Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence Rev. On 4 April 1967 Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his seminal speech at Riverside Church condemning the Vietnam War. We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men. 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. At the time, it was most frequently used to describe public scepticism about the Lyndon B. Johnson administration's statements and policies on the Vietnam War. It tells why American helicopters are being used against guerrillas in Cambodia and why American napalm and Green Beret forces have already been active against rebels in Peru. Vietnam's Amended Constitution 1992 recognized the role of private sector in the economy. 53 0 obj 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. Giu 11, 2022 | narcissistic withdrawal. 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. 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). I am not speaking of that force which is just emotional bosh. U.S.-Vietnam Trade Bilateral Agreement (US-BTA) was signed in . Somehow this madness must cease. 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. Martin Luther King April 4, 1967 Riverside Church, New York City stream During the past ten years, we have seen emerge a pattern of suppression which has now justified the presence of U.S. military advisors in Venezuela. The speech titled "Beyond Vietnam" is relevant to today's war in Ukraine. 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. 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. On April 4, 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr., an enormously influential civil rights activist, conveys his indignant and hopeful thoughts regarding the Vietnam War, in his speech "Beyond Vietnam," by utilizing biblical allusion, anaphora, and use of diction. There's no pattern, and that's what's so frustrating.". 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. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. KW;UmBkT/k_rvtg+W`Y?eeu,+I$ZkZu?I'}[fXj7vHovEwU=h.87 <3nmVG"5tU]~7M.^5CCJz4 I,lU-}*WI:quZFv%[-p+jbn ST4PS&5DF4Oxy;g '2v!l37GGDv.JKm{e.m+(k/p@ by Rick Sterling January 16, 2023. Please contact Intellectual Properties Management (IPM), the exclusive licensor of the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. atlicensing@i-p-m.comor 404 526-8968. 52 0 obj Watch the Public Broadcasting Laboratory documentary Free at Last: Martin Luther King Jr. (streaming on THIRTEEN Specials), which was being filmed when Dr. King was assassinated and premiered on THIRTEEN just three days after his death. . Violence of the US government - How can we criticize violence abroad when our own To change course, King suggested a five point outline for stopping the war, which included a call for a unilateral ceasefire. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. Regarding choosing Beyond Vietnam for the title when the country was deep in the middle of the war, Harding recalled in an interview with Tavis Smiley, this is more than a simple case of getting out of Vietnam. We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. Since I am a preacher by calling, I suppose it is not surprising that I have seven major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral vision. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. He stated . The Institute cannot give permission to use or reproduce any of the writings, statements, or images of Martin Luther King, Jr. !1V"7AQau2TUqt#46BRrs35b$e%CSFc&d ? Dr. King's purpose is to make the church leaders he is speaking to aware that 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.. 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. A year to the day before his assassination on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Martin Luther King Jr. was in New York City, at the Riverside Church on Manhattan's Upper West Side, talking about Vietnam. She was once a tour guide in real life, too. Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown They know they must move on or be destroyed by our bombs. 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. 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. Notably, the economy grew at an average annual rate of 7.5% in 1991-2000 period. 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). 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. Despite public criticism, King continued to attack the Vietnam War on both moral and economic grounds. endobj King followed with an historical sketch outlining Vietnams devastation at the hands ofdeadly Western arrogance,noting,we are on the side of the wealthy, and the secure, while we create a hell for the poor(King,Beyond Vietnam,146; 153). Even though they quoted the American Declaration of Independence in their own document of freedom, we refused to recognize them. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Beyond Vietnam" was a powerful and angry speech that raged against the war. Here's the video. 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. Dr. King's purpose is to make the church leaders he is speaking to aware that Table of Content. We must move past indecision to action. . 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. 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. Now, it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. 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. #4 New Market. They remind us that they did not begin to send troops in large numbers and even supplies into the South until American forces had moved into the tens of thousands. Their questions are frighteningly relevant. A Tragedy,Washington Post, 6 April 1967. 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). The only change came from America, as we increased our troop commitments in support of governments which were singularly corrupt, inept, and without popular support. King, Interview on Face the Nation, 29 August 1965, RRML-TxTyU. The immediate response to Kings speech was largely negative. #1 Strong Economic Growth Rates. 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). San Francisco: Canfield Press, 1971. Members get extended access to PBS video on demand and more. They wander into the hospitals with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one Vietcong-inflicted injury. 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. Kings Error,New York Times, 7 April 1967. There is at the outset a very obvious and Equally unclear is why Vietnam decided to begin accepting deportees who arrived in the United States prior to 1995. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor. The essence of the speech focused on the war in Vietnam. 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. !S4@'rS[c5TcZ,Ay -\t[ mMIf$s958! aoOyeV_5i#>Z:ShY| x_5i,e*q}iaI$r99SE^gBvDO9 U{-gp=95TF*v*:[lrS;Gqk$>T.mO-+[hGoW sTr".[Z>?n{ 6(|oZQ{=+KND|=OU,QW_#n^iya46/u2H-j= MLK: Beyond Vietnam to Ukraine. 'I Have a Dream'. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1967 speech "Beyond Vietnam" is incredibly insightful regarding how it speaks to issues we face today. JFIF C 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. Fall of Saigon during Vietnam War. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. 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. 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. Published January 12, 2023. stream 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. Here's the essay I wrote in the video: In the speech "Beyond Vietnam - A Time to Break Silence," Dr. Rev. Read on for background on the historic speech, highlights and the speech in in its entirety. Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Dr. Martin Luther King's "Beyond Vietnam" speech and analyze his opposition to the war and his commitment to fighting for justice for the poor and marginalized. 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. In that address he articulated his reasons for his opposition to the Southeast Asian conflict. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within ones own bosom and in the surrounding world. or 404 526-8968. We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We were sending young Black men 8,000 miles away to die for freedoms they don't have at home. To Build a Mature Society: The Lasting Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Beyond Vietnam" Speech By Kristopher Burrell At Riverside Church in Harlem on April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his assassination, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a blistering and sophisticated critique of U. S. intervention in Vietnam. %# , #&')*)-0-(0%()( C These are days which demand wise restraint and calm reasonableness. 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. endobj He who lives with untruth lives in spiritual slavery. Where are the roots of the independent Vietnam we claim to be building? On April 4, 1967 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a speech named, "Beyond Vietnam- A Time to Break Silence" addressing the Vietnam War. 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. #5 Free Trade Agreements. 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 . Vietnam's universal health coverage index is at 73higher than regional and global averageswith 87 percent of the population covered. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues 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. 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. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. Have they forgotten that my ministry is in obedience to the One who loved his enemies so fully that he died for them? The Institute cannot give permission to use or reproduce any of the writings, statements, or images of Martin Luther King, Jr. King, Statement on voter registration in Alabama, 9 March 1965, MLKJP-GAMK. 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. Two, Three.Many Vietnam's: A Radical Reader on the Wars in Southeast Asia and the Conflicts at Home. 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? Moreover, I would encourage all ministers of draft age to give up their ministerial exemptions and seek status as conscientious objectors. 3. 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. We must rapidly beginwe must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. 3. For those who ask the question, Arent you a civil rights leader? and thereby mean to exclude me from the movement for peace, I have this further answer. Relevance to U.S. Wars and Militarism Today By Mary Hladky, American Friends Service Committee, KC Program Committee Clerk and United for Peace and Justice, Coordinating Committee Member 50 years ago, on April 4, 1967 at Riverside Church, in NYC, Martin Luther King delivered his powerful and most . For 7 reasons: 1. In April 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered an eloquent and stirring denunciation of the Vietnam War and US militarism. 7 reason to bring into his "moral vision". If we do not stop our war against the people of Vietnam immediately, the world will be left with no other alternative than to see this as some horrible, clumsy, and deadly game we have decided to play. Dr. << /Pages 117 0 R /Type /Catalog >> What do they think of our condoning the violence which led to their own taking up of arms? Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word (unquote). King, Transformed Nonconformist, Sermon Delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church, 16 January 1966, CSKC. This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond ones tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing embracing and unconditional love for all mankind. 2. create an unilateral cease fire leading to peace talks. 56 0 obj And yet I swear this oath 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. Then we must make what reparations we can for the damage we have done. 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. Could we blame them for such thoughts? Therefore, communism is a judgment against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions that we initiated. In the end, Vietnamese communism stopped short of exporting revolution beyond Indochina because its radical character had created enemies . Vietnam spending eviscerated of the Poverty Program 2. 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. 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. This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the counterrevolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. Since I am a preacher by calling, I suppose it is not surprising that I have seven major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral vision. The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. We in the West must support these revolutions. The United States was most involved in the war from 1959 to 1973 which coincided with the Civil Rights movement. Freedom is still the bonus we receive for knowing the truth. endobj 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. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us. Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day. The fall of South Vietnam. This has driven many to feel that only Marxism has a revolutionary spirit. 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 . As that noble bard of yesterday, James Russell Lowell, eloquently stated: Once to every man and nation comes a moment to decide, I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. Moreover, when the issues at hand seem as perplexing as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict, we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty; but we must move on. 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. So, I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such. 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. Nor is it an attempt to overlook the ambiguity of the total situation and the need for a collective solution to the tragedy of Vietnam. 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. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. For the peasants this new government meant real land reform, one of the most important needs in their lives. A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. And we must rejoice as well, for surely this is the first time in our nations history that a significant number of its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history.
