martin luther king jr vietnam war speech transcript

I'm Neal Conan. Some 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., for the March on Washington. 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? Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is known for being one of the greatest orators of the twentieth century, and perhaps in all of American history. All Rights Reserved. Thanks, as always for your time. %PDF-1.3 % For it occurs to me that what we are submitting them to in Vietnam is not simply the brutalizing process that goes on in any war where armies face each other and seek to destroy. 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. It was the speech he labored over the most. President Obama, this is one campaign promise that he has kept. Martin Luther King Jr. was deeply troubled by the Vietnam War for years, but the "Beyond Vietnam" speech was his first major policy statement on the issue. Seeking to reduce the potential backlash by framing his speech within the context of religious objection to war, King addressed a crowd of 3,000 people at Riverside Church in New York City. [citation needed] Content [ edit] We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. And I believe everyone has a duty to be in both the civil-rights and peace movements. The major speech at Riverside Church in New York City, followed several interviews[2] and several other public speeches in which King came out against the Vietnam War and the policies that created it. 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. 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. He knows the bombing and shelling and mining we are doing are part of traditional pre-invasion strategy. It was the speech he labored over the most. This is TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News in Washington. Is it among these voiceless ones? 0000009964 00000 n Dr. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. The message directly challenged the president who'd taken great political risks to support civil rights legislation and also challenged many of his colleagues in the movement who've called it a tactical mistake. 0000012541 00000 n We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men. 0000001739 00000 n It was, to your earlier point, the most controversial speech he ever gave. Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. v. CBS, Inc. Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), African American founding fathers of the United States, Statue of Martin Luther King Jr. (Pueblo, Colorado), Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, San Francisco. But anyway, where he says, I am mindful of those who spoke at this podium, this spot before me, including Martin Luther King and that I stand on his shoulders as a champion of civil rights. hide caption. They see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers. The cornerstones of his activism were based on non-violence and civil disobedience, both of which were inspired by his Christian faith and the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. When he saw those pictures, there's a very famous picture, Neal, that we all know of a Vietnamese girl running naked in the streets who had just been, you know, had been victimized as had her village by these napalm attacks. 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 agreements concerning foreign troops, and they remind us that they did not begin to send in any large number of supplies or men until American forces had moved into the tens of thousands. 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. And we are spending money for a war abroad that ought to be spent for the war on poverty here at home. Now there is little left to build onsave bitterness. 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. And I can't tell young black men, who are being denied right here in the streets of America, that they should offer themselves up and to sign themselves up to go - to do harm to people around the world who they do not know. So when the president suggests - and whether directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally diminishes in that Nobel speech Martin's powerful, nonviolent philosophy, it tweaked some people, and you'll see that in the presentation Wednesday night. V)U5v\@apkk;#WF. The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality we will find ourselves organizing clergy- and laymen-concerned committees for the next generation. However, you argue strongly in the film that it was completely consistent with the nature and the character of Dr. King and something he needed to say. That's my own personal assessment. 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. Martin Luther King April 4, 1967 Riverside Church, New York City . Mr. SMILEY: Yeah, Walt, I thank you for sharing that story as well, for being courageous to tell it, number one. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. (Scott) King,My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr., 1969. A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. 0000030467 00000 n Copy of full text of the "Beyond Vietnam" speech. 0000040748 00000 n It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. There is.a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I and others have been waging in America. One of the things, I hope, Neal, will happen here is that when people get a chance to see the special, they will be moved - I think they will be - to Google or Bing, whatever search engine you use, to go online, because the speech is so readily available, Neal, as you know. And I think that if nothing else what we need to wrestle with in a contemporary sense, Neal, is the question of whether or not there is another way that King would have us consider were he allowed to do. We had to do a whole lot of work in the booth trying to get that audio right. It is not addressed to China or to Russia. We must speak for them and raise the questions they cannot raise. We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. 0000004834 00000 n . "This was a huge, huge speech," he continues, "that got Martin King in more trouble than anything he had ever seen or done. And that's just the Times and the Post. 0000008326 00000 n They asked if our own nation wasnt using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. And so I think most Americans, Neal, know the "I Have A Dream" speech. On April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his assassination, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a speech in New York City at Riverside Church on the occasion of his becoming co-chairperson of Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam (subsequently renamed Clergy and Laity Concerned ). What must they think of us in 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? The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. CONAN: Howard, thanks very much for the call. Martin Luther King Jr. was a social activist that led the Civil Rights Movement, and other movements until his assassination in 1968. Howard's calling us from South Bend. or 404 526-8968. 0000002337 00000 n In that address, he articulated his reasons for his opposition to the Southeast Asian conflict. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. King to Weigh Civil Disobedience If War Intensifies, New York Times, 2 April 1967. CONAN: Indeed, it was Oslo. At the U.N. King also brought up issues of civil rights and the draft. 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. Because, to your point now, one, I want people to go online and read the speech so you can see the text for yourself. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, GA on January 15th, 1929. The Institute cannot give permission to use or reproduce any of the writings, statements, or images of Martin Luther King, Jr. $25.00. Some civil rights leaders urged King not to speak out on the Vietnam War, but he said he could not separate issues of economic injustice, racism, war, and militarism. To speak for them is to explain this lack of confidence in Western words, and especially their distrust of American intentions now. When you read the speech, if you replace the word Vietnam, every time it pops up, with the word Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan, you will be - it will blow your mind at how King, where he alive today at 81, could really stand up and give that same speech and just replace, again, Vietnam with Iraq and Afghanistan. Robert B. Semple, Jr., Dr. So practically everybody in his inner circle was against him giving it - one, because they knew the kind of pushback he was going to get. HOWARD: How are you doing, Tavis? We must not engage in a negative anti-communism, but rather in a positive thrust for democracy, realizing that our greatest defense against communism is to take offensive action in behalf of justice. "I've Been to the Mountaintop" is the popular name of the last speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. King spoke on April 3, 1968, at the Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters) in Memphis, Tennessee. But for those who presently choose but one, I would hope they will finally come to see the moral roots common to both. CONAN: We're talking with Tavis Smiley about his PBS special, "Tavis Smiley Reports MLK: A Call to Conscience." Paul A. Schuette, King Preaches on Non-Violence at Police-Guarded Howard Hall, Washington Post, 3 March 1965. [11], King's opposition cost him significant support among white allies, including President Johnson, Billy Graham,[citation needed] union leaders and powerful publishers. They see the children, degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. King, Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution, in A Knock at Midnight, ed. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity. Let's go to Walt(ph). He did say he was going to increase troop levels in Afghanistan, so he's kept that promise. Less than two weeks after leading his first Vietnam demonstration, on 4 April 1967, King made his best known and most comprehensive statement against the war. How can they believe in our integrity when now we speak of aggression from the north as if there were nothing more essential to the war? Their questions are frighteningly relevant. I just wanted to say that I was an 18-year-old Marine in Vietnam when the speech was given, and I didn't hear it until three or four years ago. 0000001700 00000 n Due to the Vietnam War is that plenty of individuals, both Americans and Vietnamese were killed. While his legacy is commonly remembered by his famous "I Have A Dream" speech, we've sourced four powerful, lesser-known speeches from Dr. King to listen to and commemorate . A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. 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. He turned that into a great speech when he got out of the hospital. 0000004855 00000 n A call for equality and freedom, it became one of the defining moments of the civil rights movement and one of the most iconic speeches in American history. This speech was enormously controversial. WALT (Caller): Yes. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. Life magazine called the speech "demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi",[9] and The Washington Post declared that King had "diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people. The United States Congress was spending more and more on the military and less and less on anti-poverty programs at the same time. 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. We must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every creative means of protest possible. 0000002694 00000 n I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. 16, 1967 in New York. 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? 0000047501 00000 n "MLK: A Call to Conscience" premieres on PBS tomorrow night. 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. 0000046786 00000 n Set a date that we will remove all foreign troops from Vietnam in accordance with the 1954 Geneva agreement. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: Too late. There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. If you remember the speech, tell us what it meant at that time, and does the principle of nonviolence apply in the age of al-Qaida? If we love one another God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. The New York Times editorial suggested that conflating the civil rights movement with the Anti-war movement was an oversimplification that did justice to neither, stating that "linking these hard, complex problems will lead not to solutions but to deeper confusion." But they asked and rightly so what about 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. Such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God. That's at npr.org, click on TALK OF THE NATION. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. They wander into the hospitals, with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one Vietcong-inflicted injury. 0000013309 00000 n *];\n~~/iQ|h Q 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 . The initiative to stop it must be ours. 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. His wife, Coretta Scott King, on the other hand, critiqued the war publicly for years before her husband did. 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. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, Washington, D.C. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, San Jose, April 15, 1967 Anti-Vietnam war demonstrations, 1968 Democratic National Convention protests, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, Fifth Avenue Vietnam Peace Parade Committee, National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, John F. Kennedy's speech to the nation on Civil Rights, Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States, Chicago Freedom Movement/Chicago open housing movement, Green v. County School Board of New Kent County, Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, Council for United Civil Rights Leadership, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), "Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind Stayed On Freedom)", List of lynching victims in the United States, Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument, Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Beyond_Vietnam:_A_Time_to_Break_Silence&oldid=1133369048, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from January 2023, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2023, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 13 January 2023, at 12:35. After the French were defeated it looked as if independence and land reform would come again through the Geneva agreements. 0000004621 00000 n But what I want - I think the question - I've always thought that Dr. King, that that speech about Vietnam was his best speech in my mind. Surely we must understand their feelings even if we do not condone their actions. n the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on lifes roadside; but that will be only an initial act. 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. Well, it was taken in that context, anyway. Attachment 4: Are We Ready to Listen to Dr. King? So all that we have is less than 10 minutes of video of the speech. Tonight, however, I wish not to speak with Hanoi and the NLF, but rather to my fellow Americans, who, with me, bear the greatest responsibility in ending a conflict that has exacted a heavy price on both continents. Twin towers were planned from Afghanistan. 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.

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