I heard him speak so many times. The Washington Post criticized his "sheer inventions of unsupported fantasy" and lamented how "many who have listened to him with respect will never again accord him the same confidence . 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. This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond ones tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing embracing and unconditional love for all mankind. endstream !1V"7AQau2TUqt#46BRrs35b$e%CSFc&d ? This is the calling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. 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. Martin Luther King Beyond Vietnam. In early 1967 King stepped up his anti-war proclamations, giving similar speeches in Los Angeles and Chicago. Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence Rev. The legacy of his speech is reflected inThe Vietnam War, an 18-hour series by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick (streaming to PBS station members). << /Pages 117 0 R /Type /Catalog >> There is at the outset a very obvious and This is a case of getting out of a certain frame of mind, of a way of thinking about ourselves and about the world.. They ask if our own nation wasnt using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Therefore, communism is a judgment against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions that we initiated. I still think this is probably the best., It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor both black and white through the poverty program. King views the Vietnam war as only a symptom of a disease that is affecting America and the American spirit. It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. Now, it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. The U.S. became polarized between those who advocated continued involvement in Vietnam and those who wanted peace. King told reporters on Face the Nation that as a minister he hada prophetic functionand asone greatly concerned about the need for peace in our world and the survival of mankind, I must continue to take a stand on this issue(King, 29 August 1965). Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live. << /Filter /FlateDecode /S 163 /Length 230 >> 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. Follow along with the transcript, below. 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. We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. In Hanoi are the men who led the 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. Can I threaten them with death or must I not share with them my life? by Rick Sterling January 16, 2023. A year to the day before his assassination on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Martin Luther King Jr. was in New York City, at the Riverside Church on Manhattan's Upper West Side, talking about Vietnam. I speak as one who loves America, to the leaders of our own nation: The great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to stop it must be ours. 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. And that time has come for us in relation to Vietnam. xcbd`g`b``8 "Y& D2 IF>E0y6DrLb`] R3XM-c |)f&!ME And every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. Exactly a year later, King was assassinated. King, Martin Luther Jr. "Declaration of Independence from the War in Vietnam." In Editors of Ramparts with Banning Garrett and Katherine Barkley (Eds.) One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on lifes highway. Three: Take immediate steps to prevent other battlegrounds in Southeast Asia by curtailing our military buildup in Thailand and our interference in Laos. 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. 51 0 obj On 4 April 1967 Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his seminal speech at Riverside Church condemning the Vietnam War. endobj 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? Recently one of them wrote these words, and I quote: Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. Soon, the only solid solid physical foundations remaining will be found at our military bases and in the concrete of the concentration camps we call fortified hamlets. The peasants may well wonder if we plan to build our new Vietnam on such grounds as these. 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. Even before the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu, they began to despair of their reckless action, but we did not. Now there is little left to build on, save bitterness. P. 206-215. #6 Low Expenses. Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own. By that time the communists and South Vietnamese were already engaged in what journalists labeled the "postwar war.". Equally unclear is why Vietnam decided to begin accepting deportees who arrived in the United States prior to 1995. They wander into the hospitals with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one Vietcong-inflicted injury. In a way we were agreeing with Langston Hughes, that black bard of Harlem, who had written earlier: O, yes, He disagreed with America going to war in Vietnam in 1955 and to voice his thoughts he wrote and delivered his speech "Beyond Vietnam- A Time to Break Silence." which took place at Riverside Church in New York City on April 4, 1967 to let his audience know that the Vietnam War is unjust. 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. stream Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1967 speech "Beyond Vietnam" is incredibly insightful regarding how it speaks to issues we face today. 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 1954; and I cannot forget that the Nobel Peace Prize 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. If Americas soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read: Vietnam. I speak of the for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home, and death and corruption in Vietnam. Tonight, however, I wish not to speak with Hanoi and the National Liberation Front, but rather to my fellow Americans. 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. Declaringmy conscience leaves me no other choice,King described the wars deleterious effects on both Americas poor and Vietnamese peasants and insisted that it was morally imperative for the United States to take radical steps to halt the war through nonviolent means (King, Beyond Vietnam, 139). We are adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a short period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really involved. So it is that those of us who are yet determined that America will be are are led down the path of protest and dissent, working for the health of our land. In Dr. Martin Luther King's speech "Beyond VietnamA Time to Break Silence" (1967), Dr. King asserts that the war in Vietnam is totally immoral and has far reaching negative implications not only for Vietnam, but for The United States and the rest of the World as well. Instead, we decided to support France in its reconquest of her former colony. Vietnam's Amended Constitution 1992 recognized the role of private sector in the economy. His indictment of the U.S. government and the war became known as The Riverside Church Speech and it was criticized by media from The New York Times to the Washington Post, and by groups such as the NAACP, which objected to the Civil Rights Movement weighing in on the war and joining anti-war protests. They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. Even so, the establishment considered it a shock, a disgrace. 9 min read. 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. On April 4, 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr., an enormously influential civil rights activist, conveys his indignant and hopeful thoughts regarding the Vietnam War, in his speech "Beyond Vietnam," by utilizing biblical allusion, anaphora, and use of diction. xc```b``9Y `6+ *i`x!fw[ TC82U |])KXl[T7R)UbpE0q@e8.;c q8, e0+EN328v`8 00~QAI[ksz#Jw;`t!>8#oB;|;!V QM And yet I swear this oath Dr. Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence was delivered by Martin Luther King Jr., on April 4, 1967, at a meeting of concerned clergy and laity at Riverside Church in New York City, New York. A year to the day before his assassination, Martin Luther King publicly and decisively denounced not only the US war in Vietnam but the militarism that enabled the war and undermined American society. Iv?'WK4(WUx:mEc>Z:ShY| x_5i_TVov8mTS&YG=^mDHrUrrEWjTTSVSHM]A"mYq-,Hkjf^\@&` |\.xz][WjG9'*&WOyeV_5i#>Z:ShY| x_5igZfS_;nC5. Dr. King's purpose is to make the church leaders he is speaking to aware that 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. I also want to say that I consider it a great honor to share this program with Dr. Bennett, Dr. Commager, and Rabbi Heschel, and some of the distinguished leaders and personalities of our nation. America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. Why did Rev. The United States got involved in the Vietnam War because they wanted to stop the spread of communism. It is not addressed to China or to Russia. From The Vietnam War, PBS. Surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their violence. The United States was most involved in the war from 1959 to 1973 which coincided with the Civil Rights movement. Despite public criticism, King continued to attack the Vietnam War on both moral and economic grounds. Kings anti-war sentiments emerged publicly for the first time in March 1965, when King declared thatmillions of dollars can be spent every day to hold troops in South Viet Nam and our country cannot protect the rights of Negroes in Selma(King, 9 March 1965). The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. Zip. I am pleased to say that this is a path now 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. North Vietnam's war profoundly divided American citizens, seriously damaged American credibility around the world, and lent moral support to many radical movements in Africa and Latin America. The pro-social justice and anti-war speech were delivered to state MLK's opposition . While they both may have justifiable reasons to be suspicious of the good faith of the United States, life and history give eloquent testimony to the fact that conflicts are never resolved without trustful give and take on both sides. This February, the Humanities curriculum for Grade 7 is focused on the Vietnam War. Some great cause, Gods new Messiah offering each the bloom or blight, 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? Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305. The neo-gothic Riverside Church in New York City has a long history of progressive leaders and activism, dating back to its opening in October, 1930. Life expectancy rose from 70.5 to 75.5 years between 1990 and 2020. We must provide the medical aid that is badly needed, making it available in this country, if necessary. They ask how we can speak of free elections when the Saigon press is censored and controlled by the military junta. @ !V*k*im+R{Q\4b^`j+j/A8U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;wap~#65UXG9tMU G^> `j+j/A9~NT de#(~y{Jtp m`j+j/A8P qGqe#(~ b_mE@ VYVQov:j}\z8M?tiiibEkF5Qup6cbczB9 uUa Five: Set a date that we will remove all foreign troops from Vietnam in accordance with the 1954 Geneva Agreement. %PDF-1.5 We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. And 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. Regarding choosing Beyond Vietnam for the title when the country was deep in the middle of the war, Harding recalled in an interview with Tavis Smiley, this is more than a simple case of getting out of Vietnam. 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 in Vietnam and to understand the arguments of those who are called enemy, I am as deeply concerned about our own troops there as anything else. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us. Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day. When we ask why they do not leap to negotiate, these things must be remembered. This is the message of the great Buddhist leaders of Vietnam. Many people believed that America had no reason to interfere, Dr. King being one of those people. They know they must move on or be destroyed by our bombs. So we watch them in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would never live on the same block in Detroit. MLK: Beyond Vietnam to Ukraine. Soldier of the 25th Infantry Division, c., 1969. Martin Luther King April 4, 1967 Riverside Church, New York City Get a roundup of broadcast and digital premieres, special offers, and events with our weekly newsletter. During the past ten years, we have seen emerge a pattern of suppression which has now justified the presence of U.S. military advisors in Venezuela. It was titled "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence." King criticized the war in Vietnam, calling on those of draft age to seek status as conscientious objectors and saying, "we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war." Similarly, both the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Ralph Bunche accused King of linking two disparate issues, Vietnam and civil rights. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. And finally, as I try to explain for you and for myself the road that leads from Montgomery to this place I would have offered all that was most valid if I simply said that I must be true to my conviction that I share with all men the calling to be a son of the living God. We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. Relevance to U.S. Wars and Militarism Today By Mary Hladky, American Friends Service Committee, KC Program Committee Clerk and United for Peace and Justice, Coordinating Committee Member 50 years ago, on April 4, 1967 at Riverside Church, in NYC, Martin Luther King delivered his powerful and most . The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood it ebbs. Let us not join those who shout war . A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. And they are surely right to wonder what kind of new government we plan to help form without them, the only party in real touch with the peasants. U.S.-Vietnam Trade Bilateral Agreement (US-BTA) was signed in . King claimed that America madepeaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments(King,Beyond Vietnam,157). Though her portions be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. This speech was released by Black Foru. or 404 526-8968. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor both black and white through the poverty program. P: (650) 723-2092 | F: (650) 723-2093 | [email protected]| Campus Map. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest. According to the PBS documentary MLK: A Call to Conscience (2010), the speech was denounced by 168 newspapers across the country. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood. Both sides alleged, more or less accurately, that the other side was continuously violating the terms . As that noble bard of yesterday, James Russell Lowell, eloquently stated: Once to every man and nation comes a moment to decide, In that address he articulated his reasons for his opposition to the Southeast Asian conflict. 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. Speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. against the "triple evils of racism, economic exploitation, and militarism." Audio. Beyond Vietnam Ethos Pathos Logos. In addition to Martin Luther King, Jr., the church has hosted many prominent speakers, including Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian who was executed in 1945 at a German concentration camp; Cesar Chavez, the Mexican-American civil rights activist who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association; and Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician and former president of South Africa. These, too, are our brothers. However, all was not well on the ground: the country lost a Navy intelligence ship (USS Pueblo) and two I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. In the air, America reached new heights with NASA's Apollo 8 orbiting the moon and Boeing's 747 jumbo jet's first flight. But this encouraging shift does not reflect a seismic corruption case relating to COVID testing kits that came to light in the last days of 2021. What must they be thinking when they know that we are aware of their control of major sections of Vietnam, and yet we appear ready to allow national elections in which this highly organized political parallel government will not have a part? King, Transformed Nonconformist, Sermon Delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church, 16 January 1966, CSKC. And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond in compassion, my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. For nine years we vigorously supported the French in their abortive effort to recolonize Vietnam. Recent flashpoints. He who lives with untruth lives in spiritual slavery. So they go, primarily women and children and the aged. They see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers. King holds the U.S. government and the American people responsible for the Vietnam . Tax ID: 26-2810489. Harding recalled in an interview with Tavis Smiley, Free at Last: Martin Luther King Jr. (streaming on THIRTEEN Specials). Martin Luther King, Jr. makes a compelling case for the proposition that the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War is unjust using ethos (facts and commonly accepted values or ethics), pathos (appeals to emotion through powerful descriptive language), and . This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense against communism. Hear the entire recording of Martin Luther King, Jr.s Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence speech, including introductory applause and a greeting King makes to his fellow clergy speakers. . 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. 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 Im speaking against the war. We have destroyed their land and their crops. But the day has passed for superficial patriotism. Now they languish under our bombs and consider us, not their fellow Vietnamese, the real enemy. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on lifes roadside, but that will be only an initial act. #3 Government Support. Communism will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. 3 Pages. The Vietnamese people proclaimed their own independence in 1954 in 1945 rather after a combined French and Japanese occupation and before the communist revolution in China. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. King, Statement on voter registration in Alabama, 9 March 1965, MLKJP-GAMK. The speech titled "Beyond Vietnam" is relevant to today's war in Ukraine. Perhaps a more difficult but no less necessary task is to speak for those who have been designated as our enemies. 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. Senator Barry Goldwater (AZ), the Republican Party presidential nominee in 1964, said the speech could border a bit on treason., Civil Rights activist and U.S. Representative John Lewis (GA), who was among the 3,800 in the audience when King gave the speech, told the New Yorker Magazine in 2017 that the speech was a speech for all humanityfor the world community. In 1967, however, Beyond Vietnam ignited an uproar. Five years ago he said, Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments. This I believe to be the privilege and the burden of all of us who deem ourselves bound by allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than nationalism and which go beyond our nations self-defined goals and positions.
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