martin luther king jr vietnam war speech transcript

WALT (Caller): Yes. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Beyond Vietnam" was a powerful and angry speech that raged against the war. 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. This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense against communism. 0000002516 00000 n King Leads Chicago). We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. While King was personally opposed to the war, he was concerned that publicly criticizing U.S. foreign policy would damage his relationship with President Lyndon B. Johnson, who had been instrumental in passing civil rights legislation and who had declared in April 1965 that he was willing to negotiate a diplomatic end to the war in Vietnam. Beyond Vietnam2 in that . "It basically ruins their relationship," says Smiley. So he was no longer on that particular list. 0000004855 00000 n These too are our brothers. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today my own government. Why are you joining the voices of dissent? For nine years we vigorously supported the French in their abortive effort to recolonize Vietnam. BRC-NEWS: Black Radical Congress International News/Alerts/Announcements , Martin Luther King, Jr., delivering speech. 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. 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. Sorry, I'm a little bit emotional here. 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. 0000001616 00000 n 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. 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.. 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. I've always argue that Dr. King is the greatest American we've ever produced. Surely we must understand their feelings even if we do not condone their actions. We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. 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. If Dr. King were to say to the organizers of these events, I'd like to show up at your church on Sunday morning, at your rally this weekend, and here's what I want to say, there is a good argument to be made that Dr. King himself might not be welcome - might not be allowed to say what was in his heart, what his conscience really was, given the political correctness of the world that we live in today. Exactly one year before his assassination, on April 4, 1967, Rev. 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). [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. "The press is being stacked against me", King said,[13] I guess the question now is whether or not Afghanistan is a war of necessity or a war of choice. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. They question our political goals and they deny the reality of a peace settlement from which they will be excluded. But they didn't stay for the speech in its entirety. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Beyond Vietnam" was a powerful and angry speech that raged against the war. "[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. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression and out of the wombs of a frail world new systems of justice and equality are being born. A complete unit of instruction - include ALL answer documents - comparing and contrasting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Malcom X's early lives & speeches.This unit of study, which can be taught as a complete unit, or separated into 13 distinct activities . Freedom's Ring: King's "I Have a Dream" Speech, Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution, Martin Luther King, Jr. - Political and Social Views, Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam (CALCAV). But for those who presently choose but one, I would hope they will finally come to see the moral roots common to both. Perhaps the more difficult but no less necessary task is to speak for those who have been designated as our enemies. Rev. AFP/AFP/Getty Images They know they must move or be destroyed by our bombs. Soon we would be paying almost the full costs of this tragic attempt at recolonization. At the time, civil rights leaders publicly condemned him for it. 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. 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. 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. 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. BlackPast.org is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and our EIN is 26-1625373. 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 that address, he articulated his reasons for his opposition to the Southeast Asian conflict. HT0WJ3 O$L Attachment 4: Are We Ready to Listen to Dr. King? 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. 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. When we ask why they do not leap to negotiate, these things must be remembered. 0000002964 00000 n The Institute cannot give permission to use or reproduce any of the writings, statements, or images of Martin Luther King, Jr. It was a wonderful, I think, place to give the speech in the sense that it's pretty cavernous. Before the end of the war we were meeting eighty percent of the French war costs. So even McNamara eventually comes around to that point. Dr. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. 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. W. E. B. Copy of full text of the "Beyond Vietnam" speech. His house was bombed. Hb```f``; 6Pco;{Q. 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This I believe to be the privilege and the burden of all of us who deem ourselves bound by allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than nationalism and which go beyond our nations self-defined goals and positions.