Rhetorical Analysis Of A Time To Break The Silence-Beyond Vietnam

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.

In a speech Rev. Martian Luther King Jr. gave to the Riverside Church in New York City, King conveyed his beliefs on the horrific atrocities currently present in the Vietnam War. King began by stating that no longer Vietnam was a oversea issues, "Vietnam [had to be brought] into the field of my moral vision". Likewise, King stated the issues at home such as the overwhelming majority of the nation's poor were fighting in the Vietnam War. In King's mindset, a nation that held it self on the acclaim that all men are created equal, was in fact not equal. King uses a variety of persuasive elements including, but not limited to: concrete examples and analysis, a robust tone, and powerful rhetoric. While King was only one voice out of many of those who were on both sides of the war, King still managed to change others views about politics through the usage of his persuasive elements. In all, King posses a natural eloquence that allows him to spread his message far and wide with the hopes that America will never forget the testatrices that took place at home and oversea during the Vietnam War.

The Vietnam War that commenced on November 1, 1955, and ended on April 30, 1975, took the soldiers through a devastating experience. Many lost their lives while others maimed as the war unfolded into its full magnitude. The book Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam by Bernard Edelman presents a series of letters written by the soldiers to their loved ones and families narrating the ordeals and experiences in the Warfield. In the book, Edelman presents the narrations of over 200 letters reflecting the soldiers’ experiences on the battlefield. While the letters were written many decades ago, they hold great significance as they can mirror the periods and the contexts within which they were sent. This paper takes into account five letters from different timelines and analyzes them against the events that occurred in those periods vis a vis their significance. The conclusion will also have a personal opinion and observation regarding the book and its impacts.

In April 1971 John Kerry gave his famous statement before the Senate of Foreign Relations Committee, “Vietnam Veterans Against the War”. He presented this speech as a plea from the veterans across the country to the government of the United States to bring an end to the war in Vietnam. Kerry’s speech was used to enlighten the committee about the true horrors going on in Vietnam and was effective in doing so. He used various examples of what had happened and what was still occurring. Kerry also explained the tragic effect of the many who did return home from the war. By doing so he was able to bring attention to the truth about the Vietnam War which so many americans had ignored.

When Martin Luther King talked about the problems of war and militarism, he speaks about the significant loss of American lives during the Vietnam War (which we now know was a war we couldn’t win) and how it

Ho Chi Minh’s September 2, 1945 speech was given in front of hundreds of thousands of people with strong patriotic tone and diction recognized by any American inclined to listen. Ho pointed to the enslavement of the Vietnamese that had been enforced by the French Imperialists and how the continuous bartering of the Vietnamese territory by the French to the Japanese plundered the Vietnamese people into a state of extreme poverty. Time and time again, the Viet-Minh had worked to help the French stay afloat from Japanese Axis Powers and even offered to let the French join in the fight against the Japanese throughout WWII; however, the Viet-Minh was still met with bitter destruction of Vietnamese freedom and equality. Ho used his speech to

C3. A quotation that stands out to me in All Quiet on the Western Front is, “But on the last day astonishing number of English heavies opened up on us with high-explosive drumming ceaselessly on our position, so that we suffered severely and came back only eighty strong” (14). This quote is significant because it suggests that more than half of the Second Company has been killed. Paul Bäumer’s tone suggests that various deaths are something

The Vietnam war was an absolutely brutal time in American history. The war lasted for the majority of the 1960s and left many young men dead. The short story “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien and the film Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam give us just a glance into the war by giving using the three themes of fear, pressures, and blame/guilt to embody the concept of war and how it absolutely changes a person. War not only destroys countries, but it destroys people.

In the incredible book, All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque, the reader follows Paul Baumer, a young man who enlisted in the war. The reader goes on a journey and watches Paul and his comrades face the sheer brutality of war. In this novel, the author tries to convey the fact that war should not be glorified. Through bombardment, gunfire, and the gruesome images painted by the author, one can really understand what it would have been like to serve on the front lines in the Great War. The sheer brutality of the war can be portrayed through literary devices such as personification, similes, and metaphors.

Imagine being so scared to die, that you must kill and attack another to survive. Paul, from All Quiet on the Western Front, was caught in this situation, during his time in war. He had been hiding in a trench one day, waiting for a skirmish to cease. A French soldier leapt into the trench that Paul was hiding in, and out of fear Paul immediately began to stab him. Paul was so petrified that he did not even realize what he had done, until he felt the blood on his hands. Paul stayed in the trench as he reflected on his actions, melancholy. In, All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, the author created a depressing mood throughout the passage, with the use of gory, sorrowful diction and imagery. This causes readers to feel very

All Quiet on the Western Front is a story about the horrors of World War I from the perspective of a German soldier named Paul. Throughout Paul’s service he sees and does horrible things, becoming disillusioned with the ideals of the German high command and of world leaders in general. This book makes it clear not only that the generation of boys and men that were sent out to fight feel betrayed by the previous generation and by their government, but also that there was a huge gap between the soldiers and everyone else around them.

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.

The speech “Beyond Vietnam- A time to break silence” by Martin Luther King Jr in New York City delivered in 1967. Martin Luther King Jr points out some very good points with inequality in America with civil rights in Vietnam. African- Americans are treated differently in America and don’t have that many rights, but in Vietnam they are treated equal. African- Americans don’t have equal rights but are expected to risk their live to fight in the war for something they don’t even have.