Iv?'WK4(WUx:mEc>Z:ShY| x_5i_TVov8mTS&YG=^mDHrUrrEWjTTSVSHM]A"mYq-,Hkjf^\@&` |\.xz][WjG9'*&WOyeV_5i#>Z:ShY| x_5igZfS_;nC5. King views the Vietnam war as only a symptom of a disease that is affecting America and the American spirit. Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence, when it helps us to see the enemys point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. 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 a hell for the poor. stream A Speech That Took a Stand But arguably "Beyond Vietnam" was the most famous, and widely denounced, since it came before the Tet Offensive and the massacre at My Lai which turned public opinion in the U.S. broadly against the war. What must they think of the United States of 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? In April 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered an eloquent and stirring denunciation of the Vietnam War and US militarism. A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. "I think there . Vietnam's universal health coverage index is at 73higher than regional and global averageswith 87 percent of the population covered. It is curious that the Americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory, do not realize that in the process they are incurring deep psychological and political defeat. Recent flashpoints. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. Though her portions be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong 609 Words. They ask how we can speak of free elections when the Saigon press is censored and controlled by the military junta. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today my own government. There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I and others have been waging in America. Four: Realistically accept the fact that the National Liberation Front has substantial support in South Vietnam and must thereby play a role in any meaningful negotiations and any future Vietnam government. 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. Perhaps a more difficult but no less necessary task is to speak for those who have been designated as our enemies. Now there is little left to build on, save bitterness. For nine years we vigorously supported the French in their abortive effort to recolonize Vietnam. 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. Communism will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. In the end, Vietnamese communism stopped short of exporting revolution beyond Indochina because its radical character had created enemies . 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. 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. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. 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. The AMERICAN War had come to define AMERICA in the second half of the 20th century. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies. Number two: Declare a unilateral cease-fire in the hope that such action will create the atmosphere for negotiation. And history is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor., 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. 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. I am not speaking of that force which is just emotional bosh. << /Filter /FlateDecode /S 163 /Length 230 >> There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I, and others, have been waging in America. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. Now let us begin. %# , #&')*)-0-(0%()( C The United States got involved in the Vietnam War because they wanted to stop the spread of communism. Is our nation planning to build on political myth again, and then shore it up upon the power of new violence? But they ask and rightly so what about Vietnam? Viet Thanh Nguyen on Dr. King's 1967 speech 'Beyond Vietnam' We must provide the medical aid that is badly needed, making it available in this country, if necessary. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.. The most serious trouble in recent decades has flared between Vietnam and China, and there have also been stand-offs between the Philippines and China. 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. 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. 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. His speech appears below. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. 1. punished the poor. America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own. Table of Content. %PDF-1.5 Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Beyond Vietnam" was a powerful and angry speech that raged against the war. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. I say we must enter that struggle, but I wish to go on now to say something even more disturbing. They wander into the hospitals with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one Vietcong-inflicted injury. King urged insteada radical revolution of valuesemphasizing love and justice rather than economic nationalism (King, Beyond Vietnam,157). Now they languish under our bombs and consider us, not their fellow Vietnamese, the real enemy. Even though they quoted the American Declaration of Independence in their own document of freedom, we refused to recognize them. dVb+==*7O5yM^sN/3 ? This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense against communism. 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 . endstream How can they trust us when now we charge them with violence after the murderous reign of Diem and charge them with violence while we pour every new weapon of death into their land? By that time the communists and South Vietnamese were already engaged in what journalists labeled the "postwar war.". After the French were defeated, it looked as if independence and land reform would come again through the Geneva Agreement. 56 0 obj 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. They ask if our own nation wasnt using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. If we do not stop our war against the people of Vietnam immediately, the world will be left with no other alternative than to see this as some horrible, clumsy, and deadly game we have decided to play. Published January 12, 2023. 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. both may have justifiable reason 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. 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, 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. 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. Beyond Vietnam Ethos Pathos Logos. Omar Khayyam is right: The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on.. We must move past indecision to action. Is it among these voiceless ones? Despite public criticism, King continued to attack the Vietnam War on both moral and economic grounds. % 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." They move sadly and apathetically as we herd them off the land of their fathers into concentration camps where minimal social needs are rarely met. 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 New York. This is a case of getting out of a certain frame of mind, of a way of thinking about ourselves and about the world.. 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 . Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. Vietnam's Amended Constitution 1992 recognized the role of private sector in the economy. And of course its always good to come back to Riverside church. Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word (unquote). Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305. 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). What then can I say to the Vietcong or to Castro or to Mao as a faithful minister of this One? In early 1967 King stepped up his anti-war proclamations, giving similar speeches in Los Angeles and Chicago. 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. 54 0 obj 7 reason to bring into his "moral vision". 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. 53 0 obj 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. 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: Number one: End all bombing in North and South Vietnam. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. Martin Luther King - Beyond Vietnam - 1967 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive Volume 90% 00:00 51:49 Martin Luther King - Beyond Vietnam - 1967 Topics Martin Luther King, Beyond Vietnam, war, social justice, peace * Reverend Martin Luther King * Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence * April 4, 1967 * The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. 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. Two, Three.Many Vietnam's: A Radical Reader on the Wars in Southeast Asia and the Conflicts at Home. Introduction Martin Luther King, Jr in his speech "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" argued that US foreign policy was hypocritical when compared to the inequality present in the United States. 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. Speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. against the "triple evils of racism, economic exploitation, and militarism." Audio. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. 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. The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. Due to the Vietnam War is that plenty of individuals, both Americans and Vietnamese were killed. #3 Government Support. Three: Take immediate steps to prevent other battlegrounds in Southeast Asia by curtailing our military buildup in Thailand and our interference in Laos. Many people believed that America had no reason to interfere, Dr. King being one of those people. 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? So they go, primarily women and children and the aged. King,The Casualties of the War in Vietnam,25 February 1967, CLPAC. 51 0 obj 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. The peasants watched as all this was presided over by United States influence and then by increasing numbers of United States troops who came to help quell the insurgency that Diems methods had aroused. King's famous speech, "Beyond Vietnam: A time to break the silence," deserves study by antiwar activists and others seeking a better understanding of the battle for economic justice, racial equality and freedom at home and abroad. Students will read Rev. 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. And yet I swear this oath 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. Watch the Public Broadcasting Laboratory documentary Free at Last: Martin Luther King Jr. (streaming on THIRTEEN Specials), which was being filmed when Dr. King was assassinated and premiered on THIRTEEN just three days after his death. 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 Institute cannot give permission to use or reproduce any of the writings, statements, or images of Martin Luther King, Jr. 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 when I hear them, though I often understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling. America will be! She was once a tour guide in real life, too. 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 Time to Break Silence, given at Riverside Church in New York City on April 4, 1967. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom, and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism (unquote). Meanwhile Meanwhile, we in the churches and synagogues have a continuing task while we urge our government to disengage itself from a disgraceful commitment. Get a roundup of broadcast and digital premieres, special offers, and events with our weekly newsletter. We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. 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. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest. P. 206-215. They remind us that they did not begin to send troops in large numbers and even supplies into the South until American forces had moved into the tens of thousands. A true revolution of values will lay hand 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 the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. King, Interview on Face the Nation, 29 August 1965, RRML-TxTyU. The immediate response to Kings speech was largely negative. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered. Then we must make what reparations we can for the damage we have done. #7 Infrastructure Development. 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. 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. The first reason "obvious" and "facile," according to King was the effect of the Vietnam War on the War on Poverty in the United States. Shall we say the odds are too great? In the speech at Riverside Church, King talked about how the US had supported . In a way we were agreeing with Langston Hughes, that black bard of Harlem, who had written earlier: O, yes, This has driven many to feel that only Marxism has a revolutionary spirit. Martin Luther King uses persuasive argument in his speeches. 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. 2. create an unilateral cease fire leading to peace talks. MLK's Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence. It decided to send money, supplies, and military advisers to help the South Vietnamese g. The U.S. became polarized between those who advocated continued involvement in Vietnam and those who wanted peace. by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. w . I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. See transcript of full speech, below. by Rick Sterling January 16, 2023. We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men. Somehow this madness must cease. MLK: Beyond Vietnam - A Time to Break Silence The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change 251K views 7 years ago William Pepper - The Execution of Martin Luther King. Notably, the economy grew at an average annual rate of 7.5% in 1991-2000 period. 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. endstream 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. 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. The Los Angeles speech, calledThe Casualties of the War in Vietnam,stressed the history of the conflict and argued that American power should beharnessed to the service of peace and human beings, not an inhumane power [unleashed] against defenseless people(King, 25 February 1967). Exactly a year later, King was assassinated. We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. #4 New Market. King had stepped up his anti-war proclamations on February 25, 1967, when he appeared at a convention in Beverly Hills, California. Their questions are frighteningly relevant. Here's the essay I wrote in the video: In the speech "Beyond Vietnam - A Time to Break Silence," Dr. Rev. 825 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10019, WNET is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. He stated . They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. King used his famous oration skills to point out the hypocrisy of U.S. foreign affairs in view of the sorry domestic state of equality in America. Martin Luther King Jr. gave many speeches in his lifetime. endobj After 1954 they watched us conspire with Diem to prevent elections which could have surely brought Ho Chi Minh to power over a united Vietnam, and they realized they had been betrayed again. PBS talk show host Tavis. Being one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, Vietnam becomes a strategic place for many foreign entrepreneurs to invest. Martin Luther King had spoken critically about the Vietnam War before, but it was his blistering Beyond Vietnam speech at an event sponsored by Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam that gained wide attention. King followed with an historical sketch outlining Vietnams devastation at the hands ofdeadly Western arrogance,noting,we are on the side of the wealthy, and the secure, while we create a hell for the poor(King,Beyond Vietnam,146; 153). (Doi Moi) from 1986 to 2006. Surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their violence. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. All the while the people read our leaflets and received the regular promises of peace and democracy and land reform. 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. The fall of South Vietnam. 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. endobj He who lives with untruth lives in spiritual slavery. $2.00. On April 4, 1967 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a speech named, "Beyond Vietnam- A Time to Break Silence" addressing the Vietnam War. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition. The actual speech begins at 1:41 in the recording. 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. If we will make the right choice, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. Photo: Ad Meskens. . The peasants watched and cringed as Diem ruthlessly rooted out all opposition, supported their extortionist landlords, and refused even to discuss reunification with the North. To Build a Mature Society: The Lasting Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Beyond Vietnam" Speech By Kristopher Burrell At Riverside Church in Harlem on April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his assassination, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a blistering and sophisticated critique of U. S. intervention in Vietnam. King, Transformed Nonconformist, Sermon Delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church, 16 January 1966, CSKC.
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