martin luther king jr vietnam war speech transcript

0000009985 00000 n Watch a newsfilm clip of the speech . Though the cause of evil prosper, Yet tis truth alone is strong; Though her portion be the scaffold, And upon the throne be wrong: Yet that scaffold sways the future, And behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow Keeping watch above his own. (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. When we ask why they do not leap to negotiate, these things must be remembered. Mr. SMILEY: Neal, thank you for the opportunity. 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. He did say he was going to increase troop levels in Afghanistan, so he's kept that promise. HOWARD: How are you doing, Tavis? 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. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter but beautifulstruggle for a new world. Challenges of the final years of Martin Luther King, Jr. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. 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. PDF. JwNt YHiA:{p . 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! HT0WJ3 O$L Fifty-years ago in April 1967, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered one of his most memorable, if not controversial sermons, at Riverside Church just steps away from the Columbia University campus. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investment. In his last Sunday sermon, delivered at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., on 31 March 1968, King said that he was convinced that [Vietnam] is one of the most unjust wars that has ever been fought in the history of the world (King, Remaining Awake, 219). [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. CONAN: Indeed, it was Oslo. 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. So 60 year(ph) is really, really a hot year here around this particular issue. CONAN: We (unintelligible) to see it. 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. It includes a portion of his speech. The cornerstones of his activism were based on non-violence and civil disobedience, both of which were inspired by his Christian faith and the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. And that's just the Times and the Post. 0000003199 00000 n But Carson makes a powerful point in the special that you just identified, about whether or not Martin King himself would be welcome in some of these mega-churches, at certain political gatherings. Mr. SMILEY: That's right. And the last poll taken in his life by Harris, the Harris Poll, Neal, found that nearly three quarters of the American people, nearly three quarters, had turned against Martin on this issue, and 55 percent of his own people, black folk, had turned against him. 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. 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. [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. 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. Declare a unilateral cease-fire in the hope that such action will create the atmosphere for negotiation. 800-989-8255. 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. His speech appears below. 0000008326 00000 n Can I threaten them with death or must I not share with them my life? 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. A few other Americans know, of course, the "Mountaintop" speech given the night before he's assassinated in Memphis. King to Weigh Civil Disobedience). 0000004855 00000 n 0000030467 00000 n U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations, Martin Luther King Jr. Records Collection Act, King: A Filmed Record Montgomery to Memphis, The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306, Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story, Joseph Schwantner: New Morning for the World; Nicolas Flagello: The Passion of Martin Luther King. In his 1967 speech on the Vietnam War, Martin Luther King, Jr. employs figurative language and syntactical elements to construct his argument against the hypocrisy and cruelty of American involvement in the war. It basically ruined their working relationship. The Riverside Church donated largely with Rockefeller money. He passed the Civil Rights Act. Twin towers were planned from Afghanistan. 0000013408 00000 n As the head of state, I cannot necessarily embrace the same principles that, as you point out, Martin Luther King, a prophet, an outsider could embrace. We have supported the enemies of the peasants of Saigon. Dr. King is trying to get the point across that our country is being unfair to others. AFP/AFP/Getty Images Some civil rights leaders urged King not to speak out on the Vietnam War, but he said he could not separate issues of economic injustice, racism, war, and militarism. 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. Procrastination is still the thief of time. But LBJ disinvites him to the White House. Let's go to Walt(ph). Mr. SMILEY: Yeah. His tireless work advocating for the end of. 0000043425 00000 n Appreciate it. A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. That's the problem with it. A few years ago there was a shining moment. 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. 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? 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. Excuse me. Arent you hurting the cause of your people, they ask? Moreover I would encourage all ministers of draft age to give up their ministerial exemptions and seek status as conscientious objectors. This is an excellent Common Core-aligned primary source from Martin Luther King speaking about his stance on the Vietnam War. 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. Mr. SMILEY: We - let me just tell you this. [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. 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. "MLK: A Call to Conscience" premieres on PBS tomorrow night. 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. 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. Dr. 159. Please c, ontact Intellectual Properties Management (IPM), the exclusive licensor of the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. at. "It basically ruins their relationship," says Smiley. We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways. I want to thank you, as I know listeners do as well, for your service to this country. 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? Since I am a preacher by trade, I suppose it is not surprising that I have seven major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral vision. They question our political goals and they deny the reality of a peace settlement from which they will be excluded. Surely we must see that our own computerized plans of destruction simply dwarf their greatest acts. 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. The New York Times editorial suggested that conflating the civil rights movement with the Anti-war movement was an oversimplification that did justice to neither, stating that "linking these hard, complex problems will lead not to solutions but to deeper confusion." 0000012562 00000 n (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. 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. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave a speech that may have helped put a target on . 0000002874 00000 n On April 4, 1967 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a speech named, "Beyond Vietnam- A Time to Break Silence" addressing the Vietnam War. King Leads Chicago Peace Rally, New York Times, 26 March 1967. I think of them too because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution there until some attempt is made to know them and hear their broken cries. 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 . Five years ago he said, Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.. "[14] 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. 0000001700 00000 n 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. 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. This is the calling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. But they didn't stay for the speech in its entirety. Nearly five years after Kings assassination, American troops withdrew from Vietnam and a peace treaty declared South and North Vietnam independent of each other. Keep in mind now that 1967, Neal, as you know, is the same year that Muhammad Ali, the world champion, decides to not accept that draft to go and fight in Vietnam. We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. 0000046786 00000 n He turned that into a great speech when he got out of the hospital. 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. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. 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? The truth of these words is beyond doubt but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. For nine years we vigorously supported the French in their abortive effort to recolonize Vietnam. 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. [11], King's opposition cost him significant support among white allies, including President Johnson, Billy Graham,[citation needed] union leaders and powerful publishers. "[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. "[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. 0000008347 00000 n Could we blame them for such thoughts? I join with you in this meeting because I am in deepest agreement with the aims and work of the organization which has brought us together: Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. or 404 526-8968. BRC-NEWS: Black Radical Congress International News/Alerts/Announcements , Martin Luther King, Jr., delivering speech.

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