beyond vietnam 7 reasons beyond vietnam 7 reasons

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. Students will read Rev. stream 53 0 obj However, all was not well on the ground: the country lost a Navy intelligence ship (USS Pueblo) and two 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. 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. Zip. 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. The Institute cannot give permission to use or reproduce any of the writings, statements, or images of Martin Luther King, Jr. 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. They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. She was once a tour guide in real life, too. In that address, he articulated his reasons for his opposition to the Southeast Asian conflict. We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men. endobj 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. Beyond Vietnam (or Time to End the Silence) . I am pleased to say that this is a path now chosen by more than seventy students at my own alma mater, Morehouse College, and I recommend it to all who find the American course in Vietnam a dishonorable and unjust one. What must they be thinking when they know that we are aware of their control of major sections of Vietnam, and yet we appear ready to allow national elections in which this highly organized political parallel government will not have a part? 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. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. In Hanoi are the men who led the nation to independence against the Japanese and the French, the men who sought membership in the French Commonwealth and were betrayed by the weakness of Paris and the willfulness of the colonial armies. 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 . Vietnam spending eviscerated of the Poverty Program 2. Helping you get here is part of her job. King, Statement on voter registration in Alabama, 9 March 1965, MLKJP-GAMK. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. 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. Despite public criticism, King continued to attack the Vietnam War on both moral and economic grounds. . Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world. 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. This is the message of the great Buddhist leaders of Vietnam. 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ZIP FILE INCLUDES: 4 page worksheet with MLK's "Beyond Vietnam" Speech (PDF)Worksheet Answer KeyTeacher directions with ideas for useCHECK OUT THE . They must see Americans as strange liberators. Kings Error,New York Times, 7 April 1967. P: (650) 723-2092 | F: (650) 723-2093 | kinginstitute@stanford.edu| Campus Map. Read on for background on the historic speech, highlights and the speech in in its entirety. Beyond Vietnam Ethos Pathos Logos. 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. 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. 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. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent. Dr. King choose to speak out against the war in Vietnam? And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond in compassion, my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. Is our nation planning to build on political myth again, and then shore it up upon the power of new violence? stream This speech was released by Black Foru. PBS talk show host Tavis. 2. 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. On April 4, 1967 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a speech named, "Beyond Vietnam- A Time to Break Silence" addressing the Vietnam War. The legacy of his speech is reflected inThe Vietnam War, an 18-hour series by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick (streaming to PBS station members). A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. All the while the people read our leaflets and received the regular promises of peace and democracy and land reform. This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the counterrevolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. 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 a hell for the poor. The Institute cannot give permission to use or reproduce any of the writings, statements, or images of Martin Luther King, Jr. 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. 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. At the time, civil rights leaders publicly condemned him for it. For the peasants this new government meant real land reform, one of the most important needs in their lives. aYej{uOAs/9lo-6'j-gy,=F*9bt,Ukj"h jPIL Why did Rev. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on lifes roadside, but that will be only an initial act. Then we must make what reparations we can for the damage we have done. The Washington Post criticized his "sheer inventions of unsupported fantasy" and lamented how "many who have listened to him with respect will never again accord him the same confidence . The truth of these words is beyond doubt, but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. King, Martin Luther Jr. "Declaration of Independence from the War in Vietnam." In Editors of Ramparts with Banning Garrett and Katherine Barkley (Eds.) They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. The speech titled "Beyond Vietnam" is relevant to today's war in Ukraine. King,Beyond Vietnam,4 April 1967, NNRC. 3. 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. 3. 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. 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. I also want to say that I consider it a great honor to share this program with Dr. Bennett, Dr. Commager, and Rabbi Heschel, and some of the distinguished leaders and personalities of our nation. From The Vietnam War, PBS. 'I Have a Dream'. 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. San Francisco: Canfield Press, 1971. #7 Infrastructure Development. Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word (unquote). The actual speech begins at 1:41 in the recording. It was used in journalism as a euphemism for recognized lies told to the public by . In the end, Vietnamese communism stopped short of exporting revolution beyond Indochina because its radical character had created enemies . We encouraged them with our huge financial and military supplies to continue the war even after they had lost the will. So it is that those of us who are yet determined that America will be are are led down the path of protest and dissent, working for the health of our land. 'Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence' was delivered by Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1967 at a meeting of concerned clergymen and laity at Riverside Church in New York City, New York (Spence). . 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. Though her portions be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong As that noble bard of yesterday, James Russell Lowell, eloquently stated: Once to every man and nation comes a moment to decide, And when I hear them, though I often understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling. MLK's Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence. Where are the roots of the independent Vietnam we claim to be building? I am not speaking of that force which is just emotional bosh. 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. Due to the Vietnam War is that plenty of individuals, both Americans and Vietnamese were killed. 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. In the speech at Riverside Church, King talked about how the US had supported France in trying to re-colonize . A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. Martin Luther King, Jr. makes a compelling case for the proposition that the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War is unjust using ethos (facts and commonly accepted values or ethics), pathos (appeals to emotion through powerful descriptive language), and . #1 Strong Economic Growth Rates. In international conflicts, the truth is hard to come by because most nations are deceived about themselves. 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 . Being one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, Vietnam becomes a strategic place for many foreign entrepreneurs to invest. 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. Declaringmy conscience leaves me no other choice,King described the wars deleterious effects on both Americas poor and Vietnamese peasants and insisted that it was morally imperative for the United States to take radical steps to halt the war through nonviolent means (King, Beyond Vietnam, 139). Four: Realistically accept the fact that the National Liberation Front has substantial support in South Vietnam and must thereby play a role in any meaningful negotiations and any future Vietnam government. 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. Good or bad, the US was afraid that communism would spread to South Vietnam and then the rest of Asia. Tax ID: 26-2810489. They wander into the hospitals with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one Vietcong-inflicted injury. Dr. King's purpose is to make the church leaders he is speaking to aware that In this speech he use Logos and Pathos. When we ask why they do not leap to negotiate, these things must be remembered. We must move past indecision to action. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Over the last eight years, I have had the privilege of preaching here almost every year in that period, and it is always a rich and rewarding experience to come to this great church and this great pulpit. Both sides alleged, more or less accurately, that the other side was continuously violating the terms . I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor. In April 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered an eloquent and stirring denunciation of the Vietnam war and US militarism. "I think there . For 7 reasons: 1. Could it be that they do not know that the good news was meant for all men for Communist and capitalist, for their children and ours, for black and for white, for revolutionary and conservative? 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. Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown On March 29, 1973, the last U.S. military unit left Vietnam. 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. Martin Luther King Jr. gave many speeches in his lifetime. 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. 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. Martin Luther King Beyond Vietnam. 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. They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. 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. endobj MLK: Beyond Vietnam to Ukraine. Decent Essays. Soldier of the 25th Infantry Division, c., 1969. Omar Khayyam is right: The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on.. Interior of Riverside Church on W. 120th Street in Manhattan. King had stepped up his anti-war proclamations on February 25, 1967, when he appeared at a convention in Beverly Hills, California. 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. Follow along with the transcript, below. On 4 April 1967 Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his seminal speech at Riverside Church condemning the Vietnam War. Speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. against the "triple evils of racism, economic exploitation, and militarism." Audio. 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. What then can I say to the Vietcong or to Castro or to Mao as a faithful minister of this One? And the choice goes by forever twixt that darkness and that light. 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. 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. What do they think of our condoning the violence which led to their own taking up of arms? In 1967, however, Beyond Vietnam ignited an uproar. beyond vietnam 7 reasons. King,The Casualties of the War in Vietnam,25 February 1967, CLPAC. Perhaps a more difficult but no less necessary task is to speak for those who have been designated as our enemies. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. 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. Our government felt then that the Vietnamese people were not ready for independence, and we again fell victim to the deadly Western arrogance that has poisoned the international atmosphere for so long. 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. Infant mortality rates fell from 32.6 per 1,000 live births in 1993 to 16.7 in 2020. Violence of the US government - How can we criticize violence abroad when our own It was they who led a second struggle against French domination at tremendous costs, and then were persuaded to give up the land they controlled between the thirteenth and seventeenth parallel as a temporary measure at Geneva. 1. punished the poor. xc```b``9Y `6+ *i`x!fw[ TC82U |])KXl[T7R)UbpE0q@e8.;c q8, e0+EN328v`8 00~QAI[ksz#Jw;`t!>8#oB;|;!V QM 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. After the French were defeated, it looked as if independence and land reform would come again through the Geneva Agreement. Here's the essay I wrote in the video: In the speech "Beyond Vietnam - A Time to Break Silence," Dr. Rev. 54 0 obj These, too, are our brothers. 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. 1968 was a turning point in U.S. history, a year of triumphs and tragedies, social and political upheavals, that forever changed our country. 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. 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. by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. w . Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies. 52 0 obj So far we may have killed a million of them, mostly children. or 404 526-8968. Or will there be another message of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. 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. We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. To change course, King suggested a five point outline for stopping the war, which included a call for a unilateral ceasefire. 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. 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). And some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. 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. Not only were they fighting for their own rights in 1976, but they were sending away the son, husbands, brothers of other Americans thousands of miles away to the country of Vietnam to fight an unjust war for the rights of the people in Southeast Asia. A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. This speech is not addressed to Hanoi or to the National Liberation Front. 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. So they go, primarily women and children and the aged. Rationalizations and the incessant search for scapegoats are the psychological cataracts that blind us to our sins. They know they must move on or be destroyed by our bombs. 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. 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. For nine years following 1945 we denied the people of Vietnam the right of independence. Communism will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. But they ask and rightly so what about Vietnam? America never was America to me, America will be! 3 Pages. In a way we were agreeing with Langston Hughes, that black bard of Harlem, who had written earlier: O, yes, King holds the U.S. government and the American people responsible for the Vietnam .