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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? Let's get Howard(ph) on the line. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Smiley continues, "it was the most controversial speech he ever gave. V)U5v\@apkk;#WF. 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. 0000044282 00000 n Such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God. His house was bombed. The march was organized by the Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam and initiated by its chairman, James Bevel. There is.a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I and others have been waging in America. On April 4, 1967 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a speech named, "Beyond Vietnam- A Time to Break Silence" addressing the Vietnam War. We have supported the enemies of the peasants of Saigon. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. So, that's all I had to say. Part of our ongoing commitment might well express itself in an offer to grant asylum to any Vietnamese who fears for his life under a new regime which included the Liberation Front. The initiative to stop it must be ours. [28], A portion of this speech is used in the track "Wisdom, Justice, and Love" by Linkin Park, from their 2010 album A Thousand Suns. 0000004621 00000 n 0000003454 00000 n We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. [citation needed], One of the eight "sound cells" in @Large, Ai Weiwei's 201415 exhibit at Alcatraz, features King's voice giving the "Beyond Vietnam" speech. Now they languish under our bombs and consider us not their fellow Vietnamese the real enemy. We must continue to raise our voices if our nation persists in its perverse ways in Vietnam. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. 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. They were led by Ho Chi Minh. 4. 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. 0000010534 00000 n 0000023610 00000 n 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. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, for example, issued a statement against merging the civil rights and peace movements. 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. 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. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: This way of settling differences is not just. This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nations homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. 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. 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. On April 4, 1967 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a speech named, "Beyond Vietnam- A Time to Break Silence" addressing the Vietnam War. In the 1950s and 1960s, his words led the Civil Rights Movement and helped change society. There are people who have come to see the moral imperative of equality, but who cannot yet see the moral imperative of world brotherhood. His wife, Coretta Scott King, on the other hand, critiqued the war publicly for years before her husband did. [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. Twin towers were planned from Afghanistan. This has driven many to feel that only Marxism has the revolutionary spirit. "The press is being stacked against me", King said,[13] We must speak for them and raise the questions they cannot raise. King Leads Chicago). Accuracy and availability may vary. In that address, he articulated his reasons for his opposition to the Southeast Asian conflict. They will be concerned about Guatemala and Peru. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. 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. 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. Of course, again, that philosophy, when the papers got a hold of him the next day, that strategy didn't work so well. 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. They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. [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. Perhaps only his sense of humor and of irony can save him when he hears the most powerful nation of the world speaking of aggression as it drops thousands of bombs on a poor weak nation more than eight thousand miles away from its shores. The great initiative in this war is ours. Martin Luther King April 4, 1967 Riverside Church, New York City . Because he received a letter from a little white girl who said, Dr. King, I read the newspaper that had you sneezed that blade would've moved, ruptured your aorta and you would've drowned in your own blood. 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. And Tavis, nice to have you back in the program. Screenshots are considered by the King Estate a violation of this notice. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. He is best known for helping achieve civil equality for African Americans, but these speeches--selected because they were each presented at a turning point in the . 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. Is our nation planning to build on political myth again and then shore it up with the power of new violence? The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr ., head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, delivers a speech entitled "Beyond Vietnam" in front of 3,000 people at Riverside Church in. 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. American Rhetoric: Martin Luther King, Jr: A Time to Break Silence (Declaration Against the Vietnam War) M artin L uther K ing, J r. Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence Delivered 4 April 1967, Riverside Church, New York City [Photo Credit: John C. Goodwin] [AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio. In Martin Luther King Jr.'s Vietnam speech, lines 413-416, he repeats the phrase "this is not just" (161). I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. Appreciate it. 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. 2. We must stop now. capitalism, and the Vietnam War. Check your local listings. It is not addressed to China or to Russia. 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! And I believe everyone has a duty to be in both the civil-rights and peace movements. 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. Mr. SMILEY: That's right. 0000009168 00000 n Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their governments policy, especially in time of war. (AFP via Getty Images) "Why are you speaking about the war, Dr. King? 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. Mr. SMILEY: Indeed he did, Neal. They see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers. Seeking to reduce the potential backlash by framing his speech within the context of religious objection to war, King addressed a crowd of 3,000 people at Riverside Church in New York City. [19][20], 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"[21] 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. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. Mr. SMILEY: Yeah. 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. Screenshots are considered by the King Estate a violation of this notice. Even though they quoted the American Declaration of Independence in their own document of freedom, we refused to recognize them. And Walt's with us from Cortez in Colorado. 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. We encouraged them with our huge financial and military supplies to continue the war even after they had lost the will. 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. Paul A. Schuette, King Preaches on Non-Violence at Police-Guarded Howard Hall, Washington Post, 3 March 1965. A few other Americans know, of course, the "Mountaintop" speech given the night before he's assassinated in Memphis. Attachment 2: Definitions Attachment 3: King Opposed Vietnam War; We Must Oppose US War in Iraq. "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. So they go primarily women and children and the aged. It was a tactical mistake. The film is the second episode of Tavis Smiley Reports. Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? 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.