martin luther king jr vietnam war speech transcript martin luther king jr vietnam war speech transcript

Smiley continues, "it was the most controversial speech he ever gave. Jazmyn Ford. 0000004621 00000 n I feel that Martin Luther King and Muhammad Ali are two of the, you know, greatest Americans we've ever had. So they go primarily women and children and the aged. 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 Latin 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. And thank you for sharing what had to be a difficult story to tell. 0000006536 00000 n WALT (Caller): Yes. [citation needed] Content [ edit] In "People and Peace, not Profits and War," Shirley Chisholm repeats the words "two more years" (42). At the time, civil rights leaders publicly condemned him for it. At what cost? Five years ago he said, Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.. End all bombing in North and South Vietnam. Then came the buildup in Vietnam and I watched the 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. 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. 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. 0000001700 00000 n 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. What must they think of us in 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? There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. n/a martin luther king jr. (born michael king january 15, 1929 april 1968) was an american baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in . It was written by activist and historian Vincent Harding. He knows the bombing and shelling and mining we are doing are part of traditional pre-invasion strategy. But they asked and rightly so what about Vietnam? Mr. SMILEY: Neal, thank you for the opportunity. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. Grossfield, Stan. But I'm hoping that people will get a chance, once they see the speech, they'll be moved to go read the speech and to make comparisons, Neal. It includes a portion of his speech. When the Rev. For the peasants this new government meant real land reform, one of the most important needs in their lives. Ken Rudin joins guest host Rebecca Roberts. Martin Luther King's Speech Against the Vietnam War by David Bromwich May 16, 2008 O ne of the greatest speeches by Martin Luther King, Jr., "A Time to Break Silence," was delivered at Riverside Church, New York City, on April 4, 1967. His wife, Coretta Scott King, on the other hand, critiqued the war publicly for years before her husband did. They were led by Ho Chi Minh. 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've Been to the Mountaintop" is the popular name of the last speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. King spoke on April 3, 1968, at the Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters) in Memphis, Tennessee. Hundreds of folks listened outside on loudspeakers. Twin towers were planned from Afghanistan. You can also join the conversation at our Web site. Dr. King in a March 25, 1967 antiwar march in Chicago. When Diem was overthrown they may have been happy, but the long line of military dictatorships seemed to offer no real changeespecially in terms of their need for land and peace. This is Howard, which you know me. And they are surely right to wonder what kind of new government we plan to help form without them the only party in real touch with the peasants. We must speak for them and raise the questions they cannot raise. 0000003415 00000 n So it is that those of us who are yet determined that America will be are led down the path of protest and dissent, working for the health of our land. Excuse me. Take immediate steps to prevent other battlegrounds in Southeast Asia by curtailing our military buildup in Thailand and our interference in Laos. And they, as news crews tend to do, they stayed to get just enough B-roll, as we call it Mr. SMILEY: for the news that night. 0000002004 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. [6], 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. A few years ago there was a shining moment. We most provide the medical aid that is badly needed, making it available in this country if necessary. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. But Martin understood very clearly that what we ought to be doing at home is being - we are being distracted, rather, by our engagement around the world. Screenshots are considered by the King Estate a violation of this notice. Those pictures turned Dr. King's stomach. 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. In order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war. "[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. 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.'s "Beyond Vietnam" was a powerful and angry speech that raged against the war. No, Howard, I thank you for your phone call. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world a world that borders on our doors. In so many words, powerful interests told him: "Mind your own business.". King contemplated but ultimately decided against the proposal on the grounds that he felt uneasy with politics and considered himself better suited for his morally unambiguous role as an activist.[25]. 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.. 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. He is best known for helping achieve civil equality for African Americans, but these speeches--selected because they were each presented at a turning point in the . 0000040748 00000 n And King was prescient on this. 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. 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. BRC-NEWS: Black Radical Congress International News/Alerts/Announcements , Martin Luther King, Jr., delivering speech. The speech and its echoes for Afghanistan and Iraq are the subject of "Tavis Smiley Reports MLK: A Call to Conscience.". . Sermons and speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. "Vincent Harding dies at 82; historian wrote controversial King speech", "Vincent Harding, author of Martin Luther King Jr.'s antiwar speech, dies", "The Rev. The United States Congress was spending more and more on the military and less and less on anti-poverty programs at the same time. Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Because, to your point now, one, I want people to go online and read the speech so you can see the text for yourself. And I can't tell young black men, who are being denied right here in the streets of America, that they should offer themselves up and to sign themselves up to go - to do harm to people around the world who they do not know. "[14] Recently one of them wrote these words: Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. King 's work to eradicate racial segregation was abruptly halted when he was assassinated on April 4, 1968, on the balcony of Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. 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. Du Bois to Coretta Scott King: The Untold History of the Movement to Ban the Bomb. So even McNamara eventually comes around to that point. Mr. SMILEY: That's right. Less than two weeks after leading his first Vietnam demonstration, on 4 April 1967, King made his best known and most comprehensive statement against the war.