The speech primarily concerns the Memphis sanitation strike.King calls for unity, economic actions, boycotts, and nonviolent protest, while challenging the United States to live . 0000001427 00000 n 0000012541 00000 n Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word.. Hundreds of folks listened outside on loudspeakers. Carson and Holloran, 1998. BRC-NEWS: Black Radical Congress International News/Alerts/Announcements , Martin Luther King, Jr., delivering speech. Tavis Smiley joins us today from the Sheryl Flowers Studios in Los Angeles. All rights reserved. It was a wonderful, I think, place to give the speech in the sense that it's pretty cavernous. At the U.N. King also brought up issues of civil rights and the draft. 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. On 4 April 1967 Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his seminal speech at Riverside Church condemning the Vietnam War. 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 includes a portion of his speech. Communism will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. 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. 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. [11], King's opposition cost him significant support among white allies, including President Johnson, Billy Graham,[citation needed] union leaders and powerful publishers. 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. 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]. Now there is little left to build onsave bitterness. ", In 1967, a year to the day before his death, Martin Luther King, Jr. departed from his message of civil rights to deliver a speech that denounced America's war in Vietnam. Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence - American Rhetoric But the entire speech, of course, thankfully, was recorded on audio. P: (650) 723-2092 | F: (650) 723-2093 | kinginstitute@stanford.edu| Campus Map. That's what I feel. Check your local listings. The MLK Speech We Need Today Is Not the One We Remember Most King, Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution, in A Knock at Midnight, ed. So all that we have is less than 10 minutes of video of the speech. So practically everybody was opposed to him giving this speech. HOWARD: How are you doing, Tavis? 159. April 30, 1967: "Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam" Speech They must see Americans as strange liberators. 800-989-8255. *];\n~~/iQ|h Q His tireless work advocating for the end of. King Leads Chicago Peace Rally, New York Times, 26 March 1967. After the French were defeated it looked as if independence and land reform would come again through the Geneva agreements. Martin Luther King Jr. - Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam 0000008347 00000 n Soon the only solid physical foundations remaining will be found at our military bases and in the concrete of the concentration camps we call fortified hamlets. 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. Mr. SMILEY: It's a powerful point made by Clayborne Carson at Stanford who is in charge, as you know, Neal, of the King papers. In describing the ways in which the . We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world a world that borders on our doors. Martin Luther King, Jr.,'s Searing Antiwar Speech, Fifty Years Later This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the counter-revolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. I've Been to the Mountaintop - Wikipedia With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just. 0000047501 00000 n On April 4, 1967 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a speech named, "Beyond Vietnam- A Time to Break Silence" addressing the Vietnam War. He did say he was going to increase troop levels in Afghanistan, so he's kept that promise. (1997). This speech is not addressed to Hanoi or to the National Liberation Front. Is our nation planning to build on political myth again and then shore it up with the power of new violence? 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? The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. We had to do a whole lot of work in the booth trying to get that audio right. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. In the 1950s and 1960s, his words led the Civil Rights Movement and helped change society. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. "[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. In 1967, in the shadows of Columbia, Dr. King shifted the world again. The Institute cannot give permission to use or reproduce any of the writings, statements, or images of Martin Luther King, Jr. If we continue, there will be no doubt in my mind and in the mind of the world that we have no honorable intentions in Vietnam. 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. Not only that, but then-President Lyndon Johnson disinvited King to the White House. Moreover I would encourage all ministers of draft age to give up their ministerial exemptions and seek status as conscientious objectors. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 0000001739 00000 n 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 1964; and I cannot forget that the Nobel Prize for Peace 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. Legendary civil rights leader Rev. A few years ago there was a shining moment. Beyond Vietnam: The MLK speech that caused an uproar - USA TODAY trailer << /Size 93 /Info 36 0 R /Root 40 0 R /Prev 148547 /ID[<8f2b4dd6f2f061944c7ff807c44fcc1f><651247ae294a1a197a948cb3bc3f8412>] >> startxref 0 %%EOF 40 0 obj << /Type /Catalog /Pages 38 0 R /Metadata 37 0 R /Threads 41 0 R /Names 43 0 R /OpenAction [ 44 0 R /XYZ null null null ] /PageMode /UseNone /PageLabels 35 0 R >> endobj 41 0 obj [ 42 0 R ] endobj 42 0 obj << /I << /Title (A)>> /F 45 0 R >> endobj 43 0 obj << /Dests 33 0 R >> endobj 91 0 obj << /S 76 /E 200 /L 216 /Filter /FlateDecode /Length 92 0 R >> stream [6], King delivered the speech, sponsored by the group Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam, after committing to participate in New York's April 15, 1967 anti-Vietnam war march from Central Park to the United Nations, sponsored by the Spring Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam. It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Manhattan's Riverside Church, April 4, 1967 . Martin Luther King, Jr. - Challenges of the final years | Britannica PBS talk show. 0000013408 00000 n $25.00. And King gives a great speech out of that hospital called "If I Had Sneezed." 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. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. [12] There were a lot of people inside. (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. But Carson makes a powerful point in the special that you just identified, about whether or not Martin King himself would be welcome in some of these mega-churches, at certain political gatherings. Mr. SMILEY: We - let me just tell you this. Vietnam War - The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute 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. For nine years we vigorously supported the French in their abortive effort to recolonize Vietnam. Email us: talk@npr.org. "[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. I have not urged a mechanical fusion of the civil rights and peace movements. They question our political goals and they deny the reality of a peace settlement from which they will be excluded. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks out against the war - HISTORY A few years ago there was a shining moment in that. Such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God. 0000002247 00000 n 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? When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered. 0000007161 00000 n True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination - HISTORY Martin Luther King, Jr. utilizes figurative to emphasize the inhumanity and immorality of the war. When we ask why they do not leap to negotiate, these things must be remembered. 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 recent statement 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. That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam. [24], King's stance on Vietnam encouraged Allard K. Lowenstein, William Sloane Coffin and Norman Thomas, with the support of anti-war Democrats, to attempt to persuade King to run against President Johnson in the 1968 United States presidential election. While they 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. 0000002004 00000 n They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. 5. Speeches, writings, movements, and protests, Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. And so I think most Americans, Neal, know the "I Have A Dream" speech. Dr. Benjamin Spock (2nd-L), Martin Luther King, Jr. (C), Father Frederick Reed and Cleveland Robinson lead a huge pacifist rally protesting U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war, Mar. Mr. SMILEY: Indeed he did, Neal. Copy of full text of the "Beyond Vietnam" speech. We must continue to raise our voices if our nation persists in its perverse ways in Vietnam. That Vietnam was a mistake. The first signs of opposition to King's tactics from within the civil rights movement surfaced during the March 1965 demonstrations in Selma, Alabama, which were aimed at dramatizing the need for a federal voting-rights law that would provide legal support for the enfranchisement of . And that's just the Times and the Post. "[8] He connected the war with economic injustice, arguing that the country needed serious moral change: A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. If it is, let us trace its movement well and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us. [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". Let me say this right quick: The comparisons between what King was addressing then about militarism, poverty and racism sound familiar 45 years later. 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. PDF A TIME TO BREAK THE SILENCE - nps.gov