King holds the U.S. government and the American people responsible for the Vietnam . ((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( a@" c It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. 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. 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. They ask if our own nation wasnt using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. We encouraged them with our huge financial and military supplies to continue the war even after they had lost the will. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. At the time, civil rights leaders publicly condemned him for it. 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.. Also, it must be clear that the leaders of Hanoi considered the presence of American troops in support of the Diem regime to have been the initial military breach of the Geneva Agreement concerning foreign troops. Even before the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu, they began to despair of their reckless action, but we did not. To King, however, the Vietnam War was only the most pressing symptom of American colonialism worldwide. And so, such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. War is not the answer. Though her portions be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong When Diem was overthrown they may have been happy, but the long line of military dictators seemed to offer no real change, especially in terms of their need for land and peace. Or will there be another message of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? Martin Luther King Jr. gave many speeches in his lifetime. This speech was released by Black Foru. What then can I say to the Vietcong or to Castro or to Mao as a faithful minister of this One? 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. Before the end of the war we were meeting eighty percent of the French war costs. 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. They know they must move on or be destroyed by our bombs. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1967 speech "Beyond Vietnam" is incredibly insightful regarding how it speaks to issues we face today. Ho Chi Minh has watched as America has spoken of peace and built up its forces, and now he has surely heard the increasing international rumors of American plans for an invasion of the North. We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech, Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence argues his stance against the government and their decisions on war. baseball font with tail generator 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. Over the last eight years, I have had the privilege of preaching here almost every year in that period, and it is always a rich and rewarding experience to come to this great church and this great pulpit. 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. 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. I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. 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? For nine years following 1945 we denied the people of Vietnam the right of independence. 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. endobj King spoke that afternoon about Have they forgotten that my ministry is in obedience to the One who loved his enemies so fully that he died for them? This oft misunderstood, this oft misinterpreted concept, so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force, has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. On 4 April, accompanied by Amherst College Professor Henry Commager, Union Theological Seminary President John Bennett, and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, at an event sponsored by Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam, King spoke to over 3,000 at New Yorks Riverside Church. Dr. King's purpose is to make the church leaders he is speaking to aware that Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies. The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., is a civil rights legend. In the strife of truth and Falsehood, for the good or evil side; I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. 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 speech titled "Beyond Vietnam" is relevant to today's war in Ukraine. 2. create an unilateral cease fire leading to peace talks. I come to this platform tonight to make a passionate plea to my beloved nation. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression, and out of the wounds of a frail world, new systems of justice and equality are being born. 54 0 obj For nine years we vigorously supported the French in their abortive effort to recolonize Vietnam. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Did you find this entry while surfing the web? Fifty years ago in 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a speech that startled even many of his supporters in the Civil Rights Movement. Screenshots are considered by the King Estate a violation of this notice. We must continue to raise our voices and our lives if our nation persists in its perverse ways in Vietnam. King, Statement on voter registration in Alabama, 9 March 1965, MLKJP-GAMK. Students will read Rev. 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. They see the children degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. 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. We must not engage in a negative anticommunism, but rather in a positive thrust for democracy, realizing that our greatest defense against communism is to take offensive action in behalf of justice. There's no pattern, and that's what's so frustrating.". 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. << /Type /XRef /Length 100 /Filter /FlateDecode /DecodeParms << /Columns 5 /Predictor 12 >> /W [ 1 3 1 ] /Index [ 51 91 ] /Info 74 0 R /Root 53 0 R /Size 142 /Prev 584506 /ID [] >> 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). 52 0 obj Violence of the US government - How can we criticize violence abroad when our own Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own. Now there is little left to build on, save bitterness. We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. 53 0 obj The speech was drafted from a collection of volunteers, including Spelman professor Vincent Harding and Wesleyan professor John Maguire. Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence Rev. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. 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. King gave his most famous speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963 to a crowd of more than 250,000 people . Perhaps a more difficult but no less necessary task is to speak for those who have been designated as our enemies. What of the National Liberation Front, that strangely anonymous group we call VC or communists? In that address he articulated his reasons for his opposition to the Southeast Asian conflict. King,Beyond Vietnam,4 April 1967, NNRC. #2 Young, Skilled Population. Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Freedom is still the bonus we receive for knowing the truth. 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 . And the choice goes by forever twixt that darkness and that light. And history is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. When we ask why they do not leap to negotiate, these things must be remembered. Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence was actually a collaborative work largely written by a close associate and friend of Martin Luther King, Jr. - Vincent Harding. 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@ 825 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10019, WNET is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. English "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence", also referred as Riverside Church speech, is an anti-Vietnam war and pro- social justice speech delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1967. 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 church maintains an active social justice mission today. 2. Infant mortality rates fell from 32.6 per 1,000 live births in 1993 to 16.7 in 2020. This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the counterrevolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. 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). 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. King, " The Casualties of the War in Vietnam, " 25 February 1967, CLPAC. And every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. They must see Americans as strange liberators. Surely we must understand their feelings, even if we do not condone their actions. 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. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood it ebbs. In 1957 when a group of us formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, we chose as our motto: To save the soul of America. We were convinced that we could not limit our vision to certain rights for black people, but instead affirmed the conviction that America would never be free or saved from itself until the descendants of its slaves were loosed completely from the shackles they still wear.