Martin Luther King: Beyond Vietnam and Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution, 90th Cong., 2d sess., Congressional Record 114 (9 April 1968): 93919397. Is it among these voiceless ones? Although the peace community lauded Kings willingness to take a public stand against the war in Vietnam, many within the civil rights movement further distanced themselves from his stance. He did say he was going to increase troop levels in Afghanistan, so he's kept that promise. PBS talk show. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. To me the relationship of this ministry to the making of peace is so obvious that I sometimes marvel at those who ask me why I am speaking against the war. They will be concerned about Guatemala and Peru. The march was organized by the Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam and initiated by its chairman, James Bevel. So it was a great turnout. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "[23], King also stated in "Beyond Vietnam" that "true compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. It was the speech he labored over the most. 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.. *];\n~~/iQ|h Q Why are you joining the voices of dissent? [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. 0000047501 00000 n 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. King spoke strongly against the U.S.'s role in the war, arguing that the U.S. was in Vietnam "to occupy it as an American colony" and calling the U.S. government "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today. That's my own personal assessment. His speech appears below. Of course, the Nobel Peace Laureate, a man who clearly believed in nonviolence down to his very soul CONAN: but he'd wanted to give that speech two years earlier. Let's get Howard(ph) on the line. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. So he was no longer on that particular list. He had fallen off already the list, as you mentioned, had already fallen off the list of the most admired Americans as tallied by Gallup every year. We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. And about a month after that speech was given, I was wounded. The peasants watched as all this was presided over by U.S. influence and then by increasing numbers of U.S. troops who came to help quell the insurgency that Diems methods had aroused. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism.. 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. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. 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. Mr. SMILEY: That's right. Excuse me. We're talking with Tavis Smiley. A few other Americans know, of course, the "Mountaintop" speech given the night before he's assassinated in Memphis. Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live. 0000001616 00000 n We have supported the enemies of the peasants of Saigon. I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not of the junta in Saigon, but simply of the people who have been living under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. Finally, as I try to delineate for you and for myself the road that leads from Montgomery to this place I would have offered all that was most valid if I simply said that I must be true to my conviction that I share with all men the calling to be a son of the living God. 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. U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations, Martin Luther King Jr. Records Collection Act, King: A Filmed Record Montgomery to Memphis, The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306, Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story, Joseph Schwantner: New Morning for the World; Nicolas Flagello: The Passion of Martin Luther King. Martin Luther King, Jr. 4 April 1967. They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. But the entire speech, of course, thankfully, was recorded on audio. "The press is being stacked against me", King said,[13] Email us: talk@npr.org. On April 4, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a controversial sermon opposing the Vietnam War at Riverside Church in Morningside Heights, then helped lead a large antiwar march from Central Park to the United Nations later that month. I want to thank you, as I know listeners do as well, for your service to this country. Carson and Shepard, 2001. So 60 year(ph) is really, really a hot year here around this particular issue. 0000006515 00000 n Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity. The film is the second episode of Tavis Smiley Reports. For nine years following 1945 we denied the people of Vietnam the right of independence. I have not urged a mechanical fusion of the civil rights and peace movements. How are you, sir? 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. Shall we say the odds are too great? 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. We are adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a short period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really involved. Perhaps the more difficult but no less necessary task is to speak for those who have been designated as our enemies. Now there is little left to build onsave bitterness. Smiley continues, "it was the most controversial speech he ever gave. As we counsel young men concerning military service we must clarify for them our nations role in Vietnam and challenge them with the alternative of conscientious objection. Mr. SMILEY: He'd wanted to give it two years earlier and had attempted a dry run at this speech, to your appoint, Neal, a couple of years prior to when he gave it. 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. Soon we would be paying almost the full costs of this tragic attempt at recolonization. In that address, he articulated his reasons for his opposition to the Southeast Asian conflict. ", 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. 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. CONAN: "MLK: A Call to Conscience" premieres on PBS tomorrow night. 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. Please c, ontact Intellectual Properties Management (IPM), the exclusive licensor of the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. at. And we are spending money for a war abroad that ought to be spent for the war on poverty here at home. V)U5v\@apkk;#WF. 0000011739 00000 n 0000002964 00000 n 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. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world a world that borders on our doors. [19][20], In a 1952 letter to Coretta Scott, he said: "I imagine you already know that I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic"[21] In one speech, he stated that "something is wrong with capitalism" and claimed, "There must be a better distribution of wealth, and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism. A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. American Rhetoric: Martin Luther King, Jr: A Time to Break Silence (Declaration Against the Vietnam War) M artin L uther K ing, J r. Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence Delivered 4 April 1967, Riverside Church, New York City [Photo Credit: John C. Goodwin] [AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio. 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. When we ask why they do not leap to negotiate, these things must be remembered. They wander into the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. On April 4, 1967 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a speech named, "Beyond Vietnam- A Time to Break Silence" addressing the Vietnam War. I Have a Dream, speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., that was delivered on August 28, 1963, during the March on Washington. Those pictures turned Dr. King's stomach. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways. 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. Surely we must understand their feelings even if we do not condone their actions. Dr. 0000005696 00000 n Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King at Ebenezer Church. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent. The speech and its echoes for Afghanistan and Iraq are the subject of "Tavis Smiley Reports MLK: A Call to Conscience.". But they didn't stay for the speech in its entirety. All Rights Reserved. hide caption. Let me say this right quick: The comparisons between what King was addressing then about militarism, poverty and racism sound familiar 45 years later. 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. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. And Walt's with us from Cortez in Colorado. 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. And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond to compassion my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at the flood; it ebbs. Though the cause of evil prosper, Yet tis truth alone is strong; Though her portion be the scaffold, And upon the throne be wrong: Yet that scaffold sways the future, And behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow Keeping watch above his own. Benjamin Hedin on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, anti-Vietnam War speech at Riverside Church in New York, which risked King's relationship with Lyndon Johnson. To speak for them is to explain this lack of confidence in Western words, and especially their distrust of American intentions now. So you got a Nobel laureate named King, a war president with a Nobel Prize named Obama, for all that we have done over the last two years to wed King and Obama together on T- shirts and everywhere else, were King alive today at 81, he and Obama would have a tension point, Neal, on this issue. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave a speech that may have helped put a target on . So Martin's advisors basically said, if you are intent on giving the speech, at least allow us to craft a speech and to create a setting that will allow you to speak to clergy members and laity so at least before you get to this rally that we know is going to be controversial, we could at least roll this thing out with a different kind of a crowd. 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. We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. 4. 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. So even McNamara eventually comes around to that point. 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, to your earlier point, the most controversial speech he ever gave. 0000002784 00000 n For the peasants this new government meant real land reform, one of the most important needs in their lives. 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. It will become clear that our minimal expectation is to occupy it as an American colony and men will not refrain from thinking that our maximum hope is to goad China into a war so that we may bomb her nuclear installations. 0000009985 00000 n 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 unless the descendants of its slaves were loosed completely from the shackles they still wear. 0000012562 00000 n 0000004621 00000 n Paul A. Schuette, King Preaches on Non-Violence at Police-Guarded Howard Hall, Washington Post, 3 March 1965. This is TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News in Washington. 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. This quote is from a sermon by Dr. King on April 30, 1967 at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, drawing from his infamous April 4 sermon at Riverside Church. Q%F70%iR! 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. The United States Congress was spending more and more on the military and less and less on anti-poverty programs at the same time. 0000003503 00000 n Instead, we decided to support France in its reconquest of her former colony. Mr. SMILEY: Yeah, Walt, I thank you for sharing that story as well, for being courageous to tell it, number one. 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?