Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence

Today is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. He would have been 73 years old.

Younger generations know Dr. Martin Luther King as the country’s most prominent civil rights leader of all time ButKing’s opposition to the Vietnam War, and to U.S. foreign policy in general, has been erased from mainstream history.

On April 4, 1967, exactly one year before Dr. King was assassinated, he gave a speech at Riverside church in New YorkCity called “Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.” 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."

As U.S. bombs continue to fall on Afghanistan, and the mainstream media continues to silence opposition to today’swar, we turn to an excerpt of Dr. King’s speech.

Tape:

  • Martin Luther King, Jr., “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence”

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