historical analysis

Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence

By Rev. Martin Luther King
4 April 1967
Speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 4, 1967, at a meeting of Clergy and
Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City

I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other
choice. I join with you in this meeting because I am in deepest agreement with the aims and
work of the organization which has brought us together: Clergy and Laymen Concerned about
Vietnam. The recent statement of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own heart
and I found myself in full accord when I read its opening lines: “A time comes when silence is
betrayal.” That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.
The truth of these words is beyond doubt but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult
one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of
opposing their government’s policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move
without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one’s own bosom and
in the surrounding world. Moreover when the issues at hand seem as perplexed as they often do
in the case of this dreadful conflict we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by
uncertainty; but we must move on.
Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling
to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility
that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. And we must rejoice as well, for
surely this is the first time in our nation’s history that a significant number of its religious leaders
have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm
dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history. Perhaps a new spirit is
rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movement well and pray that our own inner being may be
sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems
so close around us.
Over the past two years, as I have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak
from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical departures from the destruction of
Vietnam, many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path. At the heart of their
concerns this query has often loomed large and loud: Why are you speaking about 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? And when I hear them, though I often
understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions
mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling. Indeed, their
questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live.

In the light of such tragic misunderstandings, I deem it of signal importance to try to state
clearly, and I trust concisely, why I believe that the path from Dexter Avenue Baptist Church —
the church in Montgomery, Alabama, where I began my pastorate — leads clearly to this
sanctuary tonight.
I come to this platform tonight to make a passionate plea to my beloved nation. This speech is
not addressed to Hanoi or to the National Liberation Front. It is not addressed to China or to
Russia.
Nor is it an attempt to overlook the ambiguity of the total situation and the need for a collective
solution to the tragedy of Vietnam. Neither is it an attempt to make North Vietnam or the
National Liberation Front paragons of virtue, nor to overlook the role they can play in a
successful resolution of the problem. While they both may have justifiable reason to be
suspicious of the good faith of the United States, life and history give eloquent testimony to the
fact that conflicts are never resolved without trustful give and take on both sides.
Tonight, however, I wish not to speak with Hanoi and the NLF, but rather to my fellow
Americans, who, with me, bear the greatest responsibility in ending a conflict that has exacted a
heavy price on both continents.
The Importance of Vietnam