beyond vietnam speech

My third reason moves to an even deeper level of awareness, for it grows out of my experience in the ghettos of the North over the last three years, especially the last three summers. Martin Luther King, Jr. - Political and Social Views, American Prophet: Online Course Companion, Freedom's Ring: King's "I Have a Dream" Speech. I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not of the ideologies of the Liberation Front, 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 modern times, we frequently picture Dr. King as a universally-admired champion of civil rights. Now there is something seductively tempting about stopping there and sending us all off on what in some circles has become a popular crusade against the war in Vietnam. King, Interview on Face the Nation, 29 August 1965, RRML-TxTyU. I would like to suggest five concrete things that our government should do to begin the long and difficult process of extricating ourselves from this nightmarish conflict: Number one: End all bombing in North and South Vietnam. We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. Perhaps a more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. [25], 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. [sustained applause] So such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God. "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence", also referred as the Riverside Church speech,[1] is an anti–Vietnam War and pro–social justice speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1967, exactly one year before he was assassinated. We have destroyed their land and their crops. Where are the roots of the independent Vietnam we claim to be building? Obery M. Hendricks Jr., Ph.D. (January 20, 2014). 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. (Yes) And every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. Now let us begin. It incensed President Lyndon Johnson, who revoked King's invitation to the White House. This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense against communism. When we ask why they do not leap to negotiate, these things must be considered. 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. Could it be that they do not know that the Good News was meant for all men—for communist and capitalist, for their children and ours, for black and for white, for revolutionary and conservative? [applause]. There are people who have come to see the moral imperative of equality, but who cannot yet see the moral imperative of world brotherhood. [sustained applause]. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues 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. Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. It demands that we admit we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest. 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. King Jr delivered his “Beyond Vietnam — A Time to Break Silence” in 1967 in NewYork City. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything on a society gone mad on war. 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 a hell for the poor. We must not engage in a negative anticommunism, but rather in a positive thrust for democracy [applause], realizing that our greatest defense against communism is to take offensive action in behalf of justice. His speech was titled "Beyond Vietnam: Time to Break the Silence '. For nine years we vigorously supported the French in their abortive effort to recolonize Vietnam. I am convinced that if we are to get on to the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I need not pause to say how very delighted I am to be here tonight, and how very delighted I am to see you expressing your concern about the issues that will be discussed tonight by turning out in such large numbers. All the while the people read our leaflets and received the regular promises of peace and democracy and land reform. A portion of this speech is used in the track "Wisdom, Justice, and Love" by Linkin Park, from their 2010 album A Thousand Suns. If we continue, there will be no doubt in my mind and in the mind of the world that we have no honorable intentions in Vietnam. The United States Congress was spending more and more on the military and less and less on anti-poverty programs at the same time. Addressing a crowd of 3,000 at Riverside Church in New York City, King condemned the war as anti-democratic, impractical, and unjust. 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." King began to speak of the need for fundamental changes in the political and economic life of the nation, and more frequently expressed his opposition to the war and his desire to see a redistribution of resources to correct racial and economic injustice. After 1954 they watched us conspire with Diem to prevent elections which could have surely brought Ho Chi Minh to power over a unified Vietnam, and they realized they had been betrayed again. Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? I say we must enter that struggle, but I wish to go on now to say something even more disturbing. In Hanoi are the men who led this 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. Then we must make what reparations we can for the damage we have done. King’s “Beyond Vietnam” speech was delivered at the Riverside Church in New York exactly one year before his assassination. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. They ask how we can speak of free elections when the Saigon press is censored and controlled by the military junta. 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. Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word.” Unquote. It was his first major public antiwar speech and a powerful warning that a rise in racial hatred, militarism and … Four: 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 any future Vietnam government. A few months after his speech, I was fortunate to participate in the anti-Vietnam war march in October 1967 in Washington, DC, known as the “March Against the Pentagon”. Many of us can recite segments of his dream or his mountaintop vision. 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 only change came from America as we increased our troop commitments in support of governments which were singularly corrupt, inept, and without popular support. It was written by activist and historian Vincent Harding. Could we blame them for such thoughts? Now they languish under our bombs and consider us, not their fellow Vietnamese, the real enemy. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor. For nine years following 1945 we denied the people of Vietnam the right of independence. King, “ Beyond Vietnam, ” 4 April 1967, NNRC. [13] I also want to say that I consider it a great honor to share this program with Dr. Bennett, Dr. Commager, and Rabbi Heschel, some of the most distinguished leaders and personalities of our nation. Ho Chi Minh has watched as America has spoken of peace and built up its forces, and now he has surely heard the increasing international rumors of American plans for an invasion of the north. Therefore, communism is a judgment against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions that we initiated. By Benay Blend. 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. And of course it’s always good to come back to Riverside Church. Perhaps a more difficult but no less necessary task is to speak for those who have been designated as our enemies. They know they must move on or be destroyed by our bombs. 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. In order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war. Protest on the Homefront >> Martin Luther King, Jr. >> "Beyond Vietnam" - April 4, 1967 Search Tips Full-Text and Audio Excerpts of Martin Luther King's speech "Beyond Vietnam" April 4, 1967 - Riverside Church, NYC, available on this site. Meanwhile [applause], meanwhile, we in the churches and synagogues have a continuing task while we urge our government to disengage itself from a disgraceful commitment. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence", also referred as the Riverside Church speech, is an anti–Vietnam War and pro–social justice speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1967, exactly one year before he was assassinated. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. Even though they quoted the American Declaration of Independence in their own document of freedom, we refused to recognize them. 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. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It tells why American helicopters are being used against guerrillas in Cambodia and why American napalm and Green Beret forces have already been active against rebels in Peru. [20][21], In a 1952 letter to Coretta Scott, he said: "I imagine you already know that I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic ..."[22] In one speech, he stated that "something is wrong with capitalism" and claimed, "There must be a better distribution of wealth, and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism. The march was organized by the Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam and initiated by its chairman, James Bevel. The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. It was they who led a second struggle against French domination at tremendous costs, and then were persuaded to give up the land they controlled between the thirteenth and seventeenth parallel as a temporary measure at Geneva. Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. v. CBS, Inc. Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, San Francisco. In 1957, when a group of us formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, we chose as our motto: “To save the soul of America.” We were convinced that we could not limit our vision to certain rights for black people, but instead affirmed the conviction that America would never be free or saved from itself until the descendants of its slaves were loosed completely from the shackles they still wear. They wander into the hospitals with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one Vietcong-inflicted injury. 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. What then can I say to the Vietcong or to Castro or to Mao as a faithful minister of this one? Recently one of them wrote these words, and I quote: Each day the war goes on the hatred increased in the hearts of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence Rev. One of the eight "sound cells" in @Large, Ai Weiwei's 2014–15 exhibit at Alcatraz, features King's voice giving the "Beyond Vietnam" speech.[29]. 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 the peasants this new government meant real land reform, one of the most important needs in their lives. As that noble bard of yesterday, James Russell Lowell, eloquently stated: And if we will only make the right choice, we will be able to transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of peace. Omar Khayyam is right: “The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on.”. The truth of these words is beyond doubt, but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. "[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. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways. This Hindu-Muslim-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John: “Let us love one another (Yes), for love is God. We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. "[15] 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. Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live. “Aren’t you hurting the cause of your people?” they ask. Because I believe that the Father is deeply concerned, especially for His suffering and helpless and outcast children, I come tonight to speak for them. "[25] 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. We must provide the medical aid that is badly needed, making it available in this country if necessary. 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. Shall we say the odds are too great? And they are surely right to wonder what kind of new government we plan to help form without them, the only real party in real touch with the peasants. Surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their violence. The recent statements of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own heart, and I found myself in full accord when I read its opening lines: “A time comes when silence is betrayal.” That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam. … Beyond Vietnam ”, Silence is Betrayal: martin Luther King, Statement on voter in... The National Liberation Front, that tomorrow is today are you joining voices! National allegiances and wealth the precious trees, civil rights and peace movements last word. ” Unquote designated as enemies! As full men, and having writ moves on. ” independent Vietnam we claim to be building thoughts Take Beyond... 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