CONAN: And I think a lot of people will see your parallels regarding Iraq, where, indeed, the United States was the aggressor in that conflict. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. 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. His speech appears below. Martin Luther King, Jr. 4 April 1967. 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. Martin Luther King Jr. held his acceptance speech in the auditorium of the University of Oslo on 10 December 1964. But most Americans, I think, do not know this speech, "Beyond Vietnam.". He criticized the Vietnam War and praised Muhammad Ali for being a conscientious objector. He passed the Civil Rights Act. Surely we must understand their feelings even if we do not condone their actions. 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. The Institute cannot give permission to use or reproduce any of the writings, statements, or images of Martin Luther King, Jr. 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. On April 4, 1967 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a speech named, "Beyond Vietnam- A Time to Break Silence" addressing the Vietnam War. Fifty years ago in 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr.. That Vietnam was a mistake. At the heart of their concerns this query has often loomed large and loud: Why are you speaking about war, Dr. King? Ken Rudin joins guest host Rebecca Roberts. "[8] He connected the war with economic injustice, arguing that the country needed serious moral change: A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. Speeches, writings, movements, and protests, Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. You can also join the conversation at our Web site. So, too, with Hanoi. Meanwhile we in the churches and synagogues have a continuing task while we urge our government to disengage itself from a disgraceful commitment. 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. Surely we must see that our own computerized plans of destruction simply dwarf their greatest acts. [12] 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. Because, to your point now, one, I want people to go online and read the speech so you can see the text for yourself. 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. 0000009168 00000 n 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. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. 0000002427 00000 n The problem was that practically everyone in his inner circle - not all, there was James Bevel and a couple of others - but practically everyone in his inner circle advised him strongly not to give this speech. But LBJ disinvites him to the White House. 0000044282 00000 n 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. And his argument, basically, was that I cannot, as a practitioner and a true believer in nonviolence, espouse that nonviolent philosophy in our movement and then somehow sit idly by when I see violence being engaged around the world. Mr. SMILEY: Yeah. 0000013309 00000 n 800-989-8255. His house was bombed. This has driven many to feel that only Marxism has the revolutionary spirit. And King had preached at this church any number of times before, of course. Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305. 0000009964 00000 n 0000008326 00000 n And what really got him to the point of figuring that he really, really had to address this again back to the children, he couldn't say to young folks in this country who were being denied, that they should engage nonviolence as a philosophy when he saw the children, when he saw these pictures of these Vietnamese children being bombed and the impact - the effect that napalm was having on their bodies. In his last Sunday sermon, delivered at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., on 31 March 1968, King said that he was convinced that [Vietnam] is one of the most unjust wars that has ever been fought in the history of the world (King, Remaining Awake, 219). Hundreds of folks listened outside on loudspeakers. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1967 speech in New York. 0000011739 00000 n Howard's calling us from South Bend. But the entire speech, of course, thankfully, was recorded on audio. But for those who presently choose but one, I would hope they will finally come to see the moral roots common to both. 0000001645 00000 n I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. [11], King's opposition cost him significant support among white allies, including President Johnson, Billy Graham,[citation needed] union leaders and powerful publishers. 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 . Sorry, I'm a little bit emotional here. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King at Ebenezer Church. [citation needed], One of the eight "sound cells" in @Large, Ai Weiwei's 201415 exhibit at Alcatraz, features King's voice giving the "Beyond Vietnam" speech. And we are spending money for a war abroad that ought to be spent for the war on poverty here at home. In the light of such tragic misunderstandings, I deem it of signal importance to try to state clearly, and I trust concisely, why I believe that the path from Dexter Avenue Baptist Church the church in Montgomery, Alabama, where I began my pastorate leads clearly to this sanctuary tonight. There is.a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I and others have been waging in America. During the past ten years we have seen emerge a pattern of suppression which now has justified the presence of U.S. military advisors in Venezuela. King to Weigh Civil Disobedience). [1][5], King was long opposed to American involvement in the Vietnam War, but at first avoided the topic in public speeches in order to avoid the interference with civil rights goals that criticism of President Johnson's policies might have created. We must stop now. Some civil rights leaders urged King not to speak out on the Vietnam War, but he said he could not separate issues of economic injustice, racism, war, and militarism. Hb```f``; 6Pco;{Q. X@ h(]1fbap d``al`zds1;/(d_f)"#EC+s3Vp{4P2Vb`uL@ ` endstream endobj 92 0 obj 167 endobj 44 0 obj << /Type /Page /Parent 38 0 R /Resources 53 0 R /Contents [ 61 0 R 63 0 R 67 0 R 69 0 R 71 0 R 77 0 R 79 0 R 89 0 R ] /CropBox [ 0 0 612 792 ] /B [ 45 0 R ] /MediaBox [ 0 0 612 792 ] /Rotate 0 >> endobj 45 0 obj << /T 42 0 R /P 44 0 R /R [ 45 45 567 747 ] /V 46 0 R /N 47 0 R >> endobj 46 0 obj << /P 19 0 R /R [ 45 45 567 747 ] /V 52 0 R /N 45 0 R /T 42 0 R >> endobj 47 0 obj << /P 1 0 R /R [ 45 45 567 747 ] /V 45 0 R /N 48 0 R /T 42 0 R >> endobj 48 0 obj << /P 4 0 R /R [ 45 45 567 747 ] /V 47 0 R /N 49 0 R /T 42 0 R >> endobj 49 0 obj << /P 7 0 R /R [ 45 45 567 747 ] /V 48 0 R /N 50 0 R /T 42 0 R >> endobj 50 0 obj << /P 10 0 R /R [ 45 45 567 747 ] /V 49 0 R /N 51 0 R /T 42 0 R >> endobj 51 0 obj << /P 13 0 R /R [ 45 45 567 747 ] /V 50 0 R /N 52 0 R /T 42 0 R >> endobj 52 0 obj << /P 16 0 R /R [ 45 45 567 747 ] /V 51 0 R /N 46 0 R /T 42 0 R >> endobj 53 0 obj << /ProcSet [ /PDF /Text /ImageC /ImageI ] /Font << /F1 58 0 R /F2 65 0 R /F3 73 0 R /F4 74 0 R /TT2 54 0 R >> /XObject << /Im1 90 0 R >> /ExtGState << /GS1 81 0 R >> /ColorSpace << /Cs6 55 0 R /Cs8 56 0 R >> >> endobj 54 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /TrueType /FirstChar 49 /LastChar 56 /Widths [ 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 ] /Encoding /WinAnsiEncoding /BaseFont /CAPGPE+TimesNewRoman /FontDescriptor 59 0 R >> endobj 55 0 obj [ /ICCBased 86 0 R ] endobj 56 0 obj [ /Indexed 55 0 R 255 87 0 R ] endobj 57 0 obj << /Type /FontDescriptor /Ascent 733 /CapHeight 692 /Descent -281 /Flags 34 /FontBBox [ -166 -283 1021 927 ] /FontName /CAPHEN+Palatino-Roman /ItalicAngle 0 /StemV 84 /XHeight 469 /StemH 84 /CharSet (/I/space/c/o/m/e/t/h/i/s/a/g/n/f/u/w/r/p/b/y/l/v/period/j/d/k/z/colon/C/\ L/V/T/x/quotedbl/A/E/comma/quoteright/N/M/semicolon/S/W/P/O/q/D/B/emdash\ /H/F/R/U/G/one/nine/five/seven/six/four/J/question/hyphen/parenleft/pare\ nright/two/three/K) /FontFile3 84 0 R >> endobj 58 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /FirstChar 32 /LastChar 151 /Widths [ 250 278 371 500 500 840 778 208 333 333 389 606 250 333 250 606 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 250 250 606 606 606 444 747 778 611 709 774 611 556 763 832 337 333 726 611 946 831 786 604 786 668 525 613 778 722 1000 667 667 667 333 606 333 606 500 333 500 553 444 611 479 333 556 582 291 234 556 291 883 582 546 601 560 395 424 326 603 565 834 516 556 500 333 606 333 606 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 278 0 0 0 0 1000 ] /Encoding /WinAnsiEncoding /BaseFont /CAPHEN+Palatino-Roman /FontDescriptor 57 0 R >> endobj 59 0 obj << /Type /FontDescriptor /Ascent 891 /CapHeight 0 /Descent -216 /Flags 34 /FontBBox [ -568 -307 2028 1007 ] /FontName /CAPGPE+TimesNewRoman /ItalicAngle 0 /StemV 0 /FontFile2 85 0 R >> endobj 60 0 obj 763 endobj 61 0 obj << /Filter /FlateDecode /Length 60 0 R >> stream A few years ago there was a shining moment in that. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers. 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. There were a lot of people inside. 0000001700 00000 n For the peasants this new government meant real land reform, one of the most important needs in their lives. Smiley spoke with both scholars and friends of King, including Cornel West, Vincent Harding and Susannah Heschel. 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. In that address, he articulated his reasons for his opposition to the Southeast Asian conflict. 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. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. "It basically ruins their relationship," says Smiley. We must not engage in a negative anti-communism, but rather in a positive thrust for democracy, realizing that our greatest defense against communism is to take offensive action in behalf of justice. "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. Full text of speech. What do the peasants think as we ally ourselves with the landlords and as we refuse to put any action into our many words concerning land reform? Nearly five years after Kings assassination, American troops withdrew from Vietnam and a peace treaty declared South and North Vietnam independent of each other. All the while the people read our leaflets and received regular promises of peace and democracy and land reform. And that's just the Times and the Post. During the last year of his life, King worked with Spock to develop Vietnam Summer, a volunteer project to increase grassroots peace activism in time for the 1968 elections. Martin Luther King Jr. was a social activist that led the Civil Rights Movement, and other movements until his assassination in 1968. Let's go to Walt(ph). 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? These too are our brothers. 0000007566 00000 n The Riverside Church donated largely with Rockefeller money. I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. It was the speech he labored over the most. This I believe to be the privilege and the burden of all of us who deem ourselves bound by allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than nationalism and which go beyond our nations self-defined goals and positions. 0000006536 00000 n 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. . 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. We must move past indecision to action. In 1967, in the shadows of Columbia, Dr. King shifted the world again. Martin Luther King: Beyond Vietnam and Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution, 90th Cong., 2d sess., Congressional Record 114 (9 April 1968): 93919397. 0000009147 00000 n Delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Manhattan's Riverside Church, April 4, 1967 . 0000010534 00000 n When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered. We have cooperated in the crushing of the nations only non-Communist revolutionary political force the unified Buddhist church. So it was a great turnout. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. 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. The United States got involved in the Vietnam War because they wanted to stop the spread of communism. He rarely gave speeches from a text. HdTn0+=3hRnm)zK#-t\|Ha)S Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, GA on January 15th, 1929. Mr. SMILEY: Indeed he did, Neal. 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. But they chose Riverside because King was going to be speaking some days later at a huge rally and march in New York City, and they knew that that rally was going to bring out a different kind of element, a more controversial element. We're talking with Tavis Smiley. 39 0 obj << /Linearized 1 /O 44 /H [ 1739 286 ] /L 149455 /E 105346 /N 8 /T 148557 >> endobj xref 39 54 0000000016 00000 n 0000002247 00000 n And number two, at what cost? His speech appears below. In December 1966, testifying before a congressional subcommittee on budget priorities, King argued for a rebalancing of fiscal priorities away from Americas obsession with Vietnam and toward greater support for anti-poverty programs at home (Semple, Dr. Mr. SMILEY: We - let me just tell you this. Therefore, communism is a judgment against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions we initiated. 0000009985 00000 n Keep in mind now that 1967, Neal, as you know, is the same year that Muhammad Ali, the world champion, decides to not accept that draft to go and fight in Vietnam. So even McNamara eventually comes around to that point. In describing the ways in which the . A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. 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? "[10], King also criticized American opposition to North Vietnam's land reforms. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. So all that we have is less than 10 minutes of video of the speech. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. 1967 speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. In so many words, powerful interests told him: "Mind your own business.". And he said these three issues of racism and poverty and militarism are going to destroy this nation. They see the children, degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. 0000012562 00000 n 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. 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. Dr. So, that's all I had to say. Freedom's Ring: King's "I Have a Dream" Speech, Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution, Martin Luther King, Jr. - Political and Social Views, Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam (CALCAV). 0000002025 00000 n On April 15, 1967, King participated and spoke at an anti-war march from Manhattan's Central Park to the United Nations. We most provide the medical aid that is badly needed, making it available in this country if necessary. The initiative to stop it must be ours. This Hindu-Moslem-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John: Let us love one another; for love is God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. Some, like civil rights leader Ralph Bunche, the NAACP, and the editorial page writers of The Washington Post[3] and The New York Times[4] called the Riverside Church speech a mistake on King's part. [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. 2/QB(yQVz^*oU.FW But they didn't stay for the speech in its entirety. But this is, again, precisely what King was concerned about, putting the lives of everyday Americans on the line in a fight that was not winnable and a war that was unjust. The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on We still have a choice today; nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation. I join with you in this meeting because I am in deepest agreement with the aims and work of the organization which has brought us together: Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. Undeterred, King, Spock, and Harry Belafonte led 10,000 demonstrators on an anti-war march to the United Nations on 15 April 1967. But they asked and rightly so what about Vietnam? 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. What liberators? The peasants may well wonder if we plan to build our new Vietnam on such grounds as these? For as popular as King was, he was a Nobel laureate, there were only one or two news crews who actually came to see the speech that night, Neal. How are you, sir? PDF. "[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. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. It was a tactical mistake. That's my own personal assessment. All rights reserved. 0000003996 00000 n 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. At the time, civil rights leaders publicly condemned him for it. Dr. King is trying to get the point across that our country is being unfair to others. If you remember the speech, tell us what it meant at that time, and does the principle of nonviolence apply in the age of al-Qaida? They must see Americans as strange liberators. 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. The truth of these words is beyond doubt but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Please c, ontact Intellectual Properties Management (IPM), the exclusive licensor of the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. at. And I think that if nothing else what we need to wrestle with in a contemporary sense, Neal, is the question of whether or not there is another way that King would have us consider were he allowed to do. And when you see the piece on "Lens" tonight that's the part of the speech that set off so many of those who are in King's inner circle, so many scholars who have written about King.