martin luther king jr vietnam war speech transcript

MLK: Beyond Vietnam - A Time to Break Silence - YouTube Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. Martin Luther King, Jr. 4 April 1967. 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. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways. 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. I've Been to the Mountaintop - Wikipedia End all bombing in North and South Vietnam. Dr. King And Malcolm X Teaching Resources | TPT 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. His speech appears below. It was the speech he labored over the most. 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. These are the times for real choices and not false ones. 0000010534 00000 n Mr. SMILEY: That's right. 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. [citation needed]. "The press is being stacked against me", King said,[13] 159. We appreciate that. 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. [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. 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. He criticized the Vietnam War and praised Muhammad Ali for being a conscientious objector. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Beyond Vietnam" was a powerful and angry speech that raged against the war. 4 Powerful Martin Luther King, Jr. Speeches That Aren't 'I Have A Dream' King's "Beyond Vietnam" speech was delivered at the Riverside Church in New York exactly one year before his assassination. 16, 1967 in New York. We're talking with Tavis Smiley. After he gives it, 168 major newspapers the next day denounce him. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. 0000002337 00000 n CONAN: And one thing that I was unaware of was the timing of the speech in that he had wanted to say something along these lines. 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: And I think a lot of people will see your parallels regarding Iraq, where, indeed, the United States was the aggressor in that conflict. 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. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, organized the 1963 March on Washington, advocated for civil disobedience and. We have destroyed their land and their crops. 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. (1997). So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such. [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. "[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. [29], Excerpts from this speech are used in the songs "Together" and "Spirit" by Nordic Giants. Due to the Vietnam War is that plenty of individuals, both Americans and Vietnamese were killed. That's the problem with it. The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human history. 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). 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. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. 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. 0000002516 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? We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. 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. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose. (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. And secondly, so many civil rights leaders were opposed to him giving it because LBJ had been the best president to black people on civil rights. Exactly one year before his assassination, on April 4, 1967, Rev. Full text of speech. 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. Their questions are frighteningly relevant. 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. Our government felt then that the Vietnamese people were not ready for independence, and we again fell victim to the deadly Western arrogance that has poisoned the international atmosphere for so long. ", After King delivered the speech, Smiley reports, "168 major newspapers the next day denounced him." Arent you hurting the cause of your people, they ask? 0000023610 00000 n Carson and Holloran, 1998. This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the counter-revolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. These too are our brothers. After 1954 they watched us conspire with Diem to prevent elections which would have surely brought Ho Chi Minh to power over a united Vietnam, and they realized they had been betrayed again. Surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their violence. So practically everybody was opposed to him giving this speech. 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. How can they trust us when now we charge them with violence after the murderous reign of Diem and charge them with violence while we pour every new weapon of death into their land? Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live. Perhaps the more difficult but no less necessary task is to speak for those who have been designated as our enemies. We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. So 60 year(ph) is really, really a hot year here around this particular issue. 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. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. 0000012541 00000 n 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. Martin Luther King's Beyond Vietnam Speech is in many ways even more relevant today than in 1967. . He would no longer be respected. We must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every creative means of protest possible. Paul A. Schuette, King Preaches on Non-Violence at Police-Guarded Howard Hall, Washington Post, 3 March 1965. between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I, and others, have been waging in America. But most Americans, I think, do not know this speech, "Beyond Vietnam.". CONAN: Indeed. This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense against communism. 0000043425 00000 n BRC-NEWS: Black Radical Congress International News/Alerts/Announcements , Martin Luther King, Jr., delivering speech. And he said these three issues of racism and poverty and militarism are going to destroy this nation. So all that we have is less than 10 minutes of video of the speech. The truth of these words is beyond doubt but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. While his legacy is commonly remembered by his famous "I Have A Dream" speech, we've sourced four powerful, lesser-known speeches from Dr. King to listen to and commemorate . 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. Communism will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. 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. Martin Luther King April 4, 1967 Riverside Church, New York City . We must stop now. The Riverside Church donated largely with Rockefeller money. 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. A few years ago there was a shining moment. 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 culture is being subverted. Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence . It was written by activist and historian Vincent Harding. 0000002874 00000 n Let's get Howard(ph) on the line. CONAN: Howard, thanks very much for the call. Howard's calling us from South Bend. 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. And that's the issue that King was raising. And so I think most Americans, Neal, know the "I Have A Dream" speech. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. trailer << /Size 93 /Info 36 0 R /Root 40 0 R /Prev 148547 /ID[<8f2b4dd6f2f061944c7ff807c44fcc1f><651247ae294a1a197a948cb3bc3f8412>] >> startxref 0 %%EOF 40 0 obj << /Type /Catalog /Pages 38 0 R /Metadata 37 0 R /Threads 41 0 R /Names 43 0 R /OpenAction [ 44 0 R /XYZ null null null ] /PageMode /UseNone /PageLabels 35 0 R >> endobj 41 0 obj [ 42 0 R ] endobj 42 0 obj <> /F 45 0 R >> endobj 43 0 obj << /Dests 33 0 R >> endobj 91 0 obj << /S 76 /E 200 /L 216 /Filter /FlateDecode /Length 92 0 R >> stream What must they be thinking when they know that we are aware of their control of major sections of Vietnam and yet we appear ready to allow national elections in which this highly organized political parallel government will have no part? 3. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. Hundreds of folks listened outside on loudspeakers. 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. The peasants watched as all this was presided over by U.S. influence and then by increasing numbers of U.S. troops who came to help quell the insurgency that Diems methods had aroused. "[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. "[9], King opposed the Vietnam War because it took money and resources that could have been spent on social welfare at home. It was the speech he labored over the most. P: (650) 723-2092 | F: (650) 723-2093 | kinginstitute@stanford.edu| Campus Map. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. King, Beyond Vietnam, in A Call to Conscience, ed. CONAN: Tavis Smiley, author, journalist, political commentator, host of his talk show on PBS, joins us today from the Sheryl Flowers Studios in Los Angeles. 0000011068 00000 n CONAN: We're talking with Tavis Smiley about his PBS special, "Tavis Smiley Reports MLK: A Call to Conscience." Copyright 2010 NPR. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. 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. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world a world that borders on our doors. But they asked and rightly so what about Vietnam? Dr. People And Peace Not Profits And War Rhetorical Devices "[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. 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. 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. Dr. In the 1950s and 1960s, his words led the Civil Rights Movement and helped change society. Some 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., for the March on Washington. What then can I say to the Vietcong or to Castro or to Mao as a faithful minister of this one? His tireless work advocating for the end of. Hb```f``; 6Pco;{Q. 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They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. And when I hear them, though I often understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling. 0000002247 00000 n True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest. 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. After the French were defeated it looked as if independence and land reform would come again through the Geneva agreements. Mr. SMILEY: Yeah. 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. "[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. I would like to suggest five concrete things that our government should do immediately to begin the long and difficult process of extricating ourselves from this nightmarish conflict: 1. King, Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution, in A Knock at Midnight, ed. 0000002004 00000 n Martin Luther King, Jr. - Challenges of the final years | Britannica BlackPast.org is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and our EIN is 26-1625373. Ken Rudin joins guest host Rebecca Roberts. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. I've always argue that Dr. King is the greatest American we've ever produced. But for those who presently choose but one, I would hope they will finally come to see the moral roots common to both. Others, including James Bevel, King's partner and strategist in the Civil Rights Movement, called it King's most important speech. Sermons and speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. "Vincent Harding dies at 82; historian wrote controversial King speech", "Vincent Harding, author of Martin Luther King Jr.'s antiwar speech, dies", "The Rev. 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 . So, too, with Hanoi. 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. [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. 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. So, that's all I had to say. Of course, again, that philosophy, when the papers got a hold of him the next day, that strategy didn't work so well. Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305. 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. He passed the Voting Rights Act. Somehow this madness must cease. They ask how we can speak of free elections when the Saigon press is censored and controlled by the military junta. Check your local listings. Martin Luther King Jr - n/a - Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King But Martin understood very clearly that what we ought to be doing at home is being - we are being distracted, rather, by our engagement around the world. Fearful of being labeled a Communist, which would diminish the impact of his civil rights work, King tempered his criticism of U.S. policy in Vietnam through late 1965 and 1966. What must they think of us in America when they realize that we permitted the repression and cruelty of Diem which helped to bring them into being as a resistance group in the south? How Did Martin Luther King Jr Use Of Figurative Language It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor both black and white through the poverty program. Surely we must understand their feelings even if we do not condone their actions. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. hide caption. [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. King, Excerpts, Address at mass rally on 12 August 1965, 13 August 1965, MLKJP-GAMK. I come to this platform tonight to make a passionate plea to my beloved nation. 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]. We are adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a short period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really involved. They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. So King understood violence. 0000002784 00000 n To speak for them is to explain this lack of confidence in Western words, and especially their distrust of American intentions now. The True Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: Free Press. . The Institute cannot give permission to use or reproduce any of the writings, statements, or images of Martin Luther King, Jr. Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word.. Is our nation planning to build on political myth again and then shore it up with the power of new violence? Martin Luther King Jr. speaks out against the war - HISTORY Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Beyond Vietnam" was a powerful and angry speech that raged against the war. 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. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: "Beyond Vietnam" - Zinn Education Project 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. That's what set so many of them off. 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. We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond to compassion my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. Do you find this information helpful? These are days which demand wise restraint and calm reasonableness. 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. For as popular as King was, he was a Nobel laureate, there were only one or two news crews who actually came to see the speech that night, Neal. 0000011739 00000 n [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. Nevertheless, I am in a different position as the president of the United States. 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 Luther King, who was already beginning to lose some of his influence, nevertheless made a huge challenge to the establishment. How can they believe in our integrity when now we speak of aggression from the north as if there were nothing more essential to the war? 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. He summed up this aspect by saying, "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. So he was no longer on that particular list. The Story Of King's 'Beyond Vietnam' Speech : NPR I am pleased to say that this is the path now being chosen by more than seventy students at my own alma mater, Morehouse College, and I recommend it to all who find the American course in Vietnam a dishonorable and unjust one.