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
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2564.htm
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.
