One of his great advisers and great admirers, Stanley Levison, who was always with Dr. King in his corner, was against Martin giving this speech. Full-Text and Audio Excerpts of Martin Luther King's speech "Beyond Vietnam" April 4, 1967 - Riverside Church, NYC, available on this site. So, that's all I had to say. President Obama, this is one campaign promise that he has kept. Many misconceptions held by the status quo are raised during this interview, yet despite Dr. King's answers, those misconceptions have persisted. Date 1967-04-18 Asset type Episode Topics Social Issues Media type Sound Duration 00:29:41 It was the speech he labored over the most. 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 major speech at Riverside Church in New York City, followed several interviews[2] and several other public speeches in which King came out against the Vietnam War and the policies that created it. 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. So practically everybody in his inner circle was against him giving it - one, because they knew the kind of pushback he was going to get. 50 years ago, on April 4, 1967 at Riverside Church, in NYC, Martin Luther King delivered his powerful and most controversial speech, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence”. I'm Neal Conan. Of course, again, that philosophy, when the papers got a hold of him the next day, that strategy didn't work so well. Tavis Smiley joins us today from the Sheryl Flowers Studios in Los Angeles. Mr. SMILEY: Well, I think the question is whether or not - I hear your point, Neal, and I take it. Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence By Rev. This is where people started to break away. "[10], King also criticized American opposition to North Vietnam's land reforms. "It basically ruins their relationship," says Smiley. To install click the Add extension button. I want to thank you, as I know listeners do as well, for your service to this country. The New York Times calls it wasteful and self-defeating. There are people who have come to see the moral imperative of equality, but who cannot yet see the moral imperative of world brotherhood. And let's see if we can get another caller on the line. And there was a 18-year-old black Marine that picked me up since I couldn't walk, got me away from bombs and saved my life. James L. Bevel dies at 72; civil rights activist and top lieutenant to King", "Martin Luther King Jr. made our nation uncomfortable", "Martin Luther King Jr. as Democratic Socialist.". Of course, the Nobel Peace Laureate, a man who clearly believed in nonviolence down to his very soul... CONAN: ...but he'd wanted to give that speech two years earlier. Recent reports regarding human rights in Vietnam. 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. 736 Words3 Pages. April 30 "Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam" May "To Charter our Course for the Future" Frogmore, SC Through his use of imagery, diction, and parallel structure, Martin Luther King Jr associates the war in Vietnam with injustice in his famous speech, “Beyond Vietnam – A Time to Break Silence.” Martin Luther King Jr. applies imagery throughout his speech in order to illustrate the horrors of the war to arouse anger at its atrocities and injustice. As the head of state, I cannot necessarily embrace the same principles that, as you point out, Martin Luther King, a prophet, an outsider could embrace. It will enhance any encyclopedic page you visit with the magic of the WIKI 2 technology. A combative interview, important, for its proceeding Dr. King's Beyond Vietnam Speech. CONAN: And there's an interesting point you also make in the film that - or at least some of the participants in your film make - that were he alive today and saying the kinds of things you would expect him to say, given that speech, he probably would not be invited to many Martin Luther King Day celebrations. Afghanistan, not so much. The speech began conventionally. 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? CONAN: Howard, thanks very much for the call. 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. Martin Luther King’s Purpose in His Speech Beyond Vietnam: a Time to Break Silence [Internet]. Communism will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. I guess the question now is whether or not Afghanistan is a war of necessity or a war of choice. "[23] 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. (That is exactly one year before he was assassinated.) 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. That's my own personal assessment. Dr. Benjamin Spock (2nd-L), Martin Luther King, Jr. (C), Father Frederick Reed and Cleveland Robinson lead a huge pacifist rally protesting U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war, Mar. 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. "[24], 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. MLK Beyond Vietnam _7 minutes.mp3 Rabbi Arthur Waskow worked with Cantor Abbe Lyons when she decided to shape a new Haftarah—the Prophetic passage chanted on Shabbat—from passages of Dr. King’s prophetic “Beyond Vietnam” speech at Riverside Church in New York City on April 4, 1967—exactly one year before he was killed. Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, Spring Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam. By the time King made the "Beyond Vietnam" speech, Smiley tells host Neal Conan, "he had fallen off already the list of most-admired Americans as tallied by Gallup every year." 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. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. HOWARD: How are you doing, Tavis? Martin Luther King, who was already beginning to lose some of his influence, nevertheless made a huge challenge to the establishment. Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence is an anti-Vietnam war speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1967. We appreciate that. That speech, entitled Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break The Silence, was an unequivocal denunciation of America’s involvement in that Southeast Asian conflict. 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. You could also do it yourself at any point in time. But the entire speech, of course, thankfully, was recorded on audio. That's what I feel. Congratulations on this excellent venture… what a great idea! It was, to your earlier point, the most controversial speech he ever gave. And the last poll taken in his life by Harris, the Harris Poll, Neal, found that nearly three quarters of the American people, nearly three quarters, had turned against Martin on this issue, and 55 percent of his own people, black folk, had turned against him. "[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. But most Americans, I think, do not know this speech, "Beyond Vietnam.". CONAN: And the place - choice of place is very interesting too. He gave a famous speech about the fact that he - when stabbed in New York at a book signing, the blade was just a scintilla away from his aorta. The United States Congress was spending more and more on the military and less and less on anti-poverty programs at the same time. CONAN: And one thing that I was unaware of was the timing of the speech in that he had wanted to say something along these lines. This is TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News in Washington. That Vietnam was a mistake. I just wanted to say that I was an 18-year-old Marine in Vietnam when the speech was given, and I didn't hear it until three or four years ago. WALT (Caller): Yes. And it was on that occasion that he - when he saw those pictures, said, I have to speak out about this. I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not of the ideologies of the Liberation Front, not of the junta in … He was stabbed at one time. Read The Full Text And Listen To Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Beyond Vietnam" Speech. Martin Luther King April 4, 1967 Riverside Church, New York City 2 Tonight, however, I wish not to speak with Hanoi and the NLF, but rather to my fellow Americans, who, with me, bear the greatest responsibility in ending a conflict that has exacted a heavy price on both continents. Hundreds of folks listened outside on loudspeakers. All rights reserved. So all that we have is less than 10 minutes of video of the speech. Mr. SMILEY: Yeah. 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. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. Smiley spoke with both scholars and friends of King, including Cornel West, Vincent Harding and Susannah Heschel. "[15][16], The "Beyond Vietnam" speech reflected King's evolving political advocacy in his later years, which paralleled the teachings of the progressive Highlander Research and Education Center, with which he was affiliated. Martin built his speech that night, Neal, around three major points: around increasing militarism, around escalating poverty and around the issue of racism. Martin Luther King Jr is an African American preacher and civil rights activist that along with every other African American male and female in 1976 was waging a war in America for their not-so-natural born rights. This speech was enormously controversial. 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. At the U.N. King also brought up issues of civil rights and the draft. They brought in extra chairs. 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