A Comparison Of Vietnam And Martin Luther King's Speech

In Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence”, King asserts that the war in Vietnam is a “symptom” (7) of a much larger disease that affects the “American spirit” (7). The disease King mentions is causing destruction where ever it is found, and in the case of the Vietnam war, it has led to their oppression and the death of people. In the section, Strange Liberators, King states, “They move sadly and apathetically as we heard them off the land of their fathers into concentration camps where minimal social needs are rarely met. They know they must move or be destroyed by our bombs” (8). King believed that the disease was leading the United States to take drastic actions against the Vietnamese people. The U.S.

Secretary of State John Kerry once said “I saw courage both in the Vietnam War and in the struggle to stop it. I learned that patriotism includes protest, not just military service.” The Vietnam War was a conflict that lasted from 1956-1975 which the United States participated in along with the South Vietnamese who fought against the Communist North Vietnamese. Many Americans strongly disapproved of the war which caused many protests and riots. The war lasted 25 years killing many people and eventually the North Vietnamese won. The Vietnam War was important to Americans back home because it tested the citizen’s right to free speech, effected future foreign policy, and created many issues for returning veterans.

The Vietnam War lasted longer, bloodier, and more hostile than any U.S. President or American citizen imagined. Lyndon Johnson faced many other enemies during the war such as the duration, the immense number of deaths, and for the first time in most American’s history, failure. Through deep evaluation of Lyndon B. Johnson’s foreign policies as President during the Vietnam war, failure was a recurring outcome, as he faced military and political difficulties over having complete authority over political decisions made leading to the misuse of his respective power, receiving split support through torn Americans at home, and his accord to deport so many troops into combat in Vietnam.

The type of logic King uses arent numbers or precentages but simple logic everyone should be able to relate as a fact. King states in his speech “ I have told them that Movotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they ask-and rightly so- what about vietnam? They ask if our own nation wasnt using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted.” King relates the violent protests used by African Americans to the violence and force the United States uses in war to create the changes

Throughout America’s history, few things have left the nation in such controversial turmoil as the Vietnam War. With an American death toll of almost 60,000 troops, the Vietnam War has gone down in infamy as one of the most tremendous struggles Americans have faced both overseas and on the home front. Because of the tumultuous controversies caused by the war, Americans split into two social factions – those against the war and those who supported it. During the years of 1961-1975 - the era in which the war had its greatest effect on Americans - the population of citizens from 18-35 years old and the Presidency were both affected irreversibly.

By the time the of its conclusion, the Vietnam War was considered as a waste of life and deemed unnecessary by the American population. Sending American men to die in a foreign country in the name of capitalism did not resonate well with agitated families. Government officials, however, held a different stance on the war. Among those government officials, was President John F. Kennedy. “[JFK] became president in 1961 having proclaimed Vietnam the ‘cornerstone of the free world in Southeast Asia’” ( Keene et. al., p. 788). President Kennedy, fully committed to preserving capitalism, replies to a letter from a distraught sister whose brother was killed in the war while also detailing the need for U.S. involvement in Vietnam. President Kennedy justifies the reason for American lives in Vietnam being due to, “[determining] that [Vietnam] must not fall under Communist domination” (Johnson 275), confirming Kennedy’s beliefs in a communist-free world. Although the Kennedy Administration opted for a “middle path” by

The US has been known to diverge from its once-isolationist state, engaging in international affairs like World War I and several other events alike. It’s therefore no surprise that the US intervened in the Vietnam War during the 1960’s. At the time, President Lyndon B. Johnson put forth new ideas, plans and tactics to help and protect the South Vietnamese and surrounding countries from communist influence. However, the United States’ initial goals and plans didn’t always go the way they had expected. Indeed, Johnson’s Vietnam policies failed because of his unreasonable military strategies and his inefficient political actions.

Martin Luther King, Jr. is one of the most influential people of this century. People remember King for his humanity, leadership and his love of his fellow man regardless of their skin color. Through reading King’s writings and speeches, that changed the world, one can learn that his values of integrity, love, truth, fairness, caring, non-violence, and peace were what motivated him to greatness. One of his less known speeches is “A Time to Break the Silence”, this speech was different than most of King’s speeches; the theme of this speech is not civil rights movement, but Vietnam. King addresses the war in Vietnam and he gives reasons why it should not continue.

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. 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 opposition of the war in Vietnam. He offers many practical reasons for the opposition, as well as spiritual and moral reasons. He then outlines the history of the war in Vietnam, showing that he is not simply preaching about religious ideals. He also makes an

In the speech “ Beyond Vietnam- A Time to Break Silence”, Dr. King speaks out on the issues brought upon by the Vietnam War and how it has a negative impact on African Americans. He displays a frustrated and irritated tone to shed light on this problem in order to entice anger within the African American community of Harlem and call them to fight against social injustice and fight for their civil rights.

Martin Luther King Jr. uses seven arguments to state his opposition to the Vietnam War. One argument King makes is how African Americans fight for the Vietnamese’s liberties when African Americans are not offered the same liberties back in America. King is left disappointed and shocked when he realizes the United States is sending African Americans to Southeast Asia to guarantee the Vietnamese’s freedom when in America they are not even acknowledged as human beings. King draws up the conclusion that he cannot be silent, instead, he will speak up against the American government to protest the injustice African Americans are facing. The American government is taking young African American men who faced discrimination in his own country leaves

A quarter of a century after the Fall of Saigon, Vietnam continues to exercise a powerful hold of the American psyche. No deployment of American troops abroad is considered without the infusion of the Vietnam question. No formulation of strategic policy can be completed without weighing the possibility of Vietnanization. Even the politics of a person cannot be discussed without taking into account his opinion on the Vietnam Ware. This national obsession with Vietnam is perfectly national when viewed from a far. It was the only war that the United States has ever lost. It defined an era of American history that must rank with the depression as one of this nation’s most traumatic. It concluded with Watergate and led many to believe that the

In Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech “Beyond Vietnam — A Time to Break Silence”, there are a couple of features, such as appeals to logic, irony, and appeals to emotion, that is used to build an argument that persuades the audience that American involvement in Vietnam is unjust.

The Vietnam War is one of the most controversial topics in American History. Historians debate the United States’ right to enter Vietnam, the level of involvement in the conflict, and the success or failure of achieving American goals of involvement. In this extended

Time does not heal all wounds, though it does impose fresh ones that require consideration. Still, even though the Cold War is over, there are many reasons why the history of the Vietnam War should remain fresh and the effort to grasp both the war and the antiwar opposition remain essential. The Vietnam War is, of course, an episode in military history. The episode’s setting is during the Cold War in Vietnam and the central theme of the episode was to pit capitalism and or democracy against communism. In light of this, the movement against the Vietnam War could be said as one of the greatest triumphs in democracy. The war’s purpose was to instill democracy, yet the war was waged with a lack of a constitutional warrant. In an authoritarian