martin luther king jr vietnam war speech transcript

Du Bois to Coretta Scott King: The Untold History of the Movement to Ban the Bomb. CONAN: And one thing that I was unaware of was the timing of the speech in that he had wanted to say something along these lines. The New York Times calls it wasteful and self-defeating. I am pleased to say that this is the path now being chosen by more than seventy students at my own alma mater, Morehouse College, and I recommend it to all who find the American course in Vietnam a dishonorable and unjust one. And he said these three issues of racism and poverty and militarism are going to destroy this nation. Where are the roots of the independent Vietnam we claim to be building? In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. [16][17] 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. CONAN: Well, take us back to 1967. Martin Luther King Jr. held his acceptance speech in the auditorium of the University of Oslo on 10 December 1964. Attachment 2: Definitions Attachment 3: King Opposed Vietnam War; We Must Oppose US War in Iraq. Jazmyn Ford. These are revolutionary times. The question is, is it a war of necessity or a war of choice at this point? They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. "MLK: A Call to Conscience" premieres on PBS tomorrow night. They wander into the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. For nine years we vigorously supported the French in their abortive effort to recolonize Vietnam. 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. Smiley continues, "it was the most controversial speech he ever gave. On the evening of April 4, 1967, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King lent his full-throated oratory to a growing chorus of opposition to the rapidly expanding American role in the Vietnam War. And so he does in New York City. Mr. TAVIS SMILEY (Host, "The Tavis Smiley Show"): Neal, always an honor to be on with you. 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]. [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. Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word.. 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. Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day. In describing the ways in which the . The United States got involved in the Vietnam War because they wanted to stop the spread of communism. We have supported the enemies of the peasants of Saigon. I must cry out when I see war escalated at any point (Opposes Vietnam War). 4. This is Howard, which you know me. Afghanistan, not so much. 0000005717 00000 n I would like to suggest five concrete things that our government should do immediately to begin the long and difficult process of extricating ourselves from this nightmarish conflict: 1. PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley's new documentary, MLK: A Call to Conscience explores King's speech. That Vietnam was a mistake. Later that year King framed the issue of war in Vietnam as a moral issue: As a minister of the gospel, he said, I consider war an evil. And what really got him to the point of figuring that he really, really had to address this again back to the children, he couldn't say to young folks in this country who were being denied, that they should engage nonviolence as a philosophy when he saw the children, when he saw these pictures of these Vietnamese children being bombed and the impact - the effect that napalm was having on their bodies. The True Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: Free Press. King had read Marx while at Morehouse, but while he rejected "traditional capitalism", he also rejected communism because of its "materialistic interpretation of history" that denied religion, its "ethical relativism", and its "political totalitarianism. (Scott) King,My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr., 1969. Therefore, communism is a judgment against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions we initiated. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. I've always argue that Dr. King is the greatest American we've ever produced. Because, to your point now, one, I want people to go online and read the speech so you can see the text for yourself. King's "Beyond Vietnam" speech was delivered at the Riverside Church in New York exactly one year before his assassination. (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. Delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Manhattan's Riverside Church, April 4, 1967 . And I think most Americans know the "I Have A Dream" speech. He did say he was going to increase troop levels in Afghanistan, so he's kept that promise. America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. A small donation would help us keep this available to all. Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence . The peasants may well wonder if we plan to build our new Vietnam on such grounds as these? (AFP via Getty Images) "Why are you speaking about the war, Dr. King? The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. We in the West must support these revolutions. 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. 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. [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. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor both black and white through the poverty program. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. But when he turns the corner and then says, essentially, that Martin's philosophy wouldn't work in today's world, he goes on to say that Dr. King didn't know al-Qaida, as if to suggest that Martin didn't understand evil, that Martin didn't understand violence, that he himself had not been subjected to it. 0000007566 00000 n HdTn0+=3hRnm)zK#-t\|Ha)S So it is that those of us who are yet determined that America will be are led down the path of protest and dissent, working for the health of our land. The peasants watched and cringed as Diem ruthlessly routed out all opposition, supported their extortionist landlords and refused even to discuss reunification with the north. 16, 1967 in New York. 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 unless the descendants of its slaves were loosed completely from the shackles they still wear. Of course, again, that philosophy, when the papers got a hold of him the next day, that strategy didn't work so well. Let's go to Walt(ph). They wander into the hospitals, with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one Vietcong-inflicted injury. 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? Hb```f``; 6Pco;{Q. 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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. The great initiative in this war is ours. 0000012541 00000 n 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. 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. Legendary civil rights leader Rev. It was sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily high proportions relative to the rest of the population. 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. This quote is from a sermon by Dr. King on April 30, 1967 at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, drawing from his infamous April 4 sermon at Riverside Church. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. Mr. SMILEY: And therein lies the rub. [11], King's opposition cost him significant support among white allies, including President Johnson, Billy Graham,[citation needed] union leaders and powerful publishers. 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. 2. 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. The Washington Post says he has done a discredit to himself, to his people, to his country. A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. 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. Challenges of the final years of Martin Luther King, Jr. 0000006515 00000 n The speech and its echoes for Afghanistan and Iraq are the subject of "Tavis Smiley Reports MLK: A Call to Conscience.". 0000002025 00000 n So King understood violence. But there was a great turnout for the speech. And thank you for sharing what had to be a difficult story to tell. Although the peace community lauded Kings willingness to take a public stand against the war in Vietnam, many within the civil rights movement further distanced themselves from his stance. 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. But they didn't stay for the speech in its entirety. The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. 0000006536 00000 n In that address, he articulated his reasons for his opposition to the Southeast Asian conflict. We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. Of course, the Nobel Peace Laureate, a man who clearly believed in nonviolence down to his very soul CONAN: but he'd wanted to give that speech two years earlier. HOWARD: How are you doing, Tavis? And about a month after that speech was given, I was wounded. King delivered a speech entitled Beyond Vietnam, pointing out that the war effort was 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 (King, Beyond Vietnam, 143). 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. 3. 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. Martin Luther King's Acceptance Speech, on the occasion of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, 10 December 1964 Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Mr. President, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen: 0000003415 00000 n Twin towers were planned from Afghanistan. And there was a 18-year-old black Marine that picked me up since I couldn't walk, got me away from bombs and saved my life. 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. It will become clear that our minimal expectation is to occupy it as an American colony and men will not refrain from thinking that our maximum hope is to goad China into a war so that we may bomb her nuclear installations. Martin Luther King, Jr. utilizes figurative to emphasize the inhumanity and immorality of the war. I'm Neal Conan. 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. 0000013309 00000 n But most Americans, I think, do not know this speech, "Beyond Vietnam.". Full text of speech. And King was prescient on this. At the U.N. King also brought up issues of civil rights and the draft. 39 0 obj << /Linearized 1 /O 44 /H [ 1739 286 ] /L 149455 /E 105346 /N 8 /T 148557 >> endobj xref 39 54 0000000016 00000 n Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live. 159. 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. BlackPast.org is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and our EIN is 26-1625373. "[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. So 60 year(ph) is really, really a hot year here around this particular issue. [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". 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. It is not addressed to China or to Russia. Martin Luther King: Beyond Vietnam and Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution, 90th Cong., 2d sess., Congressional Record 114 (9 April 1968): 93919397. Indeed, you play parts of President Obama's speech to the Nobel Committee there in Stockholm where he received the award. "[10], King also criticized American opposition to North Vietnam's land reforms. There are people who have come to see the moral imperative of equality, but who cannot yet see the moral imperative of world brotherhood. 0000047501 00000 n On April 4, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a controversial sermon opposing the Vietnam War at Riverside Church in Morningside Heights, then helped lead a large antiwar march from Central Park to the United Nations later that month. Screenshots are considered by the King Estate a violation of this notice. He passed the Voting Rights Act. 0000008326 00000 n That's what I feel. 0000040748 00000 n PBS talk show. Before he was assassinated at age 39, the Rev. 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. 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. 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. Let me say this right quick: The comparisons between what King was addressing then about militarism, poverty and racism sound familiar 45 years later. Of course, he's assassinated in Memphis a year to the day later after giving this speech. 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). 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. 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. So it was a great turnout. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. CONAN: And the place - choice of place is very interesting too. But they asked and rightly so what about Vietnam? Soon we would be paying almost the full costs of this tragic attempt at recolonization. . Declare a unilateral cease-fire in the hope that such action will create the atmosphere for negotiation. hide caption. *];\n~~/iQ|h Q I come to this platform tonight to make a passionate plea to my beloved nation. "[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. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies. This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense against communism. Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. 0000004855 00000 n 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. ", After King delivered the speech, Smiley reports, "168 major newspapers the next day denounced him." Please contact Intellectual Properties Management (IPM), the exclusive licensor of the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. atlicensing@i-p-m.comor 404 526-8968. While his legacy is commonly remembered by his famous "I Have A Dream" speech, we've sourced four powerful, lesser-known speeches from Dr. King to listen to and commemorate . Copy of full text of the "Beyond Vietnam" speech. The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality we will find ourselves organizing clergy- and laymen . Your donation is fully tax-deductible. Mr. SMILEY: Indeed he did, Neal. To me the relationship of this ministry to the making of peace is so obvious that I sometimes marvel at those who ask me why I am speaking against the war. 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. And that's just the Times and the Post. Sermons and speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. "Vincent Harding dies at 82; historian wrote controversial King speech", "Vincent Harding, author of Martin Luther King Jr.'s antiwar speech, dies", "The Rev. 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. It was, to your earlier point, the most controversial speech he ever gave. 0000005696 00000 n 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. But it ends up being the most controversial speech. 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. Email us: talk@npr.org. 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. Fifty years ago in 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr.. Copyright 2010 NPR. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. President Obama, this is one campaign promise that he has kept. Check your local listings. 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. "[14] Cypress Hall D, 466 Via Ortega, Stanford, CA 94305-4146 As Arnold Toynbee says : Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and good against the damning choice of death and evil. Surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their violence. 0000009168 00000 n 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. 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. Beyond the calling of race or nation or creed is this vocation of sonship and brotherhood, and 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. ) 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 And thirdly, I think the main point here in this MLK "Beyond Vietnam" speech is that there is another way. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Beyond Vietnam" was a powerful and angry speech that raged against the war. 0000044282 00000 n Now there is little left to build onsave bitterness. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity. We had to do a whole lot of work in the booth trying to get that audio right. 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. Read The Full Text And Listen To Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Beyond Vietnam" Speech. 0000002427 00000 n It includes a portion of his speech. To speak for them is to explain this lack of confidence in Western words, and especially their distrust of American intentions now. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, organized the 1963 March on Washington, advocated for civil disobedience and. Their questions are frighteningly relevant. 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. All Rights Reserved. When we ask why they do not leap to negotiate, these things must be remembered. He was one of the most important and influential Civil Rights leaders in the 1950s and 1960s. 0000007161 00000 n When he saw those pictures, there's a very famous picture, Neal, that we all know of a Vietnamese girl running naked in the streets who had just been, you know, had been victimized as had her village by these napalm attacks. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. 0000011437 00000 n [citation needed] Content [ edit] Is it among these voiceless ones? Answering press questions after addressing a Howard University audience on 2 March 1965, King asserted that the war in Vietnam was accomplishing nothing and called for a negotiated settlement (Schuette, King Preaches on Non-Violence).