 0000003996 00000 n CONAN: Indeed, it was Oslo. 0000004621 00000 n This quote is from a sermon by Dr. King on April 30, 1967 at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, drawing from his infamous April 4 sermon at Riverside Church. And thank you for sharing what had to be a difficult story to tell. 0000011068 00000 n That's what set so many of them off. 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. Indeed, you play parts of President Obama's speech to the Nobel Committee there in Stockholm where he received the award. We had to do a whole lot of work in the booth trying to get that audio right. In the 1950s and 1960s, his words led the Civil Rights Movement and helped change society. Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence when it helps us to see the enemys point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, for example, issued a statement against merging the civil rights and peace movements. When we ask why they do not leap to negotiate, these things must be remembered. King Scores Poverty). [12] Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence - American Rhetoric But for those who presently choose but one, I would hope they will finally come to see the moral roots common to both. Nevertheless, I am in a different position as the president of the United States. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. 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. 0000009168 00000 n Life magazine called the speech "demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi",[9] and The Washington Post declared that King had "diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people. 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. Paul A. Schuette, King Preaches on Non-Violence at Police-Guarded Howard Hall, Washington Post, 3 March 1965. 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. Opposes Vietnam War, New York Times, 11 November 1965. A small donation would help us keep this available to all. Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. Grossfield, Stan. And that's the issue that King was raising. Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day. And Tavis, nice to have you back in the program. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers. In that address, he articulated his reasons for his opposition to the Southeast Asian conflict. (1997). . Hb```f``; 6Pco;{Q. 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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. [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. 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. 0000007566 00000 n Delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Manhattan's Riverside Church, April 4, 1967 . But it ends up being the most controversial speech. 0000046786 00000 n On April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his assassination, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a speech in New York City at Riverside Church on the occasion of his becoming co-chairperson of Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam (subsequently renamed Clergy and Laity Concerned ). King's "Beyond Vietnam" speech was delivered at the Riverside Church in New York exactly one year before his assassination. 0000003454 00000 n Before long they must know that their government has sent them into a struggle among Vietnamese, and the more sophisticated surely realize that we are on the side of the wealthy and the secure while we create hell for the poor. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Beyond Vietnam" was a powerful and angry speech that raged against the war. 0000004855 00000 n Mr. SMILEY: And therein lies the rub. Dr. King is trying to get the point across that our country is being unfair to others. 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. CONAN: "MLK: A Call to Conscience" premieres on PBS tomorrow night. 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. And King gives a great speech out of that hospital called "If I Had Sneezed." They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. W. E. B. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. King to Weigh Civil Disobedience). CONAN: And I think a lot of people will see your parallels regarding Iraq, where, indeed, the United States was the aggressor in that conflict. 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. But I'm hoping that people will get a chance, once they see the speech, they'll be moved to go read the speech and to make comparisons, Neal. 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. We must stop now. 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. So he was no longer on that particular list. So we watch them in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would never live on the same block in Detroit. That's my own personal assessment. Or will there be another message, of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? PDF Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence - hawaii.edu "[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. "[10], King also criticized American opposition to North Vietnam's land reforms. [18] He guarded his language in public to avoid being linked to communism by his enemies, but in private he sometimes spoke of his support for democratic socialism. Your donation is fully tax-deductible. I've always argue that Dr. King is the greatest American we've ever produced. Check your local listings. Copy of full text of the "Beyond Vietnam" speech. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word.. 1967 speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. The Story Of King's 'Beyond Vietnam' Speech : NPR The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at the flood; it ebbs. In the north, where our bombs now pummel the land, and our mines endanger the waterways, we are met by a deep but understandable mistrust. We encouraged them with our huge financial and military supplies to continue the war even after they had lost the will. Please contact Intellectual Properties Management (IPM), the exclusive licensor of the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. atlicensing@i-p-m.comor 404 526-8968. n the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on lifes roadside; but that will be only an initial act. 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. And we are spending money for a war abroad that ought to be spent for the war on poverty here at home. It includes a portion of his speech. [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. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, organized the 1963 March on Washington, advocated for civil disobedience and. 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). 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. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. What do they think as we test our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe? But instead there came the United States, determined that Ho should not unify the temporarily divided nation, and the peasants watched again as we supported one of the most vicious modern dictators our chosen man, Premier Diem. 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! HOWARD: How are you doing, Tavis? 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 . It was the speech he labored over the most. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood. [citation needed], One of the eight "sound cells" in @Large, Ai Weiwei's 201415 exhibit at Alcatraz, features King's voice giving the "Beyond Vietnam" speech. (Scott) King,My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr., 1969. 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. The peasants may well wonder if we plan to build our new Vietnam on such grounds as these? At the U.N. King also brought up issues of civil rights and the draft. 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. Tomorrow, the latest installment with the political junkie. Martin Luther King, Jr. believed that peace and economic justice were critical to his fight for human rights. So it is that those of us who are yet determined that America will be are led down the path of protest and dissent, working for the health of our land. Can I threaten them with death or must I not share with them my life? 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. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. [11], King's opposition cost him significant support among white allies, including President Johnson, Billy Graham,[citation needed] union leaders and powerful publishers. 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. 0000011437 00000 n (AFP via Getty Images) "Why are you speaking about the war, Dr. King? Martin Luther King Jr. on the Vietnam War "The greatest irony and tragedy of all is that our nation, which initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world, is now cast in the. Martin Luther King Jr. held his acceptance speech in the auditorium of the University of Oslo on 10 December 1964. Q%F70%iR! MLK: Beyond Vietnam - A Time to Break Silence - YouTube 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. 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. Set a date that we will remove all foreign troops from Vietnam in accordance with the 1954 Geneva agreement. 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. Martin Luther King's Beyond Vietnam Speech is in many ways even more relevant today than in 1967. . In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. I'm Neal Conan. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. They know they must move or be destroyed by our bombs. He did say he was going to increase troop levels in Afghanistan, so he's kept that promise. Of course, he's assassinated in Memphis a year to the day later after giving this speech.

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