martin luther king jr vietnam war speech transcript

We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. It was a tactical mistake. Check your local listings. 0000002337 00000 n We must continue to raise our voices if our nation persists in its perverse ways in Vietnam. Mr. SMILEY: Yeah, Walt, I thank you for sharing that story as well, for being courageous to tell it, number one. That's at npr.org, click on TALK OF THE NATION. V)U5v\@apkk;#WF. 0000010534 00000 n I come to this platform tonight to make a passionate plea to my beloved nation. 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. Those pictures turned Dr. King's stomach. 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. Do you find this information helpful? End all bombing in North and South Vietnam. %PDF-1.3 % Martin Luther King Jr. - Acceptance Speech - NobelPrize.org Hb```f``; 6Pco;{Q. X@ h(]1fbap d``al`zds1;/(d_f)"#EC+s3Vp{4P2Vb`uL@ ` endstream endobj 92 0 obj 167 endobj 44 0 obj << /Type /Page /Parent 38 0 R /Resources 53 0 R /Contents [ 61 0 R 63 0 R 67 0 R 69 0 R 71 0 R 77 0 R 79 0 R 89 0 R ] /CropBox [ 0 0 612 792 ] /B [ 45 0 R ] /MediaBox [ 0 0 612 792 ] /Rotate 0 >> endobj 45 0 obj << /T 42 0 R /P 44 0 R /R [ 45 45 567 747 ] /V 46 0 R /N 47 0 R >> endobj 46 0 obj << /P 19 0 R /R [ 45 45 567 747 ] /V 52 0 R /N 45 0 R /T 42 0 R >> endobj 47 0 obj << /P 1 0 R /R [ 45 45 567 747 ] /V 45 0 R /N 48 0 R /T 42 0 R >> endobj 48 0 obj << /P 4 0 R /R [ 45 45 567 747 ] /V 47 0 R /N 49 0 R /T 42 0 R >> endobj 49 0 obj << /P 7 0 R /R [ 45 45 567 747 ] /V 48 0 R /N 50 0 R /T 42 0 R >> endobj 50 0 obj << /P 10 0 R /R [ 45 45 567 747 ] /V 49 0 R /N 51 0 R /T 42 0 R >> endobj 51 0 obj << /P 13 0 R /R [ 45 45 567 747 ] /V 50 0 R /N 52 0 R /T 42 0 R >> endobj 52 0 obj << /P 16 0 R /R [ 45 45 567 747 ] /V 51 0 R /N 46 0 R /T 42 0 R >> endobj 53 0 obj << /ProcSet [ /PDF /Text /ImageC /ImageI ] /Font << /F1 58 0 R /F2 65 0 R /F3 73 0 R /F4 74 0 R /TT2 54 0 R >> /XObject << /Im1 90 0 R >> /ExtGState << /GS1 81 0 R >> /ColorSpace << /Cs6 55 0 R /Cs8 56 0 R >> >> endobj 54 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /TrueType /FirstChar 49 /LastChar 56 /Widths [ 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 ] /Encoding /WinAnsiEncoding /BaseFont /CAPGPE+TimesNewRoman /FontDescriptor 59 0 R >> endobj 55 0 obj [ /ICCBased 86 0 R ] endobj 56 0 obj [ /Indexed 55 0 R 255 87 0 R ] endobj 57 0 obj << /Type /FontDescriptor /Ascent 733 /CapHeight 692 /Descent -281 /Flags 34 /FontBBox [ -166 -283 1021 927 ] /FontName /CAPHEN+Palatino-Roman /ItalicAngle 0 /StemV 84 /XHeight 469 /StemH 84 /CharSet (/I/space/c/o/m/e/t/h/i/s/a/g/n/f/u/w/r/p/b/y/l/v/period/j/d/k/z/colon/C/\ L/V/T/x/quotedbl/A/E/comma/quoteright/N/M/semicolon/S/W/P/O/q/D/B/emdash\ /H/F/R/U/G/one/nine/five/seven/six/four/J/question/hyphen/parenleft/pare\ nright/two/three/K) /FontFile3 84 0 R >> endobj 58 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /FirstChar 32 /LastChar 151 /Widths [ 250 278 371 500 500 840 778 208 333 333 389 606 250 333 250 606 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 250 250 606 606 606 444 747 778 611 709 774 611 556 763 832 337 333 726 611 946 831 786 604 786 668 525 613 778 722 1000 667 667 667 333 606 333 606 500 333 500 553 444 611 479 333 556 582 291 234 556 291 883 582 546 601 560 395 424 326 603 565 834 516 556 500 333 606 333 606 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 278 0 0 0 0 1000 ] /Encoding /WinAnsiEncoding /BaseFont /CAPHEN+Palatino-Roman /FontDescriptor 57 0 R >> endobj 59 0 obj << /Type /FontDescriptor /Ascent 891 /CapHeight 0 /Descent -216 /Flags 34 /FontBBox [ -568 -307 2028 1007 ] /FontName /CAPGPE+TimesNewRoman /ItalicAngle 0 /StemV 0 /FontFile2 85 0 R >> endobj 60 0 obj 763 endobj 61 0 obj << /Filter /FlateDecode /Length 60 0 R >> stream "[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. So, that's all I had to say. Mr. SMILEY: Yeah. Grossfield, Stan. Thanks, as always for your time. 2. Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence . Dr. Martin Luther King's 'Beyond Vietnam' Speech - HistoryNet 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. We must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every creative means of protest possible. Beyond Vietnam A Time To Break Silence Rhetorical Precis After he gives it, 168 major newspapers the next day denounce him. In 1967, in the shadows of Columbia, Dr. King shifted the world again. BRC-NEWS: Black Radical Congress International News/Alerts/Announcements , Martin Luther King, Jr., delivering speech. Indeed, you play parts of President Obama's speech to the Nobel Committee there in Stockholm where he received the award. After the French were defeated it looked as if independence and land reform would come again through the Geneva agreements. And so I think most Americans, Neal, know the "I Have A Dream" speech. Now they languish under our bombs and consider us not their fellow Vietnamese the real enemy. This is an excellent Common Core-aligned primary source from Martin Luther King speaking about his stance on the Vietnam War. A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. Declare a unilateral cease-fire in the hope that such action will create the atmosphere for negotiation. 0000013408 00000 n Others, including James Bevel, King's partner and strategist in the Civil Rights Movement, called it King's most important speech. Can I threaten them with death or must I not share with them my life? HOWARD: How are you doing, Tavis? Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Beyond Vietnam" was a powerful and angry speech that raged against the war. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, GA on January 15th, 1929. 0000011739 00000 n 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. 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. But they didn't stay for the speech in its entirety. 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. Mr. SMILEY: Yeah. 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. 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). Dr. 0000012562 00000 n These are the times for real choices and not false ones. At what cost? The truth of these words is beyond doubt but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. He knows the bombing and shelling and mining we are doing are part of traditional pre-invasion strategy. 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. 0000003415 00000 n Martin Luther King, who was already beginning to lose some of his influence, nevertheless made a huge challenge to the establishment. So it was a great turnout. 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 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. I say we must enter the struggle, but I wish to go on now to say something even more disturbing. All rights reserved. 2/QB(yQVz^*oU.FW "The press is being stacked against me", King said,[13] 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. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Vietnam War Speech Analysis Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Speeches, writings, movements, and protests, Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. We must move past indecision to action. We have destroyed their land and their crops. 0000001427 00000 n Vietnam War - The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, for example, issued a statement against merging the civil rights and peace movements. [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. Now let us begin. So he was no longer on that particular list. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. It was a wonderful, I think, place to give the speech in the sense that it's pretty cavernous. 0000001645 00000 n . 0000013309 00000 n 0000003503 00000 n What then can I say to the Vietcong or to Castro or to Mao as a faithful minister of this one? 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. [12] They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. Martin Luther King Jr. on the Vietnam War - The Atlantic They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. And Walt's with us from Cortez in Colorado. Take immediate steps to prevent other battlegrounds in Southeast Asia by curtailing our military buildup in Thailand and our interference in Laos. 0000040748 00000 n 0000003199 00000 n 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. Exactly one year before his assassination, on April 4, 1967, Rev. So King understood violence. Beyond Vietnam: The MLK speech that caused an uproar - USA TODAY 0000004855 00000 n 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. 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. HT0WJ3 O$L capitalism, and the Vietnam War. Q%F70%iR! 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! This speech is not addressed to Hanoi or to the National Liberation Front. How are you, sir? Martin Luther King Jr. speaks out against the war - HISTORY So, too, with Hanoi. CONAN: We (unintelligible) to see it. Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination - HISTORY Screenshots are considered by the King Estate a violation of this notice. (1947) Moranda Smith Addresses The Congress Of Industrial Organizations Annual Convention, Boston, (1974) Congresswoman Barbara Jordans Statement: The Richard Nixon Impeachment Hearings, African American History: Research Guides & Websites, Global African History: Research Guides & Websites, African American Scientists and Technicians of the Manhattan Project, Envoys, Diplomatic Ministers, & Ambassadors, http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/058.html, Foundation, Organization, and Corporate Supporters. We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. 0000002004 00000 n Smiley spoke with both scholars and friends of King, including Cornel West, Vincent Harding and Susannah Heschel. Check your local listings. All the while the people read our leaflets and received regular promises of peace and democracy and land reform. King, Excerpts, Address at mass rally on 12 August 1965, 13 August 1965, MLKJP-GAMK. Neither is it an attempt to make North Vietnam or the National Liberation Front paragons of virtue, nor to overlook the role they can play in a successful resolution of the problem. 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. King Leads Chicago). It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people. [citation needed]. Dr. King in a March 25, 1967 antiwar march in Chicago. 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. Tomorrow, the latest installment with the political junkie. This has driven many to feel that only Marxism has the revolutionary spirit. King to Weigh Civil Disobedience). 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. Communism will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. He supported Johnsons calls for diplomatic negotiations and economic development as the beginnings of such a step. Let me say this right quick: The comparisons between what King was addressing then about militarism, poverty and racism sound familiar 45 years later. 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. 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. 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. Afghanistan, not so much. Paul A. Schuette, King Preaches on Non-Violence at Police-Guarded Howard Hall, Washington Post, 3 March 1965. Not only that, but then-President Lyndon Johnson disinvited King to the White House. These too are our brothers. Shall we say the odds are too great? I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. 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? 0000004621 00000 n Perhaps the more difficult but no less necessary task is to speak for those who have been designated as our enemies. 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. 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 . Martin Luther King's Beyond Vietnam Speech is in many ways even more relevant today than in 1967. . 0000002784 00000 n On 4 April 1967 Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his seminal speech at Riverside Church condemning the Vietnam War. He did say he was going to increase troop levels in Afghanistan, so he's kept that promise. That's my own personal assessment. This is the message of the great Buddhist leaders of Vietnam. 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. His house was bombed. That Vietnam was a mistake. In this speech, he opposes violence and militarism, particularly the war in Vietnam. n the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on lifes roadside; but that will be only an initial act. 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. "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. 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. President Obama, this is one campaign promise that he has kept. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. The film is the second episode of Tavis Smiley Reports. [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. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But for those who presently choose but one, I would hope they will finally come to see the moral roots common to both. The initiative to stop it must be ours. 4 Powerful Martin Luther King, Jr. Speeches That Aren't 'I Have A Dream' King, Beyond Vietnam, in A Call to Conscience, ed. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. 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. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. We must not engage in a negative anti-communism, but rather in a positive thrust for democracy, realizing that our greatest defense against communism is to take offensive action in behalf of justice. 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. Delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Manhattan's Riverside Church, April 4, 1967 . 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. PBS talk show. 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. I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. 0000002247 00000 n Mr. SMILEY: And therein lies the rub. So 60 year(ph) is really, really a hot year here around this particular issue. Cypress Hall D, 466 Via Ortega, Stanford, CA 94305-4146 Arent you hurting the cause of your people, they ask? Excuse me. 159. "[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. 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. We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. 0000023610 00000 n 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. In that address, he articulated his reasons for his opposition to the Southeast Asian conflict. 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. [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. And King was prescient on this. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305. And thirdly, I think the main point here in this MLK "Beyond Vietnam" speech is that there is another way. King Scores Poverty). And that's just the Times and the Post. In the 1950s and 1960s, his words led the Civil Rights Movement and helped change society. 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. 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. 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. [29], Excerpts from this speech are used in the songs "Together" and "Spirit" by Nordic Giants. Robert B. Semple, Jr., Dr. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. 0000009168 00000 n We're talking with Tavis Smiley. A call for equality and freedom, it became one of the defining moments of the civil rights movement and one of the most iconic speeches in American history. And I believe everyone has a duty to be in both the civil-rights and peace movements. 0000004834 00000 n Soon we would be paying almost the full costs of this tragic attempt at recolonization. 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 . dH(*b(jGB@'k1zTR~{dA9|\b. Smiley continues, "it was the most controversial speech he ever gave. A few other Americans know, of course, the "Mountaintop" speech given the night before he's assassinated in Memphis. 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. He passed the Civil Rights Act. This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense against communism. 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. We most provide the medical aid that is badly needed, making it available in this country if necessary. 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. 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. We must stop now. 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.

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