Martin Luther King Beyond Vietnam Summary

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

Martin Luther King made some excellent remarks concerning the vulnerable and oppressed populations. I am fascinated by his work ethic and passion for people. I only wish I could have been able to meet him. In this speech, he expresses his concern that the country is putting a lot of stress and burden on the vulnerable, oppressed populations. King states that “it is estimated that we spend $500,000 to kill each enemy soldier, while we spend only fifty-three dollars for each person classified as poor, and much of that fifty-three dollars goes for salaries to people that are not poor. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor, and attack it as such” (King, 1967). It is hard for me to believe that such a significant amount of money was estimated to be spent

Illustrations of MLK's frustrations can be found in the 1966 document Beyond Vietnam “It seemed as if there were a real promise of hope for the poor, both black and white, through the property program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watch 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 energy in rehabilitation of it’s poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic, destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and attack it as such.”

Going off of what Kennedy said, the US is following a path to a violent revolution. MLK believes that there is still a choice to be made on whether to keep going with the violence in Vietnam, or to exist peacefully. He emphasizes that the US is only acting on interest and not caring about the consequences left behind.

I have to say Martin Luther King is an outstanding leader and orator. Before this letter I just read his speech I have a dream. As an outlier towards American society, I could not receive some essential information for the conflict of America racism. This letter discussed more specific information about how the black received the inequality treatment. In this letter, Martin said he could not stand the racism in Birmingham. When the mainstream only had racial segregation and worse racial policies, Martin thought he had to keep the active behaviors to deal with it. He disagreed with someone who supported negotiation way with government because he knew only negotiation could not get any advantages for changing of racism. In addition, he blamed

He spoke about watching the war play out on T.V. and witnessing people die. When he walked the streets he saw ”desperate, angry, and rejected young men.” He used his own Christian Leadership conference as anti-war persuasion. By using personal experiences as evidence Martin L. King Jr. effectively

In 1967, in his book Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? Martin Luther King "criticized Johnson's War on Poverty for being too piecemeal," saying that programs created under the "war on poverty" such as "housing programs, job training and family counseling" all had "a fatal disadvantage [because] the programs have never proceeded on a coordinated basis...[and noted that] at no time has a total, coordinated and fully adequate program been conceived." In his speech on April 4, 1967 at Riverside Church in New City, King connected the war in Vietnam with the "war on poverty": "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.

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.

The title of this passage is “Beyond Vietnam -A Time to Break silence Adapted from MLK” the title is based of the writers feeling ,it’s time to break silence .This passage also relates to Martin Luther King .There are many reasons to bring up Vietnam ,There was Black And white people and they had to go to poverty programs ,this gave them hope and basically a redo on life, but when Vietnam had soon been at rise and this caused the program to be broken .Of course America was greedy and did nothing to help these people. Vietnam decided to draw men back to back , more and more ,black and white.The war was a persons and poverty's enemy .

Who Made the Most Impact on the Civil Rights Movement The Civil Rights Movement had many important leaders, like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and President Lyndon B. Johnson, whose actions largely influenced the civil rights movement during the 60's. Of these two great leaders that were active during the Civil Rights Movement, one of them stands out; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is better-known for his efforts in the civil rights movement, for example his belief of nonviolent protests and the forming the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. President Lyndon B. Johnson, however did accomplish more for civil rights than Dr. Martin Luther King, but it was only at the accomplishments of Dr. Martin Luther King and his protesting groups with their peaceful demonstrations.

Martin Luther King Jr. philosophy during the Civil Rights Movement was not only the use of no violence but to love every once without any biasness. That meaning that even though the black people, his people, were oppressed, he would still love everyone, not matter their skin color and treat them the way the bible intended them to be treated, even if they were to use violence against him. He would not retaliate; he would be coupled with them as a person who used violence and force, and dehumanize people who, like him, are also people, neither superior nor inferior to each other. His method of nonviolence caused ‘tension’ between the oppressive ‘white power’ and the people of color. Tension was needed between the clashing opposing forces. However, it was not a fight, not literally, between people but a fight between injustice and justice acts and attitudes towards people. His reasoning behind going to Birmingham was “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” and, “what affects one directly affects all indirectly.” He compared himself to the Apostle Paul who left his village and ‘carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world’. Hence my referring to Dr. King’s fight for justice a ‘gospel of freedom’, a message he spread across the nation to stop and desist all wrongful acts against people

Martin Luther King's teachings stand at the core of the strong foundation of America. Today, terrorism, war and recession are seeping in, cracking that foundation and eroding civil rights and civil liberties. And while the teachings of Dr. King came many years ago, they are especially relevant to us today as we struggle with painful losses and difficult questions about the future of America.

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.

Martin Luther King Jr. was not someone who was only important in our history but he is an important historical figure. Martin Luther king believed in social justice fundamentalism. This is shown in Martin Luther Kind Speech at the Holt Street Baptist Church (1955). There he talks about Rosa Parks who was taken from a bus and carried to jail because she refused to give her seat up to a white person. Martin Luther King was happy that it happened to her because of her integrity and the kind of person she is. He believed that they were not there to advocate violence but instead overcome it. They would do that through the “weapon of protest”. Martin Luther King believed that peaceful protests were the key to change he didn’t believe that killing each other was effective at all.

During the Vietnam War, Martin Luther King was the one who led the peace movement. The peace movement was when Americans gathered to protest to try make the U.S. bring back the troops from Vietnam. Americans did not want the U.S. fighting in the Vietnam War and were looking for peace and ease instead. Many wondered if the peace movement was ever going to end because it clearly did not work since the U.S was still fighting in the Vietnam War. Nobody really listened to MLK in the beginning of this movement. Though, this was not a reason to give up. This only gave most Americans more motivation to keep going. Many doubted the peaceful movement and weren’t sure if it was working. Some even dropped out of this movement because they saw no change.