martin luther king jr vietnam war speech transcript martin luther king jr vietnam war speech transcript

The New York Times calls it wasteful and self-defeating. 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. Now, it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. And so the question was, Martin, why would you antagonize the president who has been our friend? It basically ruined their working relationship. 0000008326 00000 n 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. And at that march, he knew there would be people, as you point out in the film, waving Vietnamese flags and chanting CONAN: Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh, NLF is going to win, and that sort of thing and it would clearly be taken in a very different context. And thank you for sharing what had to be a difficult story to tell. But certainly one of the greatest orators of our time. 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. 0000011739 00000 n I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. ) fuG {*pZ//e,QTx)%TuS%@^2j/?Nf7nx!]OvqJG=_oD3?VUMs+tM95X )G~1b'g])!`]:|OwHh-J6ZHg{Z9N3b!\#9"zhT\]sp2WtTal =YvkO8yu 6^,n,v$+u$|^1wUF}GGc=p!e#F\]xx6l~NTYSmc /ut^*WTPO Cp =-FQW.]y#F6NsQ2Qzqz=|v94+JC?w4,|yi4T0eIaaeD2-Y1 "It basically ruins their relationship," says Smiley. I must cry out when I see war escalated at any point (Opposes Vietnam War). Beyond Vietnam2 in that . Smiley continues, "it was the most controversial speech he ever gave. 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. CONAN: Well, take us back to 1967. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King at Ebenezer Church. 0000002004 00000 n 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? 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. 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. 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. 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. Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? He was one of the most important and influential Civil Rights leaders in the 1950s and 1960s. 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. I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not of the junta in Saigon, but simply of the people who have been living under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. 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! 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. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor both black and white through the poverty program. King, Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution, in A Knock at Midnight, ed. Sorry, I'm a little bit emotional here. After the French were defeated it looked as if independence and land reform would come again through the Geneva agreements. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world a world that borders on our doors. 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. Somehow this madness must cease. 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). 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. [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. Mr. SMILEY: Yeah. Shall we say the odds are too great? Copyright 2010 NPR. He criticized the Vietnam War and praised Muhammad Ali for being a conscientious objector. "The press is being stacked against me", King said,[13] 0000009985 00000 n Martin Luther King, Jr., gave a speech that may have helped put a target on . 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. Surely we must understand their feelings even if we do not condone their actions. But there was a great turnout for the speech. This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense against communism. PBS talk show. [citation needed]. This oft misunderstood and misinterpreted conceptso readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly forcehas now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. Appreciate it. 2. 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. Attachment 2: Definitions Attachment 3: King Opposed Vietnam War; We Must Oppose US War in Iraq. Surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their violence. King Leads Chicago). CONAN: We're talking with Tavis Smiley about his PBS special, "Tavis Smiley Reports MLK: A Call to Conscience." 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. Even though they quoted the American Declaration of Independence in their own document of freedom, we refused to recognize them. Their questions are frighteningly relevant. 0000002337 00000 n We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. "[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. They asked if our own nation wasnt using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. So even McNamara eventually comes around to that point. King, Excerpts, Address at mass rally on 12 August 1965, 13 August 1965, MLKJP-GAMK. 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. It was the speech he labored over the most. Undeterred, King, Spock, and Harry Belafonte led 10,000 demonstrators on an anti-war march to the United Nations on 15 April 1967. "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. So King understood violence. At what cost? I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose. "[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. Let me say this right quick: The comparisons between what King was addressing then about militarism, poverty and racism sound familiar 45 years later. 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. 0000004855 00000 n The problem was that practically everyone in his inner circle - not all, there was James Bevel and a couple of others - but practically everyone in his inner circle advised him strongly not to give this speech. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, for example, issued a statement against merging the civil rights and peace movements. Martin Luther King, Jr. 4 April 1967. 0000006536 00000 n My third reason moves to an even deeper level of awareness, for it grows out of my experience in the ghettoes of the North over the last three years especially the last three summers. 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. And so I think most Americans, Neal, know the "I Have A Dream" speech. They wander into the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. These are days which demand wise restraint and calm reasonableness. Speeches, writings, movements, and protests, Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. It tells why American helicopters are being used against guerrillas in Colombia and why American napalm and green beret forces have already been active against rebels in Peru. 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. And he said these three issues of racism and poverty and militarism are going to destroy this nation. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. 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. How do they judge us when our officials know that their membership is less than twenty-five percent Communist and yet insist on giving them the blanket name? 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. Where are the roots of the independent Vietnam we claim to be building? The Washington Post says he has done a discredit to himself, to his people, to his country. We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. Then we must make what reparations we can for the damage we have done. The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on We still have a choice today; nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation. But for those who presently choose but one, I would hope they will finally come to see the moral roots common to both. 0000002784 00000 n If Americas soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read Vietnam. War is not the answer. 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 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. ", After King delivered the speech, Smiley reports, "168 major newspapers the next day denounced him." In the 1950s and 1960s, his words led the Civil Rights Movement and helped change society. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, organized the 1963 March on Washington, advocated for civil disobedience and. "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence", also referred as the Riverside Church speech,[1] is an antiVietnam War and prosocial justice speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1967, exactly one year before he was assassinated. Arent you hurting the cause of your people, they ask? Some, like civil rights leader Ralph Bunche, the NAACP, and the editorial page writers of The Washington Post[3] and The New York Times[4] called the Riverside Church speech a mistake on King's part. They question our political goals and they deny the reality of a peace settlement from which they will be excluded. We must stop now. The truth of these words is beyond doubt but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. 3. I Have a Dream, speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., that was delivered on August 28, 1963, during the March on Washington. And it was on that occasion that he - when he saw those pictures, said, I have to speak out about this. Mr. SMILEY: We - let me just tell you this. His speech appears below. Kings opposition to the war provoked criticism from members of Congress, the press, and from his civil rights colleagues who argued that expanding his civil rights message to include foreign affairs would harm the black freedom struggle in America. Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. v. CBS, Inc. Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), African American founding fathers of the United States, Statue of Martin Luther King Jr. (Pueblo, Colorado), Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, San Francisco. 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. 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. Afghanistan, not so much. 0000013309 00000 n But most Americans, I think, do not know this speech, "Beyond Vietnam.". In Hanoi are the men who led the nation to independence against the Japanese and the French, the men who sought membership in the French commonwealth and were betrayed by the weakness of Paris and the willfulness of the colonial armies. In so many words, powerful interests told him: "Mind your own business.". We encouraged them with our huge financial and military supplies to continue the war even after they had lost the will. . King to Weigh Civil Disobedience If War Intensifies, New York Times, 2 April 1967. [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. Take immediate steps to prevent other battlegrounds in Southeast Asia by curtailing our military buildup in Thailand and our interference in Laos. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. We must move past indecision to action. Mr. SMILEY: Indeed he did, Neal. Such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God. King Leads Chicago Peace Rally, New York Times, 26 March 1967. 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. At the time, civil rights leaders publicly condemned him for it. The United States got involved in the Vietnam War because they wanted to stop the spread of communism. 0000006515 00000 n And number two, at what cost? We have supported the enemies of the peasants of Saigon. "MLK: A Call to Conscience" premieres on PBS tomorrow night. 4. Others, including James Bevel, King's partner and strategist in the Civil Rights Movement, called it King's most important speech. 0000030467 00000 n At the U.N. King also brought up issues of civil rights and the draft. 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. 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. On 4 April 1967 Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his seminal speech at Riverside Church condemning the Vietnam War. With that tragic decision we rejected a revolutionary government seeking self-determination, and a government that had been established not by China (for whom the Vietnamese have no great love) but by clearly indigenous forces that included some Communists. Perhaps the more difficult but no less necessary task is to speak for those who have been designated as our enemies. [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. This is TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News in Washington. 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. Some 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., for the March on Washington. These are the times for real choices and not false ones. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at the flood; it ebbs. And when you see the piece on "Lens" tonight that's the part of the speech that set off so many of those who are in King's inner circle, so many scholars who have written about King. We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. One of his great advisers and great admirers, Stanley Levison, who was always with Dr. King in his corner, was against Martin giving this speech. 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. 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 . 0000009964 00000 n On April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King gave his first major public address on the war in Vietnam at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City. They see the children, degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. Martin Luther King Jr. was deeply troubled by the Vietnam War for years, but the "Beyond Vietnam" speech was his first major policy statement on the issue. For the peasants this new government meant real land reform, one of the most important needs in their lives. 0000008347 00000 n We're talking with Tavis Smiley. In that address, he articulated his reasons for his opposition to the Southeast Asian conflict. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within ones own bosom and in the surrounding world. And King had preached at this church any number of times before, of course. 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. 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. 0000002427 00000 n 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. 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. 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. "[14] So 60 year(ph) is really, really a hot year here around this particular issue. They brought in extra chairs. The Riverside Church donated largely with Rockefeller money. At the time, civil rights leaders publicly condemned him for it. In "People and Peace, not Profits and War," Shirley Chisholm repeats the words "two more years" (42). Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word.. "[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.