. Tragically, half a century after "Beyond Vietnam," America is still the greatest purveyor of violence in the world, and the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism . 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 . Then came the buildup in Vietnam and I watched the program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. These, too, are our brothers. As I have walked among the desperate, rejected, and angry young men, I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. King, Statement on voter registration in Alabama, 9 March 1965, MLKJP-GAMK. These are days which demand wise restraint and calm reasonableness. By Matthew Hoh, Counter Punch, January 16, 2023. Mandy Jackson A Time to Break Silence On April 4,1967, in Riverside Church, New York City Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers a speech called Beyond Vietnam He initiates, "War is not the answer. Three: Take immediate steps to prevent other battlegrounds in Southeast Asia by curtailing our military buildup in Thailand and our interference in Laos. King, a gifted speaker who normally wouldnt read from text, did read out Beyond Vietnam because he planned to submit it to publications and did not want to be misquoted. The actual speech begins at 1:41 in the recording. If Americas soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read: Vietnam. 5 steps to get out of Vietnam. Members get extended access to PBS video on demand and more. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. And so we watch them in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would hardly live on the same block in Chicago. The essence of the speech focused on the war in Vietnam. He drafted several speeches for King over the years and eventually became the first director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Center. We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. 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. 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 antirevolutionaries. 'I Have a Dream'. I join you in this meeting because Im in deepest agreement with the aims and work of the organization which has brought us together: Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam. We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. King,The Casualties of the War in Vietnam,25 February 1967, CLPAC. 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. 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. 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. With that tragic decision we rejected a revolutionary government seeking self-determination and a government that had been established not by China for whom the Vietnamese have no great love but by clearly indigenous forces that included some communists. $2.00. They wander into the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise, we must choose in this crucial moment of human history. King, Transformed Nonconformist, Sermon Delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church, 16 January 1966, CSKC. In the mid-1950s, King led the movement to end segregation and counter prejudice in the . Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. So they go, primarily women and children and the aged. On April 4, 1967 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a speech named, "Beyond Vietnam- A Time to Break Silence" addressing the Vietnam War. Dr. In the speech at Riverside Church, King talked about how the US had supported France in trying to re-colonize . So, I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. All the while the people read our leaflets and received the regular promises of peace and democracy and land reform. KW;UmBkT/k_rvtg+W`Y?eeu,+I$ZkZu?I'}[fXj7vHovEwU=h.87 <3nmVG"5tU]~7M.^5CCJz4 I,lU-}*WI:quZFv%[-p+jbn ST4PS&5DF4Oxy;g '2v!l37GGDv.JKm{e.m+(k/p@ In its April 7 editorial "Dr. King's Error," The New York Times lambasted King for fusing two problems that are "distinct and separate.". The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., is a civil rights legend. And of course its always good to come back to Riverside church. If we will but make the right choice, we will be able to speed up the day, all over America and all over the world, when justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream., 2023 WNET. Communism will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. 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. At the heart of their concerns this query has often loomed large and loud: Why are you speaking about the war, Dr. King? Why are you joining the voices of dissent? Peace and civil rights dont mix, they say. Communism will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. 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. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. What do they think of our condoning the violence which led to their own taking up of arms? King had stepped up his anti-war proclamations on February 25, 1967, when he appeared at a convention in Beverly Hills, California. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. After more than a decade in the public eye fighting racism and inequality in America, King plunged himself into another searing, divisive issue in America with his speech, Beyond Vietnam: A. Shall we say the odds are too great? 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. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. #7 Infrastructure Development. Both the Washington Post and New York Times published editorials criticizing the speech, with the Post noting that Kings speech haddiminished his usefulness to his cause, to his country, and to his peoplethrough a simplistic and flawed view of the situation (A Tragedy,6 April 1967). #3 Government Support. What of the National Liberation Front, that strangely anonymous group we call VC or communists? 3. stop the creation of battlefield in Laos and Thailand. In April 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered an eloquent and stirring denunciation of the Vietnam War and US militarism. Surely we must understand their feelings, even if we do not condone their actions. 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. Moreover, I would encourage all ministers of draft age to give up their ministerial exemptions and seek status as conscientious objectors. Martin Luther King April 4, 1967 Riverside Church, New York City Since I am a preacher by calling, I suppose it is not surprising that I have seven major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral vision. 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. Equally unclear is why Vietnam decided to begin accepting deportees who arrived in the United States prior to 1995. Published January 12, 2023. Then we must make what reparations we can for the damage we have done. Follow along with the transcript, below. The belief of the clergy took the theme of silence is betrayal. The church maintains an active social justice mission today. Dr. Martin Luther King's 'Beyond Vietnam' Speech On April 4, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a controversial antiwar speech opposing Riverside Church in New York City by HistoryNet staff 1/14/2022 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech opposing the Vietnam War in April 1967. 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. The pro-social justice and anti-war speech were delivered to state MLK's opposition . 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. 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). In early 1967 King stepped up his anti-war proclamations, giving similar speeches in Los Angeles and Chicago. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. To change course, King suggested a five point outline for stopping the war, which included a call for a unilateral ceasefire.
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