Ken Rudin joins guest host Rebecca Roberts. PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley's new documentary, MLK: A Call to Conscience explores King's speech. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. This speech is not addressed to Hanoi or to the National Liberation Front. 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. 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. Moreover when the issues at hand seem as perplexed as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty; but we must move on. 0000002784 00000 n [26], The same year, King nominated Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize, but the prize was not awarded to anyone that year. On April 4, 1967 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a speech named, "Beyond Vietnam- A Time to Break Silence" addressing the Vietnam War. Shall we say the odds are too great? Surely we must understand their feelings even if we do not condone their actions. I'm Neal Conan. "[9], King opposed the Vietnam War because it took money and resources that could have been spent on social welfare at home. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism.. Do you find this information helpful? 800-989-8255, email us talk@npr.org. "MLK: A Call to Conscience" premieres on PBS tomorrow night. And King gives a great speech out of that hospital called "If I Had Sneezed." 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. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks out against the war - HISTORY 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. Martin Luther King, who was already beginning to lose some of his influence, nevertheless made a huge challenge to the establishment. Paul A. Schuette, King Preaches on Non-Violence at Police-Guarded Howard Hall, Washington Post, 3 March 1965. How are you, sir? 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. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. This is Howard, which you know me. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest. Challenges of the final years of Martin Luther King, Jr. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that. 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. This call for a world-wide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond ones tribe, race, class and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all men. He did say he was going to increase troop levels in Afghanistan, so he's kept that promise. At the time, civil rights leaders publicly condemned him for it. CONAN: Well, take us back to 1967. So 60 year(ph) is really, really a hot year here around this particular issue. Can I threaten them with death or must I not share with them my life? *];\n~~/iQ|h Q $25.00. So, too, with Hanoi. So practically everybody was opposed to him giving this speech. Appreciate it. The initiative to stop it must be ours. These are revolutionary times. 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. ", 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. Martin Luther King, Jr. believed that peace and economic justice were critical to his fight for human rights. That's my own personal assessment. The peasants watched and cringed as Diem ruthlessly routed out all opposition, supported their extortionist landlords and refused even to discuss reunification with the north. 0000002874 00000 n 0000002516 00000 n We must stop now. [12] This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the counter-revolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. Howard's calling us from South Bend. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. I come to this platform tonight to make a passionate plea to my beloved nation. At the time, civil rights leaders publicly condemned him for it. So King understood violence. They wander into the hospitals, with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one Vietcong-inflicted injury. How Martin Luther King, Jr.'s multifaceted view on human rights still And we are spending money for a war abroad that ought to be spent for the war on poverty here at home. Martin Luther King, Jr., giving his speech Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence at Riverside Church in NYC, April 4, 1967. Martin Luther King Jr. on the Vietnam War "The greatest irony and tragedy of all is that our nation, which initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world, is now cast in the. 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. [citation needed]. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. Dr. Martin Luther King's 'Beyond Vietnam' Speech - HistoryNet Mr. SMILEY: Indeed he did, Neal. 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. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. This is the calling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. For those who ask the question, Arent you a civil rights leader? and thereby mean to exclude me from the movement for peace, I have this further answer. Martin Luther King, Jr. - Challenges of the final years | Britannica You can also join the conversation at our Web site. 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. The question is, is it a war of necessity or a war of choice at this point? Surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their violence. Attachment 4: Are We Ready to Listen to Dr. King? Accuracy and availability may vary. With that tragic decision we rejected a revolutionary government seeking self-determination, and a government that had been established not by China (for whom the Vietnamese have no great love) but by clearly indigenous forces that included some Communists. In describing the ways in which the . [1][5], King was long opposed to American involvement in the Vietnam War, but at first avoided the topic in public speeches in order to avoid the interference with civil rights goals that criticism of President Johnson's policies might have created. There are people who have come to see the moral imperative of equality, but who cannot yet see the moral imperative of world brotherhood. 0000002004 00000 n End all bombing in North and South Vietnam. 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. In 1968, King was planning a national occupation of Washington, D., to be called the Poor People's Campaign, when he was assassinated on April 4 in . Therefore, communism is a judgment against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions we initiated. We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. His wife, Coretta Scott King, took a more active role in opposing the war, speaking at a rally at the Washington Monument on 27 November 1965 with Benjamin Spock, the renowned pediatrician and anti-war activist, and joined in other demonstrations. HT0WJ3 O$L Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. His tireless work advocating for the end of. 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. 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. He criticized the Vietnam War and praised Muhammad Ali for being a conscientious objector. In that address, he articulated his reasons for his opposition to the Southeast Asian conflict. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor. complaining of what he described as a double standard that applauded his nonviolence at home, but deplored it when applied "toward little brown Vietnamese children. But they asked and rightly so what about Vietnam? [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 built his speech that night, Neal, around three major points: around increasing militarism, around escalating poverty and around the issue of racism. . For the peasants this new government meant real land reform, one of the most important needs in their lives. A true revolution of values will lay hands 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 veins of people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. 0000002605 00000 n Due to the Vietnam War is that plenty of individuals, both Americans and Vietnamese were killed. 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. On April 15, 1967, King participated and spoke at an anti-war march from Manhattan's Central Park to the United Nations. A complete unit of instruction - include ALL answer documents - comparing and contrasting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Malcom X's early lives & speeches.This unit of study, which can be taught as a complete unit, or separated into 13 distinct activities . 4. Copy of full text of the "Beyond Vietnam" speech. 0000013408 00000 n 0000004621 00000 n He supported Johnsons calls for diplomatic negotiations and economic development as the beginnings of such a step. 0000030467 00000 n It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. On the evening of April 4, 1967, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King lent his full-throated oratory to a growing chorus of opposition to the rapidly expanding American role in the Vietnam War. But when he turns the corner and then says, essentially, that Martin's philosophy wouldn't work in today's world, he goes on to say that Dr. King didn't know al-Qaida, as if to suggest that Martin didn't understand evil, that Martin didn't understand violence, that he himself had not been subjected to it. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. Twin towers were planned from Afghanistan. Beyond Vietnam2 in that . All Rights Reserved. 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. Let us not join those who shout war and through their misguided passions urge the United States to relinquish its participation in the United Nations. 0000044282 00000 n [citation needed] Content [ edit] 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. Martin Luther King Jr. was a social activist that led the Civil Rights Movement, and other movements until his assassination in 1968. 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. But most Americans, I think, do not know this speech, "Beyond Vietnam.". PDF Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence - hawaii.edu In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. dH(*b(jGB@'k1zTR~{dA9|\b. And after I was wounded, we had four or five 100-pound bomb dropped on us, and 10 Marines were killed outright and 24 were wounded. "Beyond Vietnam" - The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education It was, to your earlier point, the most controversial speech he ever gave. 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. 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. The Vietnamese people proclaimed their own independence in 1945 after a combined French and Japanese occupation, and before the Communist revolution in China. 0000001700 00000 n 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." [citation needed]. Mr. SMILEY: Well, I think the question is whether or not - I hear your point, Neal, and I take it. One of his great advisers and great admirers, Stanley Levison, who was always with Dr. King in his corner, was against Martin giving this speech. Moreover I would encourage all ministers of draft age to give up their ministerial exemptions and seek status as conscientious objectors. Had the president stopped by giving Martin King his just respect - as he did, to his credit - it would have been okay. And there was a 18-year-old black Marine that picked me up since I couldn't walk, got me away from bombs and saved my life. 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. Copyright 2010 NPR. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity. [citation needed], One of the eight "sound cells" in @Large, Ai Weiwei's 201415 exhibit at Alcatraz, features King's voice giving the "Beyond Vietnam" speech. These are days which demand wise restraint and calm reasonableness. 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. Ho Chi Minh has watched as America has spoken of peace and built up its forces, and now he has surely heard of the increasing international rumors of American plans for an invasion of the north. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. Dr. It basically ruined their working relationship. CONAN: And one thing that I was unaware of was the timing of the speech in that he had wanted to say something along these lines. The speech and its echoes for Afghanistan and Iraq are the subject of "Tavis Smiley Reports MLK: A Call to Conscience.". Is our nation planning to build on political myth again and then shore it up with the power of new violence? Is it among these voiceless ones? Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination - HISTORY "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence", also referred as the Riverside Church speech,[1] is an antiVietnam War and prosocial justice speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1967, exactly one year before he was assassinated. Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word.. 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 ). 0000003454 00000 n We most provide the medical aid that is badly needed, making it available in this country if necessary. King to Weigh Civil Disobedience). And so the question was, Martin, why would you antagonize the president who has been our friend? 20072023 Blackpast.org. CONAN: Tavis Smiley, author, journalist, political commentator, host of his talk show on PBS, joins us today from the Sheryl Flowers Studios in Los Angeles. Carson and Shepard, 2001. 0000008347 00000 n Dr. King And Malcolm X Teaching Resources | TPT They ask how we can speak of free elections when the Saigon press is censored and controlled by the military junta. Surely we must see that our own computerized plans of destruction simply dwarf their greatest acts. 0000004834 00000 n 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. The United States got involved in the Vietnam War because they wanted to stop the spread of communism. The Washington Post says he has done a discredit to himself, to his people, to his country. Dr. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. James L. Bevel dies at 72; civil rights activist and top lieutenant to King", "Martin Luther King Jr. made our nation uncomfortable", "The Uncompromising Anti-Capitalism of Martin Luther King Jr", "Why Martin Luther King Didn't Run for President", "Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Master and Political Reformer, Dies at 95", "The Story Of King's 'Beyond Vietnam' Speech", "Dragons, legos, and solitary: Ai Weiwei's transformative Alcatraz exhibition", Full transcript of the speech from Commondreams.org. 0000013309 00000 n That's what I feel. 0000002427 00000 n What then can I say to the Vietcong or to Castro or to Mao as a faithful minister of this one? PDF Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence ~ MLK Speech 1967 - CRM Vet Over the past two years, as I have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam, many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path. 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. 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 hell for the poor. JwNt YHiA:{p . Carson and Holloran, 1998. Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Du Bois to Coretta Scott King: The Untold History of the Movement to Ban the Bomb. But the entire speech, of course, thankfully, was recorded on audio. This speech was written and basically read word for word so that they could have a copy to give to mainstream newspapers across the country for their consideration, because King did not want to be misquoted Mr. SMILEY: or misunderstood, although that didn't work. Screenshots are considered by the King Estate a violation of this notice. CONAN: And there's an interesting point you also make in the film that - or at least some of the participants in your film make - that were he alive today and saying the kinds of things you would expect him to say, given that speech, he probably would not be invited to many Martin Luther King Day celebrations. 0000007566 00000 n In December 1966, testifying before a congressional subcommittee on budget priorities, King argued for a rebalancing of fiscal priorities away from Americas obsession with Vietnam and toward greater support for anti-poverty programs at home (Semple, Dr. Others, including James Bevel, King's partner and strategist in the Civil Rights Movement, called it King's most important speech. 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. Attachment 2: Definitions Attachment 3: King Opposed Vietnam War; We Must Oppose US War in Iraq. A few other Americans know, of course, the "Mountaintop" speech given the night before he's assassinated in Memphis. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. 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. CONAN: Indeed. Mr. SMILEY: Yeah. Such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God. 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. But they didn't stay for the speech in its entirety. CONAN: Indeed, it was Oslo. Even before the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu, they began to despair of the reckless action, but we did not. 0000006536 00000 n And when you see the piece on "Lens" tonight that's the part of the speech that set off so many of those who are in King's inner circle, so many scholars who have written about King. But they chose Riverside because King was going to be speaking some days later at a huge rally and march in New York City, and they knew that that rally was going to bring out a different kind of element, a more controversial element. Martin Luther King, Jr. 4 April 1967. 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. You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. All rights reserved. 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. 0000009985 00000 n They see the children, degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. The problem was that practically everyone in his inner circle - not all, there was James Bevel and a couple of others - but practically everyone in his inner circle advised him strongly not to give this speech. Mr. SMILEY: Yeah, Walt, I thank you for sharing that story as well, for being courageous to tell it, number one. At what cost? 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: 1. Thank you. Delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Manhattan's Riverside Church, April 4, 1967 . 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. In order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war. 3. 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. 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. "This was a huge, huge speech," he continues, "that got Martin King in more trouble than anything he had ever seen or done. We must move past indecision to action. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Mr. SMILEY: Yeah. BlackPast.org is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and our EIN is 26-1625373. Perhaps the more difficult but no less necessary task is to speak for those who have been designated as our enemies. It was a wonderful, I think, place to give the speech in the sense that it's pretty cavernous. I've always argue that Dr. King is the greatest American we've ever produced. Fifty-years ago in April 1967, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered one of his most memorable, if not controversial sermons, at Riverside Church just steps away from the Columbia University campus.