Martin Luther King A Time to Break Silence part - 7

By 1967, King had become the country's most prominent opponent of the Vietnam War, and a staunch critic of overall U.S. foreign policy, which he deemed militaristic. In his "Beyond Vietnam" speech delivered at New York's Riverside Church on April 4, 1967 -- a year to the day before he was murdered -- King called the United States "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today."

Time magazine called the speech "demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi," and the Washington Post declared that King had "diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people."

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• documentary

[PoetryMan11]

zzahier--thanks for posting this very important and prophetic speech.

It is 42 years later and if one switches Afghanistan, Iraq, radical Islam or

Islamofascism it would be perfectly up to date with our present wars of folly in the mid-east.

How amazing that someone with such moral force and clarity could have gained such a following in the self-absorbed US. How fortunate that his words and images were recorded for our learning and inspiration today.

[nonconservative]

Just something I taught about... Love and faith keeps hope alive till peace can achieve freedom.

[herbgarratt]

God bless this great American, and his message of love and Godly peace and brotherhood.

[KirkCliff2]

Furthermore, I see true parallels between Martin Luther King, Jr. and Julian Assange and the global shocker that was and still is the WikiLeaks' releasing of classified diplomatic cables. Just as King was a visionary whose brazen outspokenness of a war that was so horribly executed and saw myriad innocents executed saw him be labeled a heretic, so, too is Assange today's hero despised by the sheep. If I had any qualms about the legitimacy of Assange, this speech expunged them from my conscience.

[KirkCliff2]

Ironically, I first heard a distorted segment of this chilling speech through Linkin Park's new, anti-nuclearism album, on the song "Wisdom, Justice, and Love." I set out to read a transcript of the speech, and finally, on MLK Day, I chose to hear the speech in its entirety. As the comments have repeatedly stated, 43 years later, this is still a flaw in the historical context of our nation's military actions. The theaters of war and the suits may have changed, but the game and story have not.

[plasticreality01]

@imaginepeace63 It was in his speech Why I oppose the war in Vietnam.

[captcrais101]

@mtw02 it shouldn't be because that is the part of the haert of the speech.

[mtw02]

@imaginepeace63 I was reading the text along with listening and its all been edited.

[imaginepeace63]

I think this entire recorded is edited. It didn't seem unabridged. Where is the part about God being angry with america for being to arrogant? Where is the part "Don't let anyone tell you that America is some messianic force to be. A sort of policeman of the whole world"? Those are very important quotes and they are not in this recording. Or did he say them in different speech?

[rop21234]

Que lição! E que prazer ouvir este discurso.

[drjlo2]

what a disgrace that only 1 reaction to the, poetic, visionary and progressive of the 20th century, let himself be heard here.