Martin Luther King, Jr.: Turn away from war

By Reginald Johnson 

 

 

    NEW HAVEN --- Most people remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr as a great civil rights leader who helped end segregation in the South and bring about a greater level of racial equality in our society. 

 What is not as well known is that King was a peace advocate who spoke out strongly against the Vietnam War and militarism in general the last two years of his life.

  He expressed that opposition eloquently in a speech at the Riverside Church in New York City on April 4, 1967. The address was entitled “Beyond Vietnam --- A Time to Break Silence.”

It was in that speech that King outlined why he decided to expand his focus from civil rights work --- for which he had won wide acclaim --- and take the risky step of  protesting a war which was backed by the media, the foreign policy establishment and most of the American people.

  “There comes a time when silence is betrayal,” he told the more than 3,000 people gathered at the church. “And that time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.”

 In the speech King condemned the violence of the war in Southeast Asia which he said was harming both the peasants of Vietnam but also destroying the lives of young Americans, particularly black and brown youth. He also deplored the fact that so much money was being spent on war which could have been spent on rebuilding cities in the United States and improving the lives of the poor.

He called for a “revolution of values” ---  turning away from violence and military interventions.

 “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death,” he said.

 As they have done for many years, New Haven-area residents took part in a community reading of  the “Beyond Vietnam” speech at New Haven City Hall on Friday, Jan. 12, two days prior to the official observance of  Dr. King’s birthday.

  About 30 people attended the event, with 20 reading portions of the speech.

The community reading of "Beyond Vietnam" in New Haven.

 The reading took on extra significance this year because another violent war, also backed by the United States, is going on in Palestine. The nation of Israel, using billions of dollars in American aid, has been conducting a brutal attack against the people of Gaza, with an estimated 30,000 people now dead and residential buildings and schools lying in ruin.

 Nearly 2 million people have been displaced and hundreds of thousands are in danger of starvation, according to the UN.

 A number of human rights experts maintain that Israel is now conducting a genocide against the people of Palestine and that the United States is a party to this crime.

The nation of South Africa is now lodging charges of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

  “Martin Luther King said war is the enemy of the poor. He saw us engaged in endless wars and he talked about how if we don’t stop Vietnam we would continue fighting endless wars and protesting more wars” said Henry Lowendorf,  of the Greater New Haven peace Council, which helped sponsor the community reading.

  Lowendorf  added,  “There’s just so many aspects of this speech that resonate with what’s going on today and particularly because as we see this slaughter of Palestinians --- a real genocide that Israeli leaders are promoting, they talk about it, an ethnic cleansing … They are doing everything they can to drive them out of their homeland, continually, repeatedly. And we have a government (here) that is supporting them. We have a government that is making it possible.”

 Lowendorf continued, “Martin Luther King talked about the starvation of the poor. The poor in Vietnam, but also the poor in the United States. There are just too many ways you can map what Martin Luther King was talking about on today’s situation…You can take the speech transform a few words and it would be so appropriate.”

     

Twenty people took part in reading Dr. King's speech from 1967 in which he condemned the Vietnam War and US militarism

   Some notable excerpts of the “Beyond Vietnam” speech read in New Haven:

 “Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak of the the poor of America for paying the double price of smashed hopes at home, and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as one who loves America, to the leaders of our own nation: the great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to stop it must be ours.”

  Speaking about interventions by the US in various parts of the globe to maintain stability for economic investments, King said, “It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said  ‘Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.’ Increasingly by choice or by accident this is the role our nation has taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments. I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin to shift from a thing-oriented society to a person- oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives, and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme nationalism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

“A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say “this is not just.” It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of South America and say, “this is not just.” The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.”

  At the beginning of the speech, King told his audience that when he began to speak out against the Vietnam War, he was questioned by many about the wisdom of his path.

  “At the heart of their concerns this query has often loomed large and loud: “Why are you speaking about the war, Dr. King?” “Why are you joining the voices of dissent?” “Peace and civil rights don’t mix,” they say. “Aren’t you hurting the cause of your people?” they ask.

  Despite the critics, King would not be deterred and kept up his opposition to the war, which by 1967 had killed hundreds of thousands of people, both Americans and Vietnamese. It had laid waste to the Vietnamese countryside from constant bombing and the use of the deadly herbicide, “Agent Orange.”

  The Vietnam War, he felt, stood against everything that he had devoted his life to as a Christian pastor, to create a more loving and just society.

 In the spring of 1967 he was invited by “Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam” a group that was similarly opposed to the war, to speak at the Riverside Church.

  The “Beyond Vietnam” speech was not well received by major media at the time.

  According to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, “Both the Washington Post and the New York Times published editorials criticizing the speech, with the Post noting that King’s speech had ‘diminished the usefulness of his cause, to his country, and to his people.’ through a simplistic and flawed view of the situation.”

  But over time the address given at the Riverside Church has come to be viewed as perhaps King’s greatest speech, surpassing in importance the “I Have a Dream” speech given during the March on Washington in 1963.

 This year’s community reading of “Beyond Vietnam” honored Al Marder, a long-time peace and justice advocate from New Haven who passed away recently. Lowendorf  said Marder had been “one of the initiators of this tradition and many others.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ukraine War: peace now --- or else

 

 By Reginald Johnson

      Commentary

 

     While the United States and NATO continue to fuel the Ukraine-Russia War by sending more lethal aid to Ukraine, former President Donald Trump warned last week that peace talks are needed immediately to avert disaster.

  “It’s far past the time for all parties involved to pursue a peaceful end to the war in Ukraine before this already horrific catastrophe spirals out of control and ends up leading indeed to World War III and this would be a war like no other war, because this would be a nuclear war,” he said on his social media platform, Truth Social.

   You can trash Trump all you want, but he’s right on this one. The war is threatening to spiral out of control and a nuclear confrontation with Russia is entirely possible.

 The implications of that are terrifying --- a nuclear clash would likely be a world-ending event.

 Just last week President Biden went ahead and approved the dispatch of M-I tanks to Ukraine, breaking a promise he made in March when he said he would never do that because it would mean “World War III.”

  Now there’s talk of sending fighter jets. The Russians have warned that such a step could have very serious repercussions. Again, Biden has said he won’t go that far. But will he keep his word?

  Sending the jets may be crossing the Rubicon for the United States.

  It’s a sad commentary on the state affairs in our country when the much-criticized Donald Trump is the only national political leader who’s making any sense on Ukraine.

  Are there any leading Democrats speaking out on the need for peace and urging that the administration change course to avoid disaster? The answer is, sadly, no. This is an utter disgrace. We have the prospect of nuclear war on the horizon and the Democrats say nothing; in fact they’re getting on board for sending more aid to Ukraine to “help Ukraine win.”  Win what? A radiated wasteland?

 Unfortunately, the Democrats today are not the party of George McGovern, Gene McCarthy, Wayne Morse and Al Gore Sr. --- courageous statesmen who spoke out generations ago against the terrible Vietnam War and urged peace. Far from it.

  But the Republicans are not much better on the war. Except for some libertarians in the House, there is little opposition from the GOP on Ukraine. And some Republicans, like Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, are goading Biden to ratchet up the war by sending the fighter jets.

  Already the Ukraine-Russia War has been disastrous. There’s been 200,000 casualties, including tens of thousands of deaths. More than 5 million people have been forced to flee Ukraine and the country’s infrastructure has been devastated.

     

The US is sending M-I battle tanks to Ukraine, in a major escalation of the war. (Photo, Wikimedia Commons)

  Right from the beginning the Biden administration has turned its back on tentative peace deals that could have settled the conflict and opted instead to provide an unending stream of military aid to the Eastern European country.

  Biden’s flip-flop on delivering tanks to Ukraine recalls the lying by another president in the lead-up to the Vietnam War. Lyndon Johnson had pledged during his 1964 campaign for president against the hawkish GOP candidate Barry Goldwater that he would never send American soldiers to Southeast Asia, where the US was supporting South Vietnam in its efforts to beat back a communist insurgency. America had limited its involvement to providing military advisors and equipment.

But within eight months of his victory in the ‘64 election, Johnson  went back on his word and dispatched 40,000 troops to Vietnam, and the United States became fully involved in a land war in Asia.

   After that, the US spent eight years trying to win in Vietnam with a seemingly unending series of troop deployments (the US troop total rose to over 500,000) and relentless bombing campaigns against North Vietnam and targets in South Vietnam. The US effort ultimately failed and America had to pull out of Vietnam in defeat.

  Some 54,000 Americans and 3 million Indochinese lost their lives during that war. The Vietnamese countryside was left poisoned by environmental toxins used by the US to defoliate the jungle during combat operations.

 Where is the Ukraine War headed? Nowhere good, in my view --- unless political leaders, the media and yes, the peace movement, wake up from their comatose state, realize the severity of the situation and demand an end to the fighting.

   Fortunately, there is some ray of hope that the peace movement may be finally expanding to stop the war. A rally called “Rage Against the War Machine” will take place February 19^th in Washington DC. What is noteworthy here is that several prominent activists associated with the left and people tied to the libertarian movement on the right are joining forces in the protest.

 Anti-war activists and left-leaning figures such as Jill Stein, Max Blumenthal, David Swanson, Chris Hedges and Ann Wright will be speaking out against the war along with libertarians like Ron Paul.

  The event is being sponsored by the Libertarian Party and the People’s Party. A statement by the People’s Party said “While the People’s Party and the Libertarian Party do not agree on a number of substantial issues, we agree that there is no “Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” in a world devastated by nuclear war. We agree that US resources should be used to improve the lives of Americans, not to prolong wars around the world that profit the war industry. We agree that diplomacy has not been given a chance in Ukraine and that the senseless deaths and destruction could have been avoided and needs to be stopped.”

  The statement added, “To make a difference in this country, we need to be able to come together with a diversity of voices and opinions.”

  Some people on the left may quibble with the idea of joining forces with libertarians on the right but this is no time to insist on ideological purity. This is a time when people of diverse views but who share a common desire for peace have to come together to stop the madness.

 

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Public reading of King's "Beyond Vietnam" speech

   

   By Reginald Johnson

 

   The Greater New Haven Peace Council will sponsor a community reading of the Rev. Martin Luther King’s famed “Beyond Vietnam" speech on Friday Jan. 13 at New Haven City Hall.

 King’s address on April, 4, 1967 at the Riverside Church in New York City was the moment when the civil rights leader decided to come out against the Vietnam War and condemn America’s militaristic policies abroad.

  “I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic, destructive suction tube,” King said.

  “So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.”

   King also said that “a nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

   The community reading of King’s address comes just weeks after Congress and President Biden approved a record $858 billion for the military budget. Defense spending takes up well over half of the total federal discretionary budget.

 The New Haven event also takes place as the deadly and highly costly Ukraine-Russia war continues. There have been more than 200,000 casualties in that conflict which shows no signs of letting up. The United States has given more than $100 billion in military aid to Ukraine.

  Many observers have expressed the concern that the longer the war drags on without a diplomatic settlement, the chances grow that tactical nuclear weapons might be used on the battlefield by either Ukraine or Russia. Such an event could then escalate to a nuclear war between the United States and Russia.

  Rev. King’s opposition to the Vietnam War angered some people who thought that the civil rights leader had overstepped his bounds by speaking out about foreign affairs. King was assassinated in Memphis exactly one year to the day after his speech at the Riverside Church.

(The community reading of “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence” will take place at 12 noon on the second floor of New Haven City Hall at 165 Church Street.  More information can be obtained by contacting the peace council at grnhpeacecouncil@gmail.com)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  King said when he had counseled poor black youth in the cities against resorting to violence to achieve political change . he had been challenged.

  “”But they ask --- and rightly so