beyond vietnam speech analysis

I come to this platform tonight to make a passionate plea to my beloved nation. 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. Though her portions be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong He says, “ And we must rejoice as well, for surely this is the first time in our nation’s 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. This is a case of getting out of a certain frame of mind, of a way of thinking about ourselves and about the world.”. After the French were defeated, it looked as if independence and land reform would come again through the Geneva Agreement. In the strife of truth and Falsehood, for the good or evil side; 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? The speech is considered a turning point in the public opinion’s of the Vietnam War. 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. We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men. It is not addressed to China or to Russia. Even though they quoted the American Declaration of Independence in their own document of freedom, we refused to recognize them. If we will make the right choice, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. He means to make people ask questions of themselves and ponder over the meaninglessness and uselessness of war and what would remain behind once the war was over. 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. However, the persuasiveness of his speeches does not come solely from his ability to connect with his audience’s emotions but from an extraordinary ability to reason and validate his point. I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not of the ideologies of the Liberation Front, not of the junta in Saigon, but simply of the people who have been living under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. While his I Have a Dream speech is considered his best one, his other speeches too offer a glimpse of his powerful rhetoric and his art of persuasion. While his words clearly deliver his disappointment over the path American government had chosen, it also expresses a clear intention to not be with the wrong and instead listen to one’s inner voice. Though the cause of evil prosper, yet ‘tis truth alone is strong Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence was actually a collaborative work largely written by a close associate and friend of Martin Luther King, Jr. —- Vincent Harding. Is our nation planning to build on political myth again, and then shore it up upon the power of new violence? 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. He does it to engage people’s imagination and to awaken their consciences. He graduated with a Hons. 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. 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. We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.”. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Apart from being an advocate of Mahatma Gandhi’s idea of nonviolence, Martin Luther King Jr was a great leader and rhetor of all times. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. What do they think of our condoning the violence which led to their own taking up of arms? Christina Knight is Managing Editor of Institutional Marketing at WNET. He notes, “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”. It … Jamie Mason Ms. Lowe English 1102 TR, 8:25 2 February 2013 A Time to do What is Right In Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech “Beyond Vietnam—A 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. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom, and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism (unquote). It was his first major public antiwar speech and a powerful warning that a rise in racial hatred, militarism and … King’s “Beyond Vietnam” speech covers a great deal of information, and we encourage teachers to break the document into at least two parts to make the material more manageable for students. So they go, primarily women and children and the aged. King Jr makes a strong statement against war and his speech successfully evokes compassion and sympathy for the poor and the weak in both Vietnam and America. I heard him speak so many times. 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. In his speech on the meaninglessness of the Vietnam war and to persuade the audience to listen to its own conscience rather than to conform to the idea of war in the name of patriotism, King Jr draws from the realms of economy, society, polity as well as religion and philosophy. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. Some would be uninterested and some not knowing what to do. Right at the outset, King involves religious figures to establish the credibility for his reason and to prove that war was improper and inhuman. The problems being faced by either America or Vietnam were never going to be solved through rifles but through peaceful and nonviolent action. America never was America to 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. They question our political goals and they deny the reality of a peace settlement from which they will be excluded. How can they trust us when now we charge them with violence after the murderous reign of Diem and charge them with violence while we pour every new weapon of death into their land? Dr. King’s purpose is to make the church leaders he is speaking to aware that the time has come for them to speak out loudly in … The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation and for those it calls “enemy,” for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers. The truth of these words is beyond doubt, but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. What then can I say to the Vietcong or to Castro or to Mao as a faithful minister of this One? Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this 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. Instead, King chooses to use facts to show what an illness war is. They see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers. As we counsel young men concerning military service, we must clarify for them our nation’s role in Vietnam and challenge them with the alternative of conscientious objection. In this way, he condemns and questions the Vietnam war and its relevance at a time when America had several of its own major problems to address. Reflecting on what speech vietnam beyond jr luther martin king analysis s going on here. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. 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. Fifty years ago in 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a speech that startled even many of his supporters in the Civil Rights Movement. 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.”. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. And every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one’s tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing — embracing and unconditional love for all mankind. Apart from highlighting the wicked nature of the war, King Jr ‘s speech also sets the urgency for protest. HistoryNet Staff. A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. They wander into the hospitals with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one Vietcong-inflicted injury. This Hindu-Muslim-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate — ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John: “Let us love one another, for love is God. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. Have they forgotten that my ministry is in obedience to the One who loved his enemies so fully that he died for them? 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? However, all wanted clarity on the subject. In Doctor Martin Luther King’s Speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,” King reaches out to his “fellow Americans” (2) to speak for those who are hurting so that they will come to the agreement that violence is not the solution. 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. We must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every creative method of protest possible. The war with Vietnam was just as unjust as unnecessary. Martin Luther King, Jr., giving his speech Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence at Riverside Church in NYC, April 4, 1967. If we will but make the right choice, we will be able to speed up the day, all over America and all over the world, when “justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”, WNET is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor.”, “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. America will be! Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world. More insightful one beloved nation what do they think of our past and present policies and... For background on the audience will also be evaluated arrival as full,. The context of the great religions have seen a great light. ” we in the hope that love somehow! And nonviolent action faced with the fact, my friends, that is. Now there is such a tragic Time raise the questions they can not.. 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