Analysis: Martin Luther King, Jr.: "Beyond Vietnam"
"Beyond Vietnam" is a pivotal sermon delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1967, at Riverside Church in New York City, in which he articulates his opposition to the Vietnam War. King, a prominent civil rights leader, argues that the issues of civil rights and the war are interconnected, challenging the notion that they should be treated separately. He highlights the detrimental impact of the war on domestic civil rights efforts, pointing out how resources and attention are diverted from pressing social justice issues in the United States.
King emphasizes the moral and humanitarian consequences of the war, particularly its disproportionate effects on African Americans, who were being drafted to fight for freedoms not afforded to them at home. He critiques U.S. foreign policy, portraying it as an imperialistic venture that undermines the self-determination of nations. In his call for peace, King advocates for an immediate cessation of military actions and urges a reevaluation of American values, promoting a commitment to combating poverty, racism, and militarism. Through "Beyond Vietnam," King seeks to unite the peace and civil rights movements, establishing a vision for a more equitable society that transcends national boundaries.
Analysis: Martin Luther King, Jr.: "Beyond Vietnam"
Date: April 4, 1967
Author: Martin Luther King, Jr.
Genre: sermon; speech
Summary
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was easily the most celebrated civil rights leader of the 1960s, but his concerns about American society were not limited to domestic issues. He also had strong opinions about American foreign policy, particularly the ever-growing involvement of the United States in the Vietnam conflict. A committed pacifist, King had deep reservations about the war from its beginnings. However, he largely kept these criticisms to himself until April 4, 1967, when he publicly announced his opposition to the Vietnam War in a sermon delivered at the Riverside Church in New York City. Because he was the most influential civil rights leader of the era, King's opposition to the Vietnam War had significant implications for the civil rights movement, its relationship with Lyndon Johnson's administration, and the antiwar movement in general. His sermon suggested that the civil rights movement should not limit itself to domestic issues, created a permanent rift with the Johnson administration, and expanded support for the antiwar movement.
Defining Moment
Without a doubt the most significant domestic issue of the 1960s was the civil rights movement, while the most significant foreign policy issue was the Vietnam War. These two issues are often treated separately, but King's “Beyond Vietnam” argued that civil rights and the Vietnam War were not necessarily unrelated.
As a Christian pacifist and advocate of nonviolent resistance, King had always privately opposed the Vietnam War; however, like the majority of other civil rights leaders, he feared an antiwar stance would alienate President Johnson from supporting civil rights legislation. As well, King believed Johnson's pledge that he would seek peace negotiations with the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV, or North Vietnam) as soon as possible.
King was hardly alone. The Urban League, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) supported Johnson's policies on Vietnam or avoided taking a position on the war. However, as early as 1966, the leaders of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the SNCC openly expressed opposition to the war.
King recognized that there was a deep and significant fissure forming in the civil rights movement over the war, and he feared the conflict's continuation would lead to a permanent division in the movement. Equally significant, as the war continued and American involvement escalated, King became alarmed by the large number of black soldiers being killed. Understandably, he believed that these men should have been in the United States fighting for their civil rights. He also recognized that the war was distracting the Johnson administration from achieving its domestic goals, both the Great Society and equality for blacks. For all these reasons, King decided to announce publicly his opposition to the Vietnam War in a sermon at the Riverside Church on April 4, 1967.
Biography
Born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Martin Luther King, Jr. followed in the footsteps of his father, becoming a Baptist minister after receiving a doctorate in theology from Boston University in 1955. King gained national attention for his involvement in the Montgomery Bus Boycott that same year. In 1957, King helped form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), an organization he would lead for the next eleven years. In 1963, King helped launch a collective movement of boycotts, demonstrations, and protests in the Deep South, most notably in Birmingham, Alabama. These events and King's “Letter from Birmingham Jail” brought national attention to the civil rights movement and his leadership. To pressure President John F. Kennedy to support civil rights legislation, King and hundreds of thousands of supporters gathered around the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, where King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech on August 28, 1963. King sought to galvanize public support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended legally required public segregation, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which ensured and protected African Americans' right to vote. King's activism expanded beyond civil rights to economic advancement for blacks. On April 4, 1967 he publically expressed his opposition to the Vietnam War. Tragically, he was assassinated by James Earl Ray exactly one year later in Memphis, Tennessee.
Document Analysis
On April 4, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. declared his opposition to the Vietnam War in a sermon known as “Beyond Vietnam” at the Riverside Church in New York City. King sought to explain how and why he had reached an antiwar position and how his antiwar views related to the larger civil rights movement.
His address began by noting that many people had questioned why he would speak out against the war when it seemingly had little to do with the civil rights movement and could, in fact, alienate supporters in Lyndon Johnson's administration. King challenged the notion that the two issues were unrelated. The Vietnam War drew significant money, resources, and manpower away from civil rights causes. Additionally, King recognized an enormous irony: the draft sent thousands of African Americans to Vietnam to protect the rights and freedoms of the Vietnamese when African Americans did not enjoy equal rights in their own country. He maintained that he “could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor.”
King's position as a Christian minister, advocate of nonviolence, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, also clearly led him to oppose the war on moral and religious grounds. King argued that his religious and moral beliefs required him to “speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation” and even “for those it calls ‘enemy.’”
He reminded his audience that the United States had long opposed Vietnamese self-determination by first ignoring Ho Chi Minh's Declaration of Independence in 1945, then supporting French colonial rule from 1946–1954, and finally supporting the division of the nation and the rule of various South Vietnamese autocrats. While the American government had promised the Vietnamese people peace and prosperity, they had broken both promises. King asserted, “We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. We have destroyed their land and their crops….We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men.” To King, it was not surprising that many Vietnamese did not support the American presence. He reminded his audience that even many American soldiers had come to understand the immoral nature of the conflict.
King maintained that the only way “to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam” was to end American participation in the war. The United States should immediately end all bombing campaigns in North and South Vietnam, establish a unilateral cease-fire, push for an end to fighting in Laos and the rest of Southeast Asia, accept that the National Liberation Front (NLF) had support in South Vietnam, include them in any negotiations to end the war, and commit to removing all American troops from Vietnam as outlined in the 1954 Geneva Agreement.
King concluded that American actions in Vietnam were part of a larger foreign policy problem. He maintained that, under the guise of Cold War defense, the United States had continually intervened in the affairs of other nations. He called on the American people to make a new commitment to a “revolution of values,” which included “eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism.” Embracing these principles was the only way of creating a more just and fair world.
Bibliography and Additional Reading
Garrow, David. Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. New York: William Morrow, 2004. Print.
Eldridge, Lawrence Allen. Chronicles of a Two-Front War: Civil Rights and Vietnam in the African American Press. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2011. Print.
Lucks, Daniel S. Selma to Saigon: The Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky, 2004. Print.
Westheider, James E. The African-American Experience in Vietnam: Brothers in Arms. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2007. Print.