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Vietnam
Continued from page 7
to the high grounds of a firm dissent based
upon the mandates of conscience and the
reading of history. Perhaps a new spirit is ris
ing among us. If it is, let us trace its move
ment 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
dfin& that seems so dose 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 abour 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. Arent 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 tragjc 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 dearly 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 ambigu
ity of the total situation and the need for a col
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lective soludion to the tragedy of Vietnam.
Neither is it an atempt 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 justifi
able reason to be suspicious of the good faith
of the United States, life and history give elo
quent testimony to the fact that con%i‘gs are
never resolved without trustful give and take
on both sides. Tonight, however, I wish not to
speak with Hanoi and the NLE bur rather to
my fellow Americans, who, with me, bear the
test nsibility in ending a conflict that
fimci?d): heavy price on both continents.
The Importance of = Vietnam
Since I am a preacher by trade, I suppose it is
not surprising that I have seven major reasons
for bringing Vietnam into the field of my
moral vision. There is at the outset a very
obvious and almost facile connection
between the war in Vietham 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 of hope for the poor — both black
and white — through the poverty program.
There were experiments, hopes, new begin
nings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam
and I watched the program broken and evis
cerated as if it were some idle political play
thing 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.
So I'was increasingly compelled to see the war
as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as
such.
See Vietnam, page 18
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