Let's get Howard(ph) on the line. The question is, is it a war of necessity or a war of choice at this point? You can also join the conversation at our Web site. Robert B. Semple, Jr., Dr. The truth of these words is beyond doubt but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. *];\n~~/iQ|h Q Dr. King is trying to get the point across that our country is being unfair to others. CONAN: Indeed. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that. That's what set so many of them off. End all bombing in North and South Vietnam. Carson and Shepard, 2001. He criticized the Vietnam War and praised Muhammad Ali for being a conscientious objector. They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor both black and white through the poverty program. So far we may have killed a million of them mostly children. 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. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such. 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. So practically everybody in his inner circle was against him giving it - one, because they knew the kind of pushback he was going to get. Dr. 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. 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. Could we blame them for such thoughts? Mr. TAVIS SMILEY (Host, "The Tavis Smiley Show"): Neal, always an honor to be on with you. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. Read The Full Text And Listen To Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Beyond Vietnam" Speech. The Institute cannot give permission to use or reproduce any of the writings, statements, or images of Martin Luther King, Jr. 0000003503 00000 n As that noble bard of yesterday, James Russell Lowell, eloquently stated: Once to every man and nation Comes the moment to decide, In the strife of truth and falsehood, For the good or evil side; Some great cause, Gods new Messiah, Offring each the bloom or blight, And the choice goes by forever Twixt that darkness and that light. They see the children, degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. 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 New York Times calls it wasteful and self-defeating. 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. (Scott) King,My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr., 1969. 0000001700 00000 n 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. 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. 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. I just wanted to say that I was an 18-year-old Marine in Vietnam when the speech was given, and I didn't hear it until three or four years ago. . JwNt YHiA:{p . 0000012562 00000 n 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 . Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. WALT (Caller): Yes. Screenshots are considered by the King Estate a violation of this notice. [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. That's my own personal assessment. We must not engage in a negative anti-communism, but rather in a positive thrust for democracy, realizing that our greatest defense against communism is to take offensive action in behalf of justice. 0000030467 00000 n Martin Luther King, Jr., giving his speech Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence at Riverside Church in NYC, April 4, 1967. [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. What must they think of us in America when they realize that we permitted the repression and cruelty of Diem which helped to bring them into being as a resistance group in the south? 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. 0000002337 00000 n This speech is not addressed to Hanoi or to the National Liberation Front. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, organized the 1963 March on Washington, advocated for civil disobedience and. Those pictures turned Dr. King's stomach. King Leads Chicago). [29], Excerpts from this speech are used in the songs "Together" and "Spirit" by Nordic Giants. (1967) Martin Luther King, Jr., "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" So practically everybody was opposed to him giving this speech. n the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on lifes roadside; but that will be only an initial act. King, Excerpts, Address at mass rally on 12 August 1965, 13 August 1965, MLKJP-GAMK. A few years ago there was a shining moment. So Martin's advisors basically said, if you are intent on giving the speech, at least allow us to craft a speech and to create a setting that will allow you to speak to clergy members and laity so at least before you get to this rally that we know is going to be controversial, we could at least roll this thing out with a different kind of a crowd. So you got a Nobel laureate named King, a war president with a Nobel Prize named Obama, for all that we have done over the last two years to wed King and Obama together on T- shirts and everywhere else, were King alive today at 81, he and Obama would have a tension point, Neal, on this issue. 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 be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every creative means of protest possible. In so many words, powerful interests told him: "Mind your own business.". 800-989-8255. Thank you. 0000011739 00000 n So all that we have is less than 10 minutes of video of the speech. 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. And I can't tell young black men, who are being denied right here in the streets of America, that they should offer themselves up and to sign themselves up to go - to do harm to people around the world who they do not know. These are revolutionary times. 0000007161 00000 n Vietnam War - The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute 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. One of the things, I hope, Neal, will happen here is that when people get a chance to see the special, they will be moved - I think they will be - to Google or Bing, whatever search engine you use, to go online, because the speech is so readily available, Neal, as you know. I feel that Martin Luther King and Muhammad Ali are two of the, you know, greatest Americans we've ever had. 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 hell for the poor. 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. Cypress Hall D, 466 Via Ortega, Stanford, CA 94305-4146 And he said these three issues of racism and poverty and militarism are going to destroy this nation. 0000002964 00000 n Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - Zinn Education Project I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. ) 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 No, Howard, I thank you for your phone call. He rarely gave speeches from a text. Tomorrow, the latest installment with the political junkie. In 1968, King was planning a national occupation of Washington, D., to be called the Poor People's Campaign, when he was assassinated on April 4 in . Attachment 4: Are We Ready to Listen to Dr. King? 0000005717 00000 n 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. Or will there be another message, of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? 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. 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. King to Weigh Civil Disobedience). Their questions are frighteningly relevant. 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. (Unintelligible) on this program about, you know, the chances he took and even, you know, speaking truth to power to LBJ helped him so much in civil rights. King Scores Poverty). From Harlem to Hanoi: Dr. King and the Vietnam War On April 4, 1967 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a speech named, "Beyond Vietnam- A Time to Break Silence" addressing the Vietnam War. $25.00. Martin Luther King, who was already beginning to lose some of his influence, nevertheless made a huge challenge to the establishment. 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 have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. They were led by Ho Chi Minh. 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. PDF. What liberators? 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. 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. Opposes Vietnam War, New York Times, 11 November 1965. We must continue to raise our voices if our nation persists in its perverse ways in Vietnam. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination - HISTORY

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