Dr. King on War and Poverty
As we celebrate the life and achievements of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I am reminded of his prescient and courageous speech against the Vietnam War, delivered at Riverside Church in Manhattan on April 4, 1967, just one year before he was assassinated.
The speech is much too rich in content, analysis, and rhetoric to summarize here, but this segment is particularly appropriate at a time when the country is sinking into recession, poverty rates are on the rise, and we are in the midst of a seemingly endless war that will cost taxpayers and our economy as a whole over $2 trillion at the least:
"There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I and others have been waging in America. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise for the poor, both black and white, through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war. And 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."
I wish his words didn't resonate today as clearly as they do. It's up to us to change that.
King spoke against the triple evils of racism, materialism, and militarism.
January 21, 2008 6:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
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Ah ... Yes he did, Tom! Yes he did.
I find those words there, the most prescient in the entire speech.
~OGD~
January 21, 2008 6:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
And we should not forget how that speech was received by the mainstream press:
Time Magazine “demagogic slander, a script for Radio Hanoi."
The NY Times editorial headlined “Dr. King’s Error.”
He was criticized as by the more conservative wing of the civil right's movement.
For those of us that are today trying to end the Iraq war, remember that the antiwar movement was fighting the same forces then as we are today.
January 21, 2008 8:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
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You are correct. The corporatist media, and those firmly stuck in constant limbo haven't changed one iota in all these decades.
The march continues on it's way to overcome.
~OGD~
January 21, 2008 8:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
And the Reagan/Bush/Cheney gang are anathema to King's ideas.
January 22, 2008 5:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
MLK was right to protest the Vietnam war, but he was at the same time incredibly naive about the Soviet Union and the harsh conditions they imposed on their satellite countries.
January 22, 2008 7:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
Huh? Evidence, please.
January 22, 2008 8:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
that is to say he was highly critical of American militarism, but a real threat to freedom did exist as evidenced by the Berlin Airlift, Prague Spring, Korean conflict, Cuba, and a lot of other attempted Banana Republic takeovers.
January 22, 2008 6:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
What evidence do you have that King was not aware of this? If you referring to Guatemala in 1954 with your last four words we were the ones who were the threat to freedom there when we kicked out the elected official Arbenz in a CIA operation.
January 23, 2008 3:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
i think you're missing my point -- that there was some justification for US militarism, given the global situation.
January 23, 2008 8:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
As usual, we once again have to call bullshit on Brook.
January 22, 2008 10:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
The point is valid for eastern Europe, but not for Asia. And the Vietnamese, in particular, were a proud and persnickety lot who were never going to be lockstep allies of their nemesis China, or the USSR.
January 22, 2008 10:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
When was MLK naive about communism in eastern Europe?
January 22, 2008 3:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry for vague reference. I meant Eastern Europe was tightly controlled by USSR, while Vietnam was not.
I haven't refreshed my memory on the Riverside speech, afraid to admit I only listened to parts of it on NPR last night. I don't think King discussed Europe at all in the speech, only the Asian countries, and mainly Vietnam's struggle to throw off colonialism.
January 22, 2008 3:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dr. King expanded on his Vietnam speech later the same month. It's my favorite quote.
Also
And I don't know about you, I ain't gonna study war no more.
"To save your world you asked this man to die; Would this man, could he see you now, ask why?" W.H. Auden
January 22, 2008 10:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think the big mistake made regarding vietnam was to link it to the korean experience. There you could argue a united front had contained Communist expansionism, and US leaders probably thought they could reproduce the same effect in Vietnam. The problem being Vietnam was totally different culturally and geographically. You also did not have a united coalition. Western Europe was in no mood to assist as they did in Korea.
January 23, 2008 8:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
The war on poverty may not be going well. But I do have to say that the war on the poor is going swimmingly (a little Katrina joke there).
Yes, in the fight against the poor, the rich and comfortable take no prisoners. The wealthy struck a devastating series of blows against the poor in Louisiana as a result of Hurricane Katrina, with hundreds killed and tens of thousands scattered to the winds. Together with Rita, the two hurricanes were a knife edge in the battle against the poor.
The poor are on the run, scattered, demoralized, disorganized and helpless.
January 22, 2008 1:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
"The poor are on the run, scattered, demoralized, disorganized and helpless."
Val, there are plenty of organizations working to help the people in that region, and speaking as someone who has actually been down there and seen what is being done first-hand, I didn't witness any of the demoralization you spoke of. However, if you want to volunteer and spend a week or two down there, you might give us an alternative report.
January 22, 2008 7:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've spent most of my legal career working in the fields of poverty and aboriginal law, doing my best to make a difference.
Now, I haven't been down to New Orleans. But I have kept up on reports from down there, and its not a good story. Many tens of thousands of New Orleans residents are still displaced across the country, large sections of the city are not being rebuilt. The redevelopment plans seem to exclude the poor, and this has been an ongoing political controversy. Basic services in New Orleans, schools, legal aid, courts, etc. are still crippled.
But hey, you went down on a drunken kegger and tried to get girls to show you their tits. Good for you. I guess you're an expert.
January 23, 2008 5:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
no, i went down to work with relief agencies, and i actually touched the indians. I think my first-hand experience trumps your page-surfing, but again I invite you to go down. Relief agencies welcome anyone who will help, and I met people from all over the world -- even a bunch of Japanese that came to help.
January 23, 2008 8:35 AM | Reply | Permalink