King urged insteada radical revolution of valuesemphasizing love and justice rather than economic nationalism (King, Beyond Vietnam,157). Even before the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu, they began to despair of their reckless action, but we did not. In the speech at Riverside Church, King talked about how the US had supported . 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. As Arnold Toynbee says: Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and good against the damning choice of death and evil. The speech was drafted from a collection of volunteers, including Spelman professor Vincent Harding and Wesleyan professor John Maguire. Recently one of them wrote these words, and I quote: Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. If we will make the right choice, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. Helping you get here is part of her job. MLK: Beyond Vietnam - A Time to Break Silence The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change 251K views 7 years ago William Pepper - The Execution of Martin Luther King. 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. Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live. In early 1967 King stepped up his anti-war proclamations, giving similar speeches in Los Angeles and Chicago. Omar Khayyam is right: The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on.. King specified seven major reasons for brining the war to an end based on moral vision, allowing for a further tie between . In addition to Martin Luther King, Jr., the church has hosted many prominent speakers, including Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian who was executed in 1945 at a German concentration camp; Cesar Chavez, the Mexican-American civil rights activist who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association; and Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician and former president of South Africa. 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. America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. Is it among these voiceless ones? He stated . I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor. 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. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. 9 min read. To King, however, the Vietnam War was only the most pressing symptom of American colonialism worldwide. In international conflicts, the truth is hard to come by because most nations are deceived about themselves. Vietnam spending eviscerated of the Poverty Program 2. Zip. stream King, Transformed Nonconformist, Sermon Delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church, 16 January 1966, CSKC. King, Statement on voter registration in Alabama, 9 March 1965, MLKJP-GAMK. 825 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10019, WNET is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. 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. The movement against the involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War began in the U.S. with demonstrations in 1964 and grew in strength in later years. Violence of the US government - How can we criticize violence abroad when our own . Kings anti-war sentiments emerged publicly for the first time in March 1965, when King declared thatmillions of dollars can be spent every day to hold troops in South Viet Nam and our country cannot protect the rights of Negroes in Selma(King, 9 March 1965). 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. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. I say it plain, King holds the U.S. government and the American people responsible for the Vietnam . War is not the answer. King views the Vietnam war as only a symptom of a disease that is affecting America and the American spirit. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. The Vietnamese people proclaimed their own independence in 1954 in 1945 rather after a combined French and Japanese occupation and before the communist revolution in China. The AMERICAN War had come to define AMERICA in the second half of the 20th century. These are the times for real choices and not false ones. Or will there be another message of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? So far we may have killed a million of them, mostly children. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight. These are revolutionary times. Meanwhile Meanwhile, we in the churches and synagogues have a continuing task while we urge our government to disengage itself from a disgraceful commitment. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. He disagreed with America going to war in Vietnam in 1955 and to voice his thoughts he wrote and delivered his speech "Beyond Vietnam- A Time to Break Silence." which took place at Riverside Church in New York City on April 4, 1967 to let his audience know that the Vietnam War is unjust. Now let us begin. We encouraged them with our huge financial and military supplies to continue the war even after they had lost the will. The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. We in the West must support these revolutions. The most serious trouble in recent decades has flared between Vietnam and China, and there have also been stand-offs between the Philippines and China. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor both black and white through the poverty program. 609 Words. In the mid-1950s, King led the movement to end segregation and counter prejudice in the . "Beyond Vietnam", Silence is Betrayal: Martin Luther King's Historic 1967 Speech Introduction by Michel Chossudovsky. 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. This February, the Humanities curriculum for Grade 7 is focused on the Vietnam War. %# , #&')*)-0-(0%()( C This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the counterrevolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on lifes roadside, but that will be only an initial act. Beyond the calling of race or nation or creed is this vocation of sonship and brotherhood, and because I believe that the Father is deeply concerned especially for his suffering and helpless and outcast children, I come tonight to speak for them. On 4 April 1967 Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his seminal speech at Riverside Church condemning the Vietnam War. Here's the essay I wrote in the video: In the speech "Beyond Vietnam - A Time to Break Silence," Dr. Rev. A Tragedy,Washington Post, 6 April 1967. In its April 7 editorial "Dr. King's Error," The New York Times lambasted King for fusing two problems that are "distinct and separate.". One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on lifes highway. Dr. Martin Luther King's 'Beyond Vietnam' Speech On April 4, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a controversial antiwar speech opposing Riverside Church in New York City by HistoryNet staff 1/14/2022 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech opposing the Vietnam War in April 1967. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. 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. Christina Knight is Managing Editor of Institutional Marketing at The WNET Group. There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I and others have been waging in America. Notably, the economy grew at an average annual rate of 7.5% in 1991-2000 period. . From The Vietnam War, PBS. He knows the bombing and shelling and mining we are doing are part of traditional pre-invasion strategy. And 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. What do they think as we test out our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe? History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. This has driven many to feel that only Marxism has a revolutionary spirit. Part of our ongoing 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. But instead there came the United States, determined that Ho should not unify the temporarily divided nation, and the peasants watched again as we supported one of the most vicious modern dictators, our chosen man, Premier Diem. San Francisco: Canfield Press, 1971. To change course, King suggested a five point outline for stopping the war, which included a call for a unilateral ceasefire. endobj I need not pause to say how very delighted I am to be here tonight, and how very delighted I am to see you expressing your concern about the issues that will be discussed tonight by turning out in such large numbers. by Rick Sterling January 16, 2023. MLK: Beyond Vietnam to Ukraine. We must continue to raise our voices and our lives if our nation persists in its perverse ways in Vietnam. 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? King claimed that America madepeaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments(King,Beyond Vietnam,157). 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. Even so, the establishment considered it a shock, a disgrace. According to a recent report by Transparency International, Vietnam's corruption levels significantly decreased in 2021, down to 87th most corrupt from 104th in 2020. The belief of the clergy took the theme of silence is betrayal. It is not addressed to China or to Russia. 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. Surely we must see that our own computerized plans of destruction simply dwarf their greatest acts. Their questions are frighteningly relevant. I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. They move sadly and apathetically as we herd them off the land of their fathers into concentration camps where minimal social needs are rarely met. And the choice goes by forever twixt that darkness and that light. 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.. 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. The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise, we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.
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