PBS talk show. I have not urged a mechanical fusion of the civil rights and peace movements. American Rhetoric: Martin Luther King, Jr: A Time to Break Silence (Declaration Against the Vietnam War) M artin L uther K ing, J r. Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence Delivered 4 April 1967, Riverside Church, New York City [Photo Credit: John C. Goodwin] [AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio. HT0WJ3 O$L "[9], King opposed the Vietnam War because it took money and resources that could have been spent on social welfare at home. They wander into the hospitals, with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one Vietcong-inflicted injury. And secondly, so many civil rights leaders were opposed to him giving it because LBJ had been the best president to black people on civil rights. Not only that, but then-President Lyndon Johnson disinvited King to the White House. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. April 4, 1967: Martin Luther King Jr. Delivers "Beyond Vietnam" Speech PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley's new documentary, MLK: A Call to Conscience explores King's speech. PDF. The United States got involved in the Vietnam War because they wanted to stop the spread of communism. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent. But it ends up being the most controversial speech. 0000002004 00000 n Procrastination is still the thief of time. As we all know, Neal, before he died, Robert McNamara, the Defense secretary that had Walt and others over in Vietnam, before he died, of course, announced that he was wrong. Before the end of the war we were meeting eighty percent of the French war costs. Communism will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. Surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their violence. But most Americans, I think, do not know this speech, "Beyond Vietnam.". Thanks, as always for your time. I've always argue that Dr. King is the greatest American we've ever produced. 0000011068 00000 n 0000002247 00000 n He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 0000005696 00000 n 0000008347 00000 n Martin Luther King, Jr. utilizes figurative to emphasize the inhumanity and immorality of the war. 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. Mr. SMILEY: Yeah, Walt, I thank you for sharing that story as well, for being courageous to tell it, number one. CONAN: Well, take us back to 1967. (1967) Martin Luther King, Jr., "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" WALT (Caller): Yes. Now there is little left to build onsave bitterness. 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. Mr. SMILEY: Well, I think the question is whether or not - I hear your point, Neal, and I take it. hide caption. This is TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News in Washington. 0000017817 00000 n The great initiative in this war is ours. 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. They asked if our own nation wasnt using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. "It basically ruins their relationship," says Smiley. Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? 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. America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity. Dr. Beyond Vietnam: The MLK speech that caused an uproar - USA TODAY On April 4, 1967 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a speech named, "Beyond Vietnam- A Time to Break Silence" addressing the Vietnam War. Tomorrow, the latest installment with the political junkie. We're talking with Tavis Smiley. If Dr. King were to say to the organizers of these events, I'd like to show up at your church on Sunday morning, at your rally this weekend, and here's what I want to say, there is a good argument to be made that Dr. King himself might not be welcome - might not be allowed to say what was in his heart, what his conscience really was, given the political correctness of the world that we live in today. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such. "[23], King also stated in "Beyond Vietnam" that "true compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. 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. What liberators? 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. [27] Thich Nhat Hanh, who publicly held a news conference in Chicago with King in 1966, was acknowledged for urging King to oppose the Vietnam War. In his 1967 speech on the Vietnam War, Martin Luther King, Jr. employs figurative language and syntactical elements to construct his argument against the hypocrisy and cruelty of American involvement in the war. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave a speech that may have helped put a target on . That night Dr. King shocked the world and his followers when . This is the calling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Email us: talk@npr.org. What of the National Liberation Front that strangely anonymous group we call VC or Communists? Where are the roots of the independent Vietnam we claim to be building? They brought in extra chairs. Then we must make what reparations we can for the damage we have done. Hundreds of folks listened outside on loudspeakers. [11], King's opposition cost him significant support among white allies, including President Johnson, Billy Graham,[citation needed] union leaders and powerful publishers. I say we must enter the struggle, but I wish to go on now to say something even more disturbing. 0000003454 00000 n MLK Opposed "Poverty, Racism & Militarism" in Speech One Year Before Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day. The speech and its echoes for Afghanistan and Iraq are the subject of "Tavis Smiley Reports MLK: A Call to Conscience.". [6] At the urging of people such as SCLC's former Director of Direct Action and now the head of the Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, James Bevel, and inspired by the outspokenness of Muhammad Ali,[7] King eventually agreed to publicly oppose the war as opposition was growing among the American public. Of course, again, that philosophy, when the papers got a hold of him the next day, that strategy didn't work so well. I would like to see the fervor of the civil-rights movement imbued into the peace movement to instill it with greater strength. [16][17] King began to speak of the need for fundamental changes in the political and economic life of the nation, and more frequently expressed his opposition to the war and his desire to see a redistribution of resources to correct racial and economic injustice. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King at Ebenezer Church. King led his first anti-war march in Chicago on 25 March 1967, and reinforced the connection between war abroad and injustice at home: The bombs in Vietnam explode at homethey destroy the dream and possibility for a decent America (Dr. Mr. SMILEY: He'd wanted to give it two years earlier and had attempted a dry run at this speech, to your appoint, Neal, a couple of years prior to when he gave it. A Baptist minister and founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), King had led the civil rights movement since the mid-1950s, using a combination of impassioned speeches. 2/QB(yQVz^*oU.FW King Scores Poverty Budget, New York Times, 16 December 1966. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor. End all bombing in North and South Vietnam. 0000003199 00000 n At the time, civil rights leaders publicly condemned him for it. Excuse me. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. ml.K-x1x*tcSO p[ endstream endobj 62 0 obj 720 endobj 63 0 obj << /Filter /FlateDecode /Length 62 0 R >> stream Freedom's Ring: King's "I Have a Dream" Speech, Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution, Martin Luther King, Jr. - Political and Social Views, Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam (CALCAV). But they asked and rightly so what about Vietnam? Though he avoided condemning the war outright, at the August 1965 annual Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) convention King called for a halt to bombing in North Vietnam, urged that the United Nations be empowered to mediate the conflict, and told the crowd that what is required is a small first step that may establish a new spirit of mutual confidence a step capable of breaking the cycle of mistrust, violence and war (King, 12 August 1965). Some, like civil rights leader Ralph Bunche, the NAACP, and the editorial page writers of The Washington Post[3] and The New York Times[4] called the Riverside Church speech a mistake on King's part. Even though they quoted the American Declaration of Independence in their own document of freedom, we refused to recognize them. Du Bois to Coretta Scott King: The Untold History of the Movement to Ban the Bomb. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. 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 will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy.