VIETNAM WAR

The Vietnam War (1961-1975)

Four years after the start of American involvement in Vietnam, Martin Luther King, Jr. issued his first statement on the War. While addressing a crowd at Howard University on 1 March 1965, King uncharacteristically concluded his talk with a discussion of the Vietnam War, calling for a negotiated peace settlement. Following this statement, King was encouraged by Stanley Levison and Bayard Rustin to focus more attention on condemning U.S. involvement in Vietnam. On 15 June 1965, at the Summer Community Organization and Political Education (SCOPE) orientation, King heeded their calls by delivering the speech, "Why Are You Here?" During his speech, King called for the application of "nonviolent direct action in international dimensions" and proposed a negotiated settlement coordinated by the United Nations.

King formally announced his opposition to the Vietnam War during the Ninth Annual Convention of Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in August 1965. King's call for negotiations with the National Liberation Front and an immediate halt to the bombings of North Vietnam drew criticism from government officials as well as his SCLC colleagues. Following this backlash, King was advised to remain quiet on the issue of Vietnam and focus on civil rights.

Fearful of alienating President Lyndon Johnson, King continued for much of 1966 to approach the issue of Vietnam with some wariness and reticence. However, after Johnson announced plans to divert funds from the War on Poverty to Vietnam in December of 1966, King began to reassert his criticism of the War. With the aid of Levison, King prepared a statement to Senator Abraham Ribicoff's Government Operations Committee, which directly addressed Johnson's decision to increase military involvement in Vietnam.

By January 1967, many of King's closest advisors, including Levison, James Bevel, and his wife Coretta, urged him to direct more attention to Vietnam. In February, King delivered a speech entitled "The Casualties of the War in Vietnam." Addressing a panel of anti-war senators, King asserted that America's involvement in Vietnam had caused the public to forget about the civil rights movement. Despite the criticism directed at him for such remarks, King continued to campaign against the war, participating in an antiwar march in Chicago on 26 March 1967.

On 4 April 1967, King made his most public and comprehensive statement against the War. Addressing a crowd of 3,000 people in Riverside Church in New York City, King delivered a speech entitled "Beyond Vietnam." King pointed out that the war effort was "taking the young black men who have been crippled by our society and sending them 8,000 miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem." Although some activists and newspapers supported King's ideas, most responded with criticism. King's civil rights colleagues also began to disassociate themselves with his radical stance, as the NAACP issued a statement against merging the civil rights movement and peace movement. King remained undeterred by such attacks and just two weeks later, led thousands of demonstrators on an antiwar march to the United Nations.

Later that month, King and Benjamin Spock developed plans for "Vietnam Summer," a project which would mobilize grassroots opposition to the war by developing a nationwide network of volunteers. King, along with Joseph Rauh, vice-chairman of Americans for Democratic Action, organized another antiwar group, "Negotiation Now," which sought to obtain one million signatures from people opposing the War.

King continued to actively participate in the antiwar movement up until his assassination on 4 April 1968. Nearly five years after King's death, American troops withdrew from Vietnam and a peace treaty declaring the independent nations of South and North Vietnam was signed in 1973.

SOURCES

Clayborne Carson, ed., Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. (New York: Warner Books, 1998)

David Garrow, Bearing the Cross (New York: Vintage Books, 1988)

Martin Luther King, Jr., "Address on Selma March, 9 March 1965."

Martin Luther King, Jr., "Why Are You Here?," Address delivered at the Summer Community Organization and Political Education (SCOPE) orientation, 15 June 1965.

Martin Luther King, Jr., "Draft, Address delivered at Mass Rally at the Ninth Annual Convention of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference".

Radical Times: The Antiwar Movement of the 1960s. August 16, 2001. http://library.thinkquest.org/27942/index.htm

LINKS

"Beyond Vietnam," 4 April 1967

"Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution," 9 April 1968

"The Casualties of the War in Vietnam," 25 February 1967

Carson, Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Beyond Vietnam