"[9], King opposed the Vietnam War because it took money and resources that could have been spent on social welfare at home. 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.. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent. So we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools. *];\n~~/iQ|h Q Surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their violence. [26], The same year, King nominated Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize, but the prize was not awarded to anyone that year. 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. King contemplated but ultimately decided against the proposal on the grounds that he felt uneasy with politics and considered himself better suited for his morally unambiguous role as an activist.[25]. 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? 0000009147 00000 n Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence . We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. All the while the people read our leaflets and received regular promises of peace and democracy and land reform. This is the calling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. 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. The Washington Post says he has done a discredit to himself, to his people, to his country. 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. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism.. HdTn0+=3hRnm)zK#-t\|Ha)S The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. We in the West must support these revolutions. Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination - HISTORY Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - Zinn Education Project And so the question was, Martin, why would you antagonize the president who has been our friend? It is a sad fact that, because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of communism, and our proneness to adjust to injustice, the Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch anti-revolutionaries. Howard's calling us from South Bend. Nearly five years after Kings assassination, American troops withdrew from Vietnam and a peace treaty declared South and North Vietnam independent of each other. So King understood violence. At the time, civil rights leaders publicly condemned him for it. 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. He had fallen off already the list, as you mentioned, had already fallen off the list of the most admired Americans as tallied by Gallup every year. 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. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King at Ebenezer Church. We appreciate that. PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley's new documentary, MLK: A Call to Conscience explores King's speech. In the 1950s and 1960s, his words led the Civil Rights Movement and helped change society. M ost Americans remember Martin Luther King Jr. for his dream of what this country could be, a nation where his children would "not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content. CONAN: We're talking with Tavis Smiley about his PBS special, "Tavis Smiley Reports MLK: A Call to Conscience." 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. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Hb```f``; 6Pco;{Q. 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And we must rejoice as well, for surely this is the first time in our nations history that a significant number of its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history. 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. 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. or 404 526-8968. CONAN: Tavis Smiley, author, journalist, political commentator, host of his talk show on PBS, joins us today from the Sheryl Flowers Studios in Los Angeles. That's what I feel. Jazmyn Ford. 0000004621 00000 n 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? Please c, ontact Intellectual Properties Management (IPM), the exclusive licensor of the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. at. 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 . King, Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution, in A Knock at Midnight, ed. 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. 3. The question is, is it a war of necessity or a war of choice at this point? 0000040748 00000 n Vietnam War - The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute And King gives a great speech out of that hospital called "If I Had Sneezed." Perhaps the 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. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. This is Howard, which you know me. For nine years we vigorously supported the French in their abortive effort to recolonize Vietnam. And so I think most Americans, Neal, know the "I Have A Dream" speech. 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. Screenshots are considered by the King Estate a violation of this notice. Martin Luther King: Beyond Vietnam and Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution, 90th Cong., 2d sess., Congressional Record 114 (9 April 1968): 93919397. When we ask why they do not leap to negotiate, these things must be remembered. Of course, again, that philosophy, when the papers got a hold of him the next day, that strategy didn't work so well. Smiley continues, "it was the most controversial speech he ever gave. Mr. SMILEY: Yeah. Exactly one year before his assassination, on April 4, 1967, Rev. Even though they quoted the American Declaration of Independence in their own document of freedom, we refused to recognize them. PDF. Beyond Vietnam A Time To Break Silence Rhetorical Precis "[14] Can I threaten them with death or must I not share with them my life? Email us: talk@npr.org. At the heart of their concerns this query has often loomed large and loud: Why are you speaking about war, Dr. King? After 1954 they watched us conspire with Diem to prevent elections which would have surely brought Ho Chi Minh to power over a united Vietnam, and they realized they had been betrayed again. 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. I want to thank you, as I know listeners do as well, for your service to this country. King's "Beyond Vietnam" speech was delivered at the Riverside Church in New York exactly one year before his assassination. Martin Luther King's Beyond Vietnam Speech is in many ways even more relevant today than in 1967. . CONAN: We (unintelligible) to see it. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. What do they think as we test our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe? A few years ago there was a shining moment in that. So it was a great turnout. 0000001427 00000 n 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. "MLK: A Call to Conscience" premieres on PBS tomorrow night. dH(*b(jGB@'k1zTR~{dA9|\b. In the north, where our bombs now pummel the land, and our mines endanger the waterways, we are met by a deep but understandable mistrust. And number two, at what cost? We're talking with Tavis Smiley. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Beyond Vietnam" was a powerful and angry speech that raged against the war. The truth of these words is beyond doubt but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. All rights reserved. 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. We must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every creative means of protest possible. Their questions are frighteningly relevant. Moreover I would encourage all ministers of draft age to give up their ministerial exemptions and seek status as conscientious objectors. 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. Opposes Vietnam War, New York Times, 11 November 1965. I've Been to the Mountaintop - Wikipedia Some 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., for the March on Washington. A Comparative Study of Martin Luther King Jr & Malcolm X. by. In December 1966, testifying before a congressional subcommittee on budget priorities, King argued for a rebalancing of fiscal priorities away from Americas obsession with Vietnam and toward greater support for anti-poverty programs at home (Semple, Dr. "The press is being stacked against me", King said,[13] When Diem was overthrown they may have been happy, but the long line of military dictatorships seemed to offer no real changeespecially in terms of their need for land and peace. 0000006536 00000 n 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. I have not urged a mechanical fusion of the civil rights and peace movements. King, Excerpts, Address at mass rally on 12 August 1965, 13 August 1965, MLKJP-GAMK. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. Tomorrow, the latest installment with the political junkie. That's the problem with it. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. 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. A few other Americans know, of course, the "Mountaintop" speech given the night before he's assassinated in Memphis. Have they forgotten that my ministry is in obedience to the one who loved his enemies so fully that he died for them? At this point I should make it clear that while I have tried in these last few minutes to give a voice to the voiceless on Vietnam and to understand the arguments of those who are called enemy, I am as deeply concerned about our troops there as anything else. Declare a unilateral cease-fire in the hope that such action will create the atmosphere for negotiation. If Americas soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read Vietnam. We were 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. (AFP via Getty Images) "Why are you speaking about the war, Dr. King? 0000017817 00000 n And after I was wounded, we had four or five 100-pound bomb dropped on us, and 10 Marines were killed outright and 24 were wounded. [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. AFP/AFP/Getty Images It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor both black and white through the poverty program. Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. 0000010534 00000 n n the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on lifes roadside; but that will be only an initial act. And about a month after that speech was given, I was wounded. But most Americans, I think, do not know this speech, "Beyond Vietnam.". Read The Full Text And Listen To Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Beyond Vietnam" Speech. 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. This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense against communism. 0000002516 00000 n Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968) Before he was assassinated at age 39, the Rev. 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. Ken Rudin joins guest host Rebecca Roberts. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. [27], In 2010, PBS commentator Tavis Smiley said that the speech was the most controversial speech of King's career, and the one he "labored over the most". 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.