beyond vietnam 7 reasons

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. A year to the day before his assassination, Martin Luther King publicly and decisively denounced not only the US war in Vietnam but the militarism that enabled the war and undermined American society. Instead, we decided to support France in its reconquest of her former colony. 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. 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. In that address he articulated his reasons for his opposition to the Southeast Asian conflict. To King, however, the Vietnam War was only the most pressing symptom of American colonialism worldwide. And finally, as I try to explain 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. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end, unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy. King, Interview on Face the Nation, 29 August 1965, RRML-TxTyU. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor. They see the children degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. PBS talk show host Tavis. The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. We in the West must support these revolutions. We must with positive action seek to remove those conditions of poverty, insecurity, and injustice, which are the fertile soil in which the seed of communism grows and develops. What then can I say to the Vietcong or to Castro or to Mao as a faithful minister of this One? The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways. 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. Though her portions be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong This is the message of the great Buddhist leaders of Vietnam. He spoke at Riverside Church in New York City, a venue that had a history of hosting progressive speakers and thinkers. Neither is it an attempt to make North Vietnam or the National Liberation Front paragons of virtue, nor to overlook the role they must play in the successful resolution of the problem. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies. 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. In the air, America reached new heights with NASA's Apollo 8 orbiting the moon and Boeing's 747 jumbo jet's first flight. We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men. << /BitsPerComponent 8 /ColorSpace /DeviceRGB /ColorTransform 0 /Filter /DCTDecode /Height 609 /Subtype /Image /Type /XObject /Width 1600 /Length 68988 >> King delivered a speech entitled " Beyond Vietnam ," pointing out that the war effort was "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" (King, " Beyond Vietnam ," 143). Please c, ontact Intellectual Properties Management (IPM), the exclusive licensor of the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. at. 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. And the choice goes by forever twixt that darkness and that light. In this speech he use Logos and Pathos. 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. 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. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood it ebbs. It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. Credibility gap is a term that came into wide use with journalism, political and public discourse in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s. Here's the essay I wrote in the video: In the speech "Beyond Vietnam - A Time to Break Silence," Dr. Rev. Fifty years ago in 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a speech that startled even many of his supporters in the Civil Rights Movement. He stated . King used his famous oration skills to point out the hypocrisy of U.S. foreign affairs in view of the sorry domestic state of equality in America. So, I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such. << /Type /XRef /Length 100 /Filter /FlateDecode /DecodeParms << /Columns 5 /Predictor 12 >> /W [ 1 3 1 ] /Index [ 51 91 ] /Info 74 0 R /Root 53 0 R /Size 142 /Prev 584506 /ID [] >> Martin Luther King, Jr., giving his speech Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence at Riverside Church in NYC, April 4, 1967. What must they think of the United States of 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? Published January 12, 2023. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on lifes roadside, but that will be only an initial act. I am not speaking of that force which is just emotional bosh. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. 55 0 obj MLK: Beyond Vietnam to Ukraine. 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.. Perhaps a 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. But this encouraging shift does not reflect a seismic corruption case relating to COVID testing kits that came to light in the last days of 2021. What of the National Liberation Front, that strangely anonymous group we call VC or communists? #4 New Market. The fall of South Vietnam. In international conflicts, the truth is hard to come by because most nations are deceived about themselves. They know they must move on or be destroyed by our bombs. JFIF C Zip. 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 church maintains an active social justice mission today. The recent statements 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. And that time has come for us in relation to Vietnam. or 404 526-8968. They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. 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. Communist China did not spread communism beyond Vietnam [Laos and Cambodia]. A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. His indictment of the U.S. government and the war became known as The Riverside Church Speech and it was criticized by media from The New York Times to the Washington Post, and by groups such as the NAACP, which objected to the Civil Rights Movement weighing in on the war and joining anti-war protests. King, " The Casualties of the War in Vietnam, " 25 February 1967, CLPAC. 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. MLK: Beyond Vietnam to Ukraine. 54 0 obj King,The Casualties of the War in Vietnam,25 February 1967, CLPAC. We have destroyed their land and their crops. King specified seven major reasons for brining the war to an end based on moral vision, allowing for a further tie between . In April 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered an eloquent and stirring denunciation of the Vietnam war and US militarism. America will be! He knows the bombing and shelling and mining we are doing are part of traditional pre-invasion strategy. 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. Read on for background on the historic speech, highlights and the speech in in its entirety. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. . There's no pattern, and that's what's so frustrating.". Vincent Harding and his first wife, Rosemarie, were friends and colleagues of Martin and Coretta King in the Southern Freedom Movement, directing an interracial voluntary service unit of the Mennonite Church (Mennonite House) in . With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, This is not just. It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of South America and say, This is not just. The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. The immediate response to Kings speech was largely negative. For the peasants this new government meant real land reform, one of the most important needs in their lives. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who embraced nonviolence to combat the country's most violent segregationists. Dr. 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. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. %PDF-1.5 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. 7 reason to bring into his "moral vision". They ask if our own nation wasnt using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. 2. 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. We must move past indecision to action. By that time the communists and South Vietnamese were already engaged in what journalists labeled the "postwar war.". 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. The essence of the speech focused on the war in Vietnam. 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 resolved without trustful give and take on both sides. By Matthew Hoh, Counter Punch, January 16, 2023. Ho Chi Minh has watched as America has spoken of peace and built up its forces, and now he has surely heard the increasing international rumors of American plans for an invasion of the North. endobj 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. Excerpts from "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" Delivered at Riverside Church, New York, April 4, 1967 Since I am a preacher by trade, I suppose it is not surprising that I have seven major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral vision. 56 0 obj Let us not join those who shout war . 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. 3. How do they judge us when our officials know that their membership is less than twenty-five percent communist, and yet insist on giving them the blanket name? Now 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. King had stepped up his anti-war proclamations on February 25, 1967, when he appeared at a convention in Beverly Hills, California. 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. Shall we say the odds are too great? It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. Somehow this madness must cease. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1967 speech "Beyond Vietnam" is incredibly insightful regarding how it speaks to issues we face today. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people. . 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. 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. ((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( a@" c These are the times for real choices and not false ones. 53 0 obj #5 Free Trade Agreements. Become a member of THIRTEEN ($5 monthly or $60 annually) and get access to THIRTEEN Passport as our thanks for your support. 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 image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom, and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism (unquote). Martin Luther King Jr. gave many speeches in his lifetime. Therefore, communism is a judgment against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions that we initiated. Get a roundup of broadcast and digital premieres, special offers, and events with our weekly newsletter. @ !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 ZIP FILE INCLUDES: 4 page worksheet with MLK's "Beyond Vietnam" Speech (PDF)Worksheet Answer KeyTeacher directions with ideas for useCHECK OUT THE . by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. w . 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. The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise, we must choose in this crucial moment of human history. And so we watch them in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would hardly live on the same block in Chicago. 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. During this time period there was a lot of controversy surrounding the war. 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. MLK's Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence. In that address, he articulated his reasons for his opposition to the Southeast Asian conflict. In its April 7 editorial "Dr. King's Error," The New York Times lambasted King for fusing two problems that are "distinct and separate.". Moreover, I would encourage all ministers of draft age to give up their ministerial exemptions and seek status as conscientious objectors. And yet I swear this oath And history is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. 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. His speech appears below. KW;UmBkT/k_rvtg+W`Y?eeu,+I$ZkZu?I'}[fXj7vHovEwU=h.87 <3nmVG"5tU]~7M.^5CCJz4 I,lU-}*WI:quZFv%[-p+jbn ST4PS&5DF4Oxy;g '2v!l37GGDv.JKm{e.m+(k/p@ 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? 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 . Soon we would be paying almost the full costs of this tragic attempt at recolonization. But the day has passed for superficial patriotism. America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence Jim Meyer 2020, Beyond Vietnam:A Time to Break Silence Abstract "The time has come for America to hear the truth about this tragic war. Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Even though they quoted the American Declaration of Independence in their own document of freedom, we refused to recognize them. Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305. 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. 3 Pages. The United States got involved in the Vietnam War because they wanted to stop the spread of communism. Dr. King's purpose is to make the church leaders he is speaking to aware that 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. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. They wander into the hospitals with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one Vietcong-inflicted injury. 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: Number one: End all bombing in North and South Vietnam.