They know they must move on or be destroyed by our bombs. King told reporters on Face the Nation that as a minister he hada prophetic functionand asone greatly concerned about the need for peace in our world and the survival of mankind, I must continue to take a stand on this issue(King, 29 August 1965). by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. w . We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men. The fall of South Vietnam. According to the PBS documentary MLK: A Call to Conscience (2010), the speech was denounced by 168 newspapers across the country. We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. King, " Beyond Vietnam, " 4 April 1967, NNRC. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. endobj 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. King views the Vietnam war as only a symptom of a disease that is affecting America and the American spirit. In 1957, a sensitive American official overseas said that it seemed to him that our nation was on the wrong side of a world revolution. They illustrate the depth of Dr. King's comprehension that the Civil Rights Movement was a struggle of more than one race in one nation at one point in time. (Doi Moi) from 1986 to 2006. %# , #&')*)-0-(0%()( C In early 1967 King stepped up his anti-war proclamations, giving similar speeches in Los Angeles and Chicago. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor. Martin Luther King Jr.'s words of April 4, 1967, now known as the "Beyond Vietnam" speech are such words. Instead, we decided to support France in its reconquest of her former colony. In the 1967 speech, "Beyond Vietnam", the author, activist Martin Luther King jr, states reasons why America needs to end their involvement in the Vietnam War. The neo-gothic Riverside Church in New York City has a long history of progressive leaders and activism, dating back to its opening in October, 1930. 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. ((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( a@" c We must speak for them and raise the questions they cannot raise. Watch the Public Broadcasting Laboratory documentary Free at Last: Martin Luther King Jr. (streaming on THIRTEEN Specials), which was being filmed when Dr. King was assassinated and premiered on THIRTEEN just three days after his death. Violence of the US government - How can we criticize violence abroad when our own If we continue, there will be no doubt in my mind and in the mind of the world that we have no honorable intentions in Vietnam. Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own. Three: Take immediate steps to prevent other battlegrounds in Southeast Asia by curtailing our military buildup in Thailand and our interference in Laos. The first reason "obvious" and "facile," according to King was the effect of the Vietnam War on the War on Poverty in the United States. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. 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. baseball font with tail generator 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. It is not addressed to China or to Russia. King enumerated seven major reasons to bring the war to an end based on moral vision. 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. @ !V*k*im+R{Q\4b^`j+j/A8U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;muR`o|?h:07o"PI'}x~@U&|NB% []Tw7L ;wap~#65UXG9tMU G^> `j+j/A9~NT de#(~y{Jtp m`j+j/A8P qGqe#(~ b_mE@ VYVQov:j}\z8M?tiiibEkF5Qup6cbczB9 uUa Number two: Declare a unilateral cease-fire in the hope that such action will create the atmosphere for negotiation. Did you find this entry while surfing the web? In international conflicts, the truth is hard to come by because most nations are deceived about themselves. Kings address emphasized his responsibility to the American people and explained that conversations with young black men in the ghettos reinforced his own commitment to nonviolence. 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. They wander into the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. Zip. We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. What of the National Liberation Front, that strangely anonymous group we call VC or communists? If Americas soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read: Vietnam. Then we must make what reparations we can for the damage we have done. King, " The Casualties of the War in Vietnam, " 25 February 1967, CLPAC. After more than a decade in the public eye fighting racism and inequality in America, King plunged himself into another searing, divisive issue in America with his speech, Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence, given at Riverside Church in New York City on April 4, 1967. 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 1954; and I cannot forget that the Nobel Peace Prize 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. Here's the essay I wrote in the video: In the speech "Beyond Vietnam - A Time to Break Silence," Dr. Rev. 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 New York. Their questions are frighteningly relevant. Have they forgotten that my ministry is in obedience to the One who loved his enemies so fully that he died for them? 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. 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. In the speech at Riverside Church, King talked about how the US had supported France in trying to re-colonize . endobj 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. This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the counterrevolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. Being one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, Vietnam becomes a strategic place for many foreign entrepreneurs to invest. This speech is not addressed to Hanoi or to the National Liberation Front. 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. Five years ago he said, Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. This February, the Humanities curriculum for Grade 7 is focused on the Vietnam War. We must provide the medical aid that is badly needed, making it available in this country, if necessary. 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 . It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. 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. I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. endobj In order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war. The United States got involved in the Vietnam War because they wanted to stop the spread of communism. Hear the entire recording of Martin Luther King, Jr.s Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence speech, including introductory applause and a greeting King makes to his fellow clergy speakers. 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. Dr. King's purpose is to make the church leaders he is speaking to aware that The speech is considered a turning point in the public opinions of the Vietnam War. Communism will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. Is it among these voiceless ones? I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. In that address he articulated his reasons for his opposition to the Southeast Asian conflict. I speak as one who loves America, to the leaders of our own nation: The great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to stop it must be ours. They question our political goals and they deny the reality of a peace settlement from which they will be excluded. The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise, we must choose in this crucial moment of human history. MLK's Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence. Two, Three.Many Vietnam's: A Radical Reader on the Wars in Southeast Asia and the Conflicts at Home. They ask how we can speak of free elections when the Saigon press is censored and controlled by the military junta. Some great cause, Gods new Messiah offering each the bloom or blight, For nine years we vigorously supported the French in their abortive effort to recolonize Vietnam. Good or bad, the US was afraid that communism would spread to South Vietnam and then the rest of Asia. 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). 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. In Dr. Martin Luther King's speech "Beyond VietnamA Time to Break Silence" (1967), Dr. King asserts that the war in Vietnam is totally immoral and has far reaching negative implications not only for Vietnam, but for The United States and the rest of the World as well. 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. 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. Students will read Rev. Mandy Jackson A Time to Break Silence On April 4,1967, in Riverside Church, New York City Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers a speech called Beyond Vietnam He initiates, "War is not the answer. The Institute cannot give permission to use or reproduce any of the writings, statements, or images of Martin Luther King, Jr. In that address, he articulated his reasons for his opposition to the Southeast Asian conflict. 3 Pages. King,The Casualties of the War in Vietnam,25 February 1967, CLPAC. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. If it is, let us trace its movements and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Vietnam spending eviscerated of the Poverty Program 2. But the day has passed for superficial patriotism. And history is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. On April 4, 1967 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a speech named, "Beyond Vietnam- A Time to Break Silence" addressing the Vietnam War. We must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every creative method of protest possible. 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. The peasants watched and cringed as Diem ruthlessly rooted out all opposition, supported their extortionist landlords, and refused even to discuss reunification with the North. . Become a member of THIRTEEN ($5 monthly or $60 annually) and get access to THIRTEEN Passport as our thanks for your support. We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. 52 0 obj In this speech he use Logos and Pathos. Dr. King's purpose is to make the church leaders he is speaking to aware that The truth of these words is beyond doubt, but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. 51 0 obj He spoke at Riverside Church in New York City, a venue that had a history of hosting progressive speakers and thinkers. 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. I say we must enter that struggle, but I wish to go on now to say something even more disturbing. 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. 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. 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. North Vietnam's war profoundly divided American citizens, seriously damaged American credibility around the world, and lent moral support to many radical movements in Africa and Latin America. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. 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. Please contact Intellectual Properties Management (IPM), the exclusive licensor of the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. atlicensing@i-p-m.comor 404 526-8968. Now they languish under our bombs and consider us, not their fellow Vietnamese, the real enemy. Harding, a native of Harlem, NYC, received his BA from City College of New York and Masters in Journalism from Columbia University before serving in the US Army (1953-55) and receiving a PhD in History at the University in Chicago in 1965. << /BitsPerComponent 8 /ColorSpace /DeviceRGB /ColorTransform 0 /Filter /DCTDecode /Height 609 /Subtype /Image /Type /XObject /Width 1600 /Length 68988 >> They must see Americans as strange liberators. Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program broken and eviscerated, as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. These words, spoken exactly one year to the day before his assassination . We have cooperated in the crushing in the crushing of the nations only non-Communist revolutionary political force, the unified Buddhist Church. This is the calling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. 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. Please c, ontact Intellectual Properties Management (IPM), the exclusive licensor of the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. at. Infant mortality rates fell from 32.6 per 1,000 live births in 1993 to 16.7 in 2020. The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., is a civil rights legend. 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. or 404 526-8968. 1968 was a turning point in U.S. history, a year of triumphs and tragedies, social and political upheavals, that forever changed our country. With this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status quo and unjust mores, and thereby speed the day when every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.. Martin Luther King uses persuasive argument in his speeches. King's famous speech, "Beyond Vietnam: A time to break the silence," deserves study by antiwar activists and others seeking a better understanding of the battle for economic justice, racial equality and freedom at home and abroad. 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. 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. 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.. 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. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. This is the message of the great Buddhist leaders of Vietnam. Beyond Vietnam Ethos Pathos Logos. #7 Infrastructure Development. Cypress Hall D, 466 Via Ortega, Stanford, CA 94305-4146 Perhaps the more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. The U.S. became polarized between those who advocated continued involvement in Vietnam and those who wanted peace. In the light of such tragic misunderstanding, I deem it of signal importance to try to state clearly, and I trust concisely, why I believe that the path from Dexter Avenue Baptist Church the church in Montgomery, Alabama, where I began my pastorate leads clearly to this sanctuary tonight. This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense against communism. Martin Luther King - Beyond Vietnam - 1967 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive Volume 90% 00:00 51:49 Martin Luther King - Beyond Vietnam - 1967 Topics Martin Luther King, Beyond Vietnam, war, social justice, peace * Reverend Martin Luther King * Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence * April 4, 1967 * We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. Surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their violence. In 1967, however, Beyond Vietnam ignited an uproar. . MLK: Beyond Vietnam to Ukraine. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways. Martin Luther King April 4, 1967 Riverside Church, New York City He who lives with untruth lives in spiritual slavery. Surely we must see that our own computerized plans of destruction simply dwarf their greatest acts. Recent flashpoints. 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. The essence of the speech focused on the war in Vietnam. 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. Similarly, both the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Ralph Bunche accused King of linking two disparate issues, Vietnam and civil rights. His speech appears below. Communist China did not spread communism beyond Vietnam [Laos and Cambodia]. In Dr. Martin Luther King's speech "Beyond VietnamA Time to Break Silence" (1967), Dr. King asserts that the war in Vietnam is totally immoral and has far reaching negative implications not only for Vietnam, but for The United States and the rest of the World as well. And so, such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God. I still think this is probably the best., It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor both black and white through the poverty program. Moreover, I would encourage all ministers of draft age to give up their ministerial exemptions and seek status as conscientious objectors. 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. Surely we must understand their feelings, even if we do not condone their actions. The Institute cannot give permission to use or reproduce any of the writings, statements, or images of Martin Luther King, Jr. By that time the communists and South Vietnamese were already engaged in what journalists labeled the "postwar war.". Despite public criticism, King continued to attack the Vietnam War on both moral and economic grounds. 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 . One of Martin Luther King Jr.'s lesser known yet equally impactful speeches, "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence," condemns the violence and atrocities committed by the U.S against the Vietnamese in their foolish bid to stop the spread of communism in Southeast Asia. 2. 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. All the while the people read our leaflets and received the regular promises of peace and democracy and land reform. Meanwhile Meanwhile, we in the churches and synagogues have a continuing task while we urge our government to disengage itself from a disgraceful commitment. The immediate response to Kings speech was largely negative. I am not speaking of that force which is just emotional bosh. For 7 reasons: 1. And the choice goes by forever twixt that darkness and that light. 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. Regarding choosing Beyond Vietnam for the title when the country was deep in the middle of the war, Harding recalled in an interview with Tavis Smiley, this is more than a simple case of getting out of Vietnam. . We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem. In the end, Vietnamese communism stopped short of exporting revolution beyond Indochina because its radical character had created enemies . And yet I swear this oath Viet Thanh Nguyen on Dr. King's 1967 speech 'Beyond Vietnam' Life expectancy rose from 70.5 to 75.5 years between 1990 and 2020. We were sending young Black men 8,000 miles away to die for freedoms they don't have at home. Perhaps a more difficult but no less necessary task is to speak for those who have been designated as our enemies. And if we will only make the right choice, we will be able to transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of peace. PBS talk show host Tavis. I heard him speak so many times. 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. 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. 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. As that noble bard of yesterday, James Russell Lowell, eloquently stated: Once to every man and nation comes a moment to decide, The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering realityand if we ignore this sobering reality, we will find ourselves organizing clergy and laymen concerned committees for the next generation. 3. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor both black and white through the poverty program. 7 reason to bring into his "moral vision".
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