rhetorical analysis essay beyond vietnam

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Rhetorical Analysis of MLK's Speech "Beyond Vietnam"

Widely known for his work in the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr eventually also gained momentum in the anti-war movement against the war in Vietnam. Through his use of imagery, diction, and parallel structure, Martin Luther King Jr associates the war in Vietnam with injustice in his famous speech, “Beyond Vietnam – A Time to Break Silence.” Martin Luther King Jr. applies imagery throughout his speech in order to illustrate the horrors of the war to arouse anger at its atrocities and injustice.

For instance, he does when he depicts the, “Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools.” The image of death, as powerful as it is, becomes amplified when Martin Luther King associates the injustices of segregation with the Vietnam war. His audience at Riverside Church, likely familiar with his Civil Rights work, would most likely than view him with more credibility because they too could sympathize to an injustice done by the American government. Likewise, the image of men, both black and while, “in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village,” helps establish the war in Vietnam as a complete disaster and atrocity. Additionally, when King claims that all this horror is in the name of America, he appeals to his audience’s anger, leading them to believe that it is time for them to break silence on the fact that the United States became involved in an unjust war in Vietnam. Moreover, Martin Luther King Jr meticulously chooses specific words that carry with them a negative connotation that helps associate the Vietnamese war with injustice.

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By claiming that the United States, “the greatest purveyor of violence,” prefers, “massive doses of violence to solve its problems,” King effectively establishes the U.S. government as the pervasive wrongdoer. Moreover, this set of diction allows King to logically state that he can not continue to fight on behalf of the oppressed if he himself doesn’t address their oppressor, the U.S.

government. King’s criticism of the war as “broken and eviscerated,” allows him to establish a disappointed tone that conveys the idea that the war is immoral and by doing so his precise word choice lets him to attack it as such. When he argues that the war’s immoral nature should be “incandescently clear,” he implies to his audience that those who do not voice their opinion against the war are not concerned for, “the integrity and life of America.” Finally, Martin Luther King Jr. uses parallelism within his own reflection to evoke emotions in his audience to show that . The line, “For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent,” demonstrates how King uses parallelism.

By repeating the phrase, “for the sake,” he creates a rhythmic flow that causes his audience to be more receptive to his idea. In addition, his use of parallelism allows him to appeal to his audience’s pity for the oppressed in order for him to express his call to action, a call for activism that goes beyond Vietnam. Acting almost as a climax, King lyrically urges his audience to voice their opinions and wage a war against this unjustified war in Vietnam. Overall, Martin Luther King Jr. eloquently argues against the United States involvement in Vietnam through his use of parallelism, diction, and imagery.

His use of diction and imagery arouses anger while increasing his credibility since he criticizes the unjust war he describes. Furthermore, when these stylistic elements are concluded with his use of parallelism, King effectively establishes America’s involvement in the Vietnam War as unjust.

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• Civil Rights

Martin Luther King

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Rhetorical Analysis of Martin Luther King’s “Beyond Vietnam: a Time to Break Silence”

In Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech “Beyond Vietnam—A Time to Break Silence” (1967), Dr. King asserts that the war in Vietnam is totally immoral and has far reaching negative implications not only for Vietnam, but for The United States and the rest of the World as well. Dr. King’s purpose is to make the church leaders he is speaking to aware that the time has come for them to speak out loudly in opposition of the war in Vietnam. He offers many practical reasons for the opposition, as well as spiritual and moral reasons.

He then outlines the history of the war in Vietnam, showing that he is not simply preaching about religious ideals. He also makes an emotional plea by vividly describing the conditions in Vietnam. Dr. King plainly states his purpose near the beginning of his speech. It is clear that he wants the audience of church leaders to go back to their churches and fearlessly speak out in opposition of the war. With an urgent tone, he repeats the phrase, “we must speak…” (4), several times. This use of repetitive language conveys urgency and shows that he deeply believes the churches may influence the government if they speak against the war.

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He does not want the church leaders to simply listen to his message. He wants them to go back to their churches and spread the message. Dr. King says, “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” (3). This demonstrates to the audience that he realizes it is going to be difficult for them to speak out in opposition of the government. It is not typical for churches to do so. However, he is about to arm them with many valid reasons why it is crucial for them to join the opposition.

His first reasons are all about practicality. Dr. King says that the war is draining valuable resources that could be helping the poor in our own country. He specifically mentions a poverty program that was looking promising before the United States became involved in Vietnam. “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…”(8). War is expensive. This is a logical fact with which no one can argue.

He also says the war is further crippling the poor in the United States by sending a disproportional number of them to the front lines to die. These arguments work because they point out that even though the war is not happening on our soil, it is having a devastating effect here, especially in poor areas where people cannot afford to be hindered any more than they already are. For these practical and logical reasons, the church should join the opposition. Then Dr. King says that the church should oppose the war simply because it is counter to the ministry of Jesus Christ.

He says, “To me the relationship of this ministry to the making of peace is so obvious that I sometimes marvel at those who ask me why I’m speaking against the war” (12). This is an obvious and extremely effective argument, especially among a group of Christian church leaders. Dr. King genuinely believes that the war is in direct opposition to the teachings of Christ and therefore the church must speak out in a united voice against it. Dr. King includes a brief, but poignant history of the war in Vietnam which is important because he needs to prove that he knows and understands the politics of the situation.

He successfully proves that The United States has done far more harm to the Vietnamese than good. If he had not shown knowledge of the background of the war, it would be easy to dismiss his other pleas as lofty religious ideals. Dr. King further discredits the United States’ intentions in Vietnam by comparing us to Germany in World War II saying, “What do they think as we test out our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe? ” (21). This comparison is very sobering.

Nothing could be lower than being placed parallel to the senseless violence of Nazi Germany. Showing his knowledge of the history of the war and using it to discredit the United States’ reason for being there is crucial to Dr. King in developing his position. Perhaps the most convincing part of the speech is the emotional appeal. Dr. King paints a vivid, heart-wrenching picture of the devastation in Vietnam. In a solemn tone, he talks about their crops being destroyed and their water being poisoned, presumably referring to Agent Orange.

He talks about the innocent people killed in the crossfire, mostly children. “They wander into the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals” (20). Nothing evokes a more emotional response than the image of children suffering or being killed. These emotionally charged images would seemingly convince anyone that the cause for this war could not possibly be just. All of Dr. King’s arguments are very effective. His pleas are first to the audience’s sense of logic and their immediate concerns for their own country.

He also reminds the church leaders of something seemingly obvious that they may have lost sight of: “…the Father is deeply concerned especially for his suffering and helpless and outcast children…” (13). Therefore, to remain silent would truly be betrayal. He then paints a picture of the suffering endured by Vietnam and tells how the United States has a long history of doing the wrong thing to this tiny country. All of the valid arguments and vivid imagery Dr. King uses combine to make this a very effective, passionate and memorable speech.

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Rhetorical Mlk Speech "Beyond Vietnam"

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"Beyond Vietnam"

April 4, 1967

On 4 April 1967 Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his seminal speech at Riverside Church condemning the  Vietnam War . Declaring “my conscience leaves me no other choice,” King described the war’s deleterious effects on both America’s poor and Vietnamese peasants and insisted that it was morally imperative for the United States to take radical steps to halt the war through nonviolent means (King, “Beyond Vietnam,” 139).

King’s anti-war sentiments emerged publicly for the first time in March 1965, when King declared that “millions of dollars can be spent every day to hold troops in South Viet Nam and our country cannot protect the rights of Negroes in Selma” (King, 9 March 1965). King told reporters on  Face the Nation  that as a minister he had “a prophetic function” and as “one greatly concerned about the need for peace in our world and the survival of mankind, I must continue to take a stand on this issue” (King, 29 August 1965). In a version of the “Transformed Nonconformist” sermon given in January 1966 at  Ebenezer Baptist Church , King voiced his own opposition to the Vietnam War, describing American aggression as a violation of the 1954 Geneva Accord that promised self-determination.

In early 1967 King stepped up his anti-war proclamations, giving similar speeches in Los Angeles and Chicago. The Los Angeles speech, called “The Casualties of the War in Vietnam,” stressed the history of the conflict and argued that American power should be “harnessed to the service of peace and human beings, not an inhumane power [unleashed] against defenseless people” (King, 25 February 1967).

On 4 April, accompanied by Amherst College Professor Henry Commager, Union Theological Seminary President John Bennett, and Rabbi Abraham Joshua  Heschel , at an event sponsored by  Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam , King spoke to over 3,000 at New York’s Riverside Church. The speech was drafted from a collection of volunteers, including Spelman professor Vincent  Harding  and Wesleyan professor John Maguire. King’s address emphasized his responsibility to the American people and explained that conversations with young black men in the ghettos reinforced his own commitment to  nonviolence .

King followed with an historical sketch outlining Vietnam’s devastation at the hands of “deadly Western arrogance,” noting, “we are on the side of the wealthy, and the secure, while we create a hell for the poor” (King, “Beyond Vietnam,” 146; 153). To change course, King suggested a five point outline for stopping the war, which included a call for a unilateral ceasefire. To King, however, the Vietnam War was only the most pressing symptom of American colonialism worldwide. King claimed that America made “peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments” (King, “Beyond Vietnam,” 157). King urged instead “a radical revolution of values” emphasizing love and justice rather than economic nationalism (King, “Beyond Vietnam,” 157).

The immediate response to King’s speech was largely negative. Both the  Washington Post  and  New York Times  published editorials criticizing the speech, with the  Post  noting that King’s speech had “diminished his usefulness to his cause, to his country, and to his people” through a simplistic and flawed view of the situation (“A Tragedy,” 6 April 1967). Similarly, both the  National Association for the Advancement of Colored People  and Ralph  Bunche   accused King of linking two disparate issues, Vietnam and civil rights. Despite public criticism, King continued to attack the Vietnam War on both moral and economic grounds.

Branch,  At Canaan’s Edge , 2006.

“Dr. King’s Error,”  New York Times , 7 April 1967.

King, “Beyond Vietnam,” 4 April 1967,  NNRC .

King, “The Casualties of the War in Vietnam,” 25 February 1967,  CLPAC .

King, Interview on  Face the Nation , 29 August 1965,  RRML-TxTyU .

King, Statement on voter registration in Alabama, 9 March 1965,  MLKJP-GAMK .

King, Transformed Nonconformist, Sermon Delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church, 16 January 1966,  CSKC .

“A Tragedy,”  Washington Post , 6 April 1967.

The Speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” by Martin Luther King, Jr: Rhetorical Analysis

Introduction.

Martin Luther King, Jr in his speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” argued that US foreign policy was hypocritical when compared to the inequality present in the United States. He spoke at Riverside Church in New York City, a venue that had a history of hosting progressive speakers and thinkers. The speech was given to a large, mixed audience of primarily civil rights activists. In order to convince his audience that the civil rights movement in the United States should oppose the Vietnam War, the speaker appealed to their ethos, pathos, and logos.

Ethos, the appeal to the legitimacy and authority of the speaker, is used throughout the speech. Martin Luther King, Jr indicates that he is seen as a figure of authority by the civil rights movement. He states, “Many people 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 the war, Dr. King?” “Why are you joining the voices of dissent?”(King). Later, he mentions, “I am a preacher by calling, I suppose it is not surprising that I have seven major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral vision.” (King). These statements serve to communicate to the audience that the speaker is someone of authority and should be listened to.

The author is using pathos as one of his central rhetorical strategies. Pathos is a method applied to represent an appeal to feelings and emotions in a speech and other various kinds of writing. Martin Luther King notes that “we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools” (King). This part of the speech is evoking violent images of death that would affect the emotions of the audience. It also reminds people of inequality through images of everyday life in the United States.

Lastly, Martin Luther King uses logos in his famous speech. Logos appeals to reasoning and argumentation by applying statistics, factual evidence, and data. The speaker comments, that “they wander into the hospitals with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one Vietcong-inflicted injury. So far we may have killed a million of them, mostly children” (King). The author here is using statistics to present the horrifying picture of the Vietnam War. He is using vivid language to describe the casualties; however, they are also supported by evidence, as he is using precise numbers in this part of the speech. Moreover, Martin Luther King states that “after the French were defeated, it looked as if independence and land reform would come again through the Geneva Agreement” (King). He is using historical facts to create a parallel between the current situation and the past.

In conclusion, Martin Luther King, Jr uses ethos, pathos, and logos, among other rhetorical devices, to support his argument that American policy in Vietnam was inconsistent with its treatment of African-Americans in the United States. He applies ethos to establish credibility, pathos to appeal to emotions, and logos to support his claims with hard evidence. Overall, the effective use of various rhetorical strategies is what makes the speech so valuable.

King, Martin Luther Jr. “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.” Church Meeting, 1967, Riverside Church, New York City. Public Speech.

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Rhetorical Analysis of MLK's Speech "Beyond Vietnam"

Favorite Quote: Make as many as mistakes as you want, just don't make the same mistake.

Widely known for his work in the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr eventually also gained momentum in the anti-war movement against the war in Vietnam. Through his use of imagery, diction, and parallel structure, Martin Luther King Jr associates the war in Vietnam with injustice in his famous speech, "Beyond Vietnam - A Time to Break Silence."

Martin Luther King Jr. applies imagery throughout his speech in order to illustrate the horrors of the war to arouse anger at its atrocities and injustice. For instance, he does when he depicts the, "Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools." The image of death, as powerful as it is, becomes amplified when Martin Luther King associates the injustices of segregation with the Vietnam war. His audience at Riverside Church, likely familiar with his Civil Rights work, would most likely than view him with more credibility because they too could sympathize to an injustice done by the American government. Likewise, the image of men, both black and while, "in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village," helps establish the war in Vietnam as a complete disaster and atrocity. Additionally, when King claims that all this horror is in the name of America, he appeals to his audience's anger, leading them to believe that it is time for them to break silence on the fact that the United States became involved in an unjust war in Vietnam.

Moreover, Martin Luther King Jr meticulously chooses specific words that carry with them a negative connotation that helps associate the Vietnamese war with injustice. By claiming that the United States, "the greatest purveyor of violence," prefers, "massive doses of violence to solve its problems," King effectively establishes the U.S. government as the pervasive wrongdoer. Moreover, this set of diction allows King to logically state that he can not continue to fight on behalf of the oppressed if he himself doesn't address their oppressor, the U.S. government. King's criticism of the war as "broken and eviscerated," allows him to establish a disappointed tone that conveys the idea that the war is immoral and by doing so his precise word choice lets him to attack it as such. When he argues that the war's immoral nature should be "incandescently clear," he implies to his audience that those who do not voice their opinion against the war are not concerned for, "the integrity and life of America."

Finally, Martin Luther King Jr. uses parallelism within his own reflection to evoke emotions in his audience to show that . The line, "For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent," demonstrates how King uses parallelism. By repeating the phrase, "for the sake," he creates a rhythmic flow that causes his audience to be more receptive to his idea. In addition, his use of parallelism allows him to appeal to his audience's pity for the oppressed in order for him to express his call to action, a call for activism that goes beyond Vietnam. Acting almost as a climax, King lyrically urges his audience to voice their opinions and wage a war against this unjustified war in Vietnam.

Overall, Martin Luther King Jr. eloquently argues against the United States involvement in Vietnam through his use of parallelism, diction, and imagery. His use of diction and imagery arouses anger while increasing his credibility since he criticizes the unjust war he describes. Furthermore, when these stylistic elements are concluded with his use of parallelism, King effectively establishes America's involvement in the Vietnam War as unjust.

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A Rhetorical Portfolio

A diverse glimpse into rhetoric.

• Artifact One
• Artifact Two
• Artifact Three
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Artifact One: Beyond Vietnam: A Rhetorical Analysis

Course Name: INTRO TO RHET & COMP

Course Number: ENGL 3050

Instructor: Harker, Michael W.

Semester: Fall 2020

Introduction to Beyond Vietnam: A Rhetorical Analysis

The rhetorical analysis audience is hard to define as this piece is strictly to define the work. The American people and the bystander effect of the Vietnam war has always intrigued me due to the social protest during the 70s as people began to use their Citizen rights to actively speak against the government’s affairs in the Vietnam’s. The negative impact of the by-stander effect is an interesting human coping mechanism. I wanted to explore this in MLK speech due to it being one of his last speeches that differed from previous works. Beyond Vietnam introduce many rhetorical devices and strengthened my ability to not only spot them but explain them through writing. This speech and analysis later became a wonderful teaching tool that I refer to discovery new ways of inserting rhetorical theories.   

The rhetorical analysis audience is hard to define as this piece is strictly to define the work. The American people and the bystander effect of the Vietnam war has always intrigued me due to the social protest during the 70s as people began to use their Citizen rights to actively speak against the government’s affairs in the Vietnam’s. The negative impact of the by-stander effect is an interesting human coping mechanism. I wanted to explore this in MLK speech due to it being one of his last speeches that differed from previous works. Beyond Vietnam introduce many rhetorical devices and strengthened my ability to not only spot them but explain them through writing. This speech and analysis later became a wonderful teaching tool that I refer to discovery new ways of inserting rhetorical theories 

Beyond Vietnam: A Rhetorical Analysis

Beyond Vietnam- A Time to Break Silence speech delivered on April 4, 1967, revolved around the growing concern with America’s involvement in the Vietnam war. This lecture became an explosive example of colorful language and visual examples that expanded the idea of rhetoric. During the final years of Martin Luther King’s life, it truly broadened the assumed notion of his image. Often seen as a “safe” choice of an activist by the political system and society of the time; becoming a crossroads for King’s career as the public saw his use of old rhetoric and opinions slowly dwindling. The premise of the claim throughout the speech is, the active participation in the war was unjust, granted the extensive use violence and horror thrown against the poor, as well as helping in the destruction of a country that for most people living there is outside of their own involvement. More than King’s general lack of support for the war he uses this current state of divide to home in on the idea of “silence”, and the dangers that lurk behind the “bystander effect”. Using ethos and pathos the speech leads the audience to consider the notion that the war is not only unjust but a civic duty of Americans to fight. Beyond Vietnam speech develops into an intriguing form of rhetoric and persuasion as it becomes a turning point for freedom of speech and the American viewpoint on the war.

King is known for his compelling form of rhetoric that often enchants the audience and helps further settle the point. So, what forms of persuasive language were used in the Beyond Vietnam speech? Throughout the text it is transparent of the continued use of “Devil” terms as famous rhetorician Kenneth Burke expressed in his research for literature and “symbolic actions/language”.  Devil terms include words used to negatively evaluate the prospects of a situation or action. Considering the speech itself is inherently an anti-war speech we can find several examples of devil terms through the oration, such as the term “peasant” used. 

Why is this word found not often throughout the speech considered important? The word peasant on the surface is a rather small and insulting word to remark about someone’s social and economic status in society. Considering this term is used broadly to a population of an entire country it becomes an intense word that harbors an increasingly negative connotation. King uses this term to signify the helplessness that many of the Vietnamese people felt over their predicament involving the war; as well as the force of war weighing upon them dragging them down to nothing but “mere peasants” who have little to no say in their country or way of life.  All over the speech we see several other forms of devil terms to express the generalized bad or wrong that’s benign exemplified. For example, King’s use of “America” itself is a devil term. The US has become a concrete example for him as symbolism of silence being the large hand in the war. America weaves its way through the text as a mirror for the audience becoming a passive way of creating ownership over the war for the American citizens that remain quiet during this time of despair. 

In the speech King imagines the Vietnamese seeing America as “strange liberators” that poach their land, kill their families, and turn a blind eye to the appointed dictators’ harsh actions/ general realities they face daily. He calls too “America’s soul”, it seems as if he questions if they have one; inferring that we created a sense of madness and inequality wherever we land. King also uses words such as “beloved nation”, another devil term, as a form of sarcasm that appeals to the ideal that America is viewed often throughout the word as the omen for bad times and war. This persuasive language creates an interesting dynamic as it puts the weight on the citizens passively and yet still calls to American citizens consciously relieving some of that “weight” by inferring they have the chance to redeem themselves. Martin had a persuasive way of forming his rhetoric in a way that was never intrusive or aggressive. 

When studying a complex text such as an anti-war speech pertaining to Vietnam it’s important to understand the audience. It’s clear within the first few minutes that King means to target the average American citizen as a catalyst for change. What I found interesting within the context of rhetoric was King’s rejection of his secondary, meaning the government/officials within the walls of both sides at the very beginning of his speech. He states this exact intention during the text, directing the message to the audience, “Tonight, however, I wish not to speak with Hanoi and the National Liberation Front, but rather to my fellow Americans”.  He rejects the idea of trying to reason with the political figures of both sides of the conflict, but rather the humanity of the individual to fight. It’s a delicate way to captivate not only your target audience but everything around that as well. What further expresses King’s understanding of the human dichotomy and rhetoric is he understands that this rejection of the government, but plea to the average individual gathers larger interest from citizens as most speeches are generally indirectly focused on the governmental audience. This sense of self-importance not only puts the weight of the choice on citizens but gives them a form of power that has been stripped for the Vietnamese themselves, allowing this juxtaposition to continue the message itself with self-realization that can be perplexing yet founding. 

One message that became the foundation of the speech outside of its anti-war rhetoric was this question of authority and “reading/seeing against the grain” of the government. Martin Luther King questions the innate idea of “authority”, this is shown through the idea of questioning the reasoning of supporting the war blindly in the faith of patriotism. During the introduction of the speech King often stated that, “A time comes when silence is betrayal” and that time has come for us in relation to Vietnam. The rhetoric used during this idea was intriguing because instead of reprimanding the audience for not coming to this conclusion sooner, King states that we should “rejoice”. The first half of the speech he states, “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”. Now let’s dissect this rhetorical idea; by taking away the discomfort of rebelling against the government during war times and showing this form of activism as enlightenment during American social reconstruction it allows for the idea to be formally more accepted and less intrusive. King’s objective to plant this seed early within his text allowed for greater absorption and compliance.

The metaphors and imagery used during Beyond Vietnam are what really tied the message together and explored the option of visual persuasion through rhetoric. One of the metaphors explained is Vietnam as a “demonic, destructive suction tube”, that is slowly shifting America’s attention from the real issues at hand within our own political system. This helped the audience create a discomfort and anger at the war that truly was not our responsibility to begin with. As well as stirring emotions around his own causes outside of anti-war speech. 

King uses unsettling descriptions of the daily life of Vietnamese people since the war occurred. He describes poisoned water, acres of crops destroyed, destruction of nature, and worst of all children selling their mothers and sisters to soldiers to provide for their family. This imagery creates an uneasiness and hence allows the audience to first imagine their own daily life in comparison, this stark contrast appeals to the emotional appeals of the speech. Without this form of visual rhetoric, it can remain hard for the audience to truly sympathize with the objective because it’s innately too far from their own reality. Once you give a graphic detail of the true suffering, broken down to daily routine it’s almost impossible to not compare your own bearings, with this knowledge King used this form of empathy to hasten his point. 

The Beyond Vietnam speech has become a brilliant example of persuasion at its finest. Martin Luther King blends several forms of rhetorical tools to help further his point without ever forcing it. The speech allowed the audience to formulate their own opinions while also informing them. Logic and visual arguments become the foundation for the orator, which further establishes a lasting sound impact. Through King’s career he exhibited a strong a gift with self-reflection as a means of Laissez-faire rhetorical persuasion. Despite Beyond Vietnam being one of his last speeches before his minutely death it remains a piece that truly his rhetorical understanding.

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“Beyond Vietnam:” Dr. King’s Riverside Address

• First Online: 06 January 2024

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• Francis Shor 2  

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As the U.S. war in Southeast Asia expanded and deaths mounted, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. used his position as the pre-eminent spokesperson for civil and human rights to denounce the war. On April 4, 1967, he gave an address (referred to either as “Beyond Vietnam” or “A Time to Break Silence”) at the historic Riverside Church in New York City that was both an analysis of the war and a plea for peace. His talk received almost universal condemnation by the mainstream media and criticism from some of his allies in the civil rights struggle. Nonetheless, that speech was and remains a profound discussion of the Vietnam War, war in general, and creating peace with justice. This chapter will provide an examination of the context and content of that address.

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On the role of white student activists in the civil rights movement and the transition to antiwar opposition, see, for example, Robert Pardun, Prairie Radical: A Journey through the Sixties (Los Gatos, NM: Shire Press, 2001); and Francis Shor, “Unveiling Whiteness: White Student Activists in the Civil Rights Movement” in Shor, Weaponized Whiteness: The Constructions and Deconstructions of White Identity Politics (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2020), 47–67. On the tensions between the civil rights and antiwar movements of the Sixties, see Simon Hall, Peace and Freedom: The Civil Rights and Antiwar Movements in the 1960s (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006). I should mention that I was selected to introduce Dr. King not on the basis of my civil rights activism as an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh; rather, I was given that honor as a member of Pitt’s Public Affairs Committee.

Fred Frank, “Dr. King Confronts Questions on the Vietnam War,” Pitt News , November 4, 1966, 1–2.

According to one interpretation of the background to King’s Riverside address, “By 1966, King was complaining about the difficulty of getting young black men interested in nonviolence when the military was using them as cannon fodder in Vietnam.” See Daniel S. Lucks, “Martin Luther King Jr.’s Riverside Speech and Cold War Civil Rights,” Peace & Change 40:3 (July 2015), 399.

Vincent Harding, Martin Luther King: The Inconvenient Hero (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2008), 142. For studies of King that foreground his agony over the Vietnam War, see, Taylor Branch, At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years 1965–68 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006); Michael Eric Dyson, I May Not Get There with You: The True Martin Luther King, Jr. (New York: The Free Press, 2000); Daniel S. Lucks, Selma to Saigon: The Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War (Lexington: University Press or Kentucky, 2014); and Travis Smiley, Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Final Year (New York: Back Bay Books, 2014). For a more focused interpretation of his developing position on the Vietnam War and its influence on the Riverside address, see Adam Fairclough, “Martin Luther King, Jr. and the War in Vietnam,” Phylon 45 (March 1984): 19–39; and Lucks, “Martin Luther King Jr.’s Riverside Speech and Cold War Civil Rights,” 395–422.

I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches that Changed the World , ed. James M. Washington (New York: HarperCollins, 1992), 138. All further references to the Riverside address will be from this text with the citation of pages incorporated in the body of this chapter.

Quoted in Smiley, Death of a King , 41. For a fuller discussion of Carmichael’s position on the draft, see, Lucks, 125–33.

Kimberly L. Phillips, War! What is it Good For? Black Freedom Struggles and the U.S. Military (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2012), 244.

“Watts marked a decisive shift in King’s thinking about racial and economic justice.” Peniel E. Joseph, The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. (New York: Hachette Books, 2020), 248. According to James Cone, “After Watts, Martin concluded that without economic justice, the right to a job or income, talk about ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ was nothing but a figment of one’s political imagination.” Martin and Malcolm and America: A Dream or a Nightmare (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1991), 223. The multiple dimensions of defacto segregation in Northern urban ghettos are brilliantly analyzed in Richard Rothstein, The Color of Law (New York: Liveright, 2017). For an examination of the political campaigns against that defacto segregation in the North, see Thomas Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North (New York: Random House Paperbacks, 2008).

Joseph, The Sword and the Shield , 268. Also, see Harding, Martin Luther King , esp. 66–77. For a brief highlighting of excerpts from King’s speeches and writings that trace his political path to the radical Riverside address, see Clayborne Carson, “King’s Path to Antiwar Dissent,” OAH Magazine of History (January 2005), 27–28.

Dyson, I May Not Get There with You , 52. On his “militant pacifism,” see ibid., 51–77. For another brief perspective on King’s pacifism, see Peter Brock and Nigel Young, Pacifism in the Twentieth Century (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1999), 231–36 and 238–41.

Ibid., 64. For more on Coretta Scott King’s influence on her husband and peace activism, see Smiley, Death of a King , 151–54. On the influences for and development of King’s philosophy of nonviolence, see Greg Moses, Revolution of Conscience: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Philosophy of Nonviolence (New York: Guilford, 1997).

Jonathan Eig, King: A Life (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023), 471–72.

Lucks, Selma to Saigon , 167 and 176.

For an insightful analysis of the Riverside address (referencing the alternative title) that highlights both the rhetorical orientation and the theological grounding, see John M. Murphy and James Jasinski, “Time, Space, and Generic Reconstitution: Martin Luther King’s ‘A Time to Break Silence’ as Radical Jeremiad,” Public Address and Moral Judgment: Critical Studies in Ethical Tensions , eds. Shawn J. Parry–Giles and Trevor Parry–Giles (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2009), 97–125.

“Realizing that the war was sucking the oxygen out of the movement for racial justice, King knew he would have to break his silence on the war.” Lucks, Selma to Saigon, 183.

Carson, “King’s Path to Antiwar Dissent,” 28.

Michael G. Long, Against Us, But for Us: Martin Luther King Jr., and the State (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2002), 198.

Quoted in Lucks, Selma to Saigon , 172–73.

Murphy and Jasinski, “Time, Space, and Generic Reconstitution,” 99.

Quoted in Lucks, Selma to Saigon , 176–77. Numerous studies of King’s Riverside address cite his visceral response to the William Pepper photo essay, “The Children of Vietnam” in the January 1967 edition of the radical magazine, Ramparts , as providing the final impetus for the moral outrage informing the address. See, for example, Fairclough, “Martin Luther King, Jr. and the War in Vietnam,” 28.

Murphy and Jasinski argue that the implication of King’s belief in national redemption was a “rededication to its founding revolutionary spirit.” See “Time, Space, and Generic Reconstitution,” 101. In contradistinction to their argument, I believe, along with Michael Eric Dyson, that much of that revolutionary spirit was compromised by white supremacy and genocide. See, I May Not Get There with You , 38. As I argue, the foundations and institutionalization of white supremacy are significant. See Francis Shor, “The Long Life of U.S. Institutionalized White Supremacist Terror,” Critical Sociology 46:1 (January 2020): 5–18. As far as willing a new nation into existence, “we who share the hopes and vision of King are essentially citizens of a nation that does not exist.” See Harding, Martin Luther King , 77.

Harding, Martin Luther King , 147.

Dyson, I May Not Get There with You , 231. King’s vision of patriotism is an obvious contestation of the dominant nationalistic version, thus providing a counter-framing of the concept. For contesting and counter-framing of the concept of patriotism, see Lynne M. Woehrle, Patrick G. Coy, and Gregory M. Maney, Culture, Power, and Strategy in the Peace Movement (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008), esp. 1–67.

Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954–63 (New York: Touchstone, 1989), 216. On the connections between King’s earlier criticism of colonialism and imperialism and the Riverside address, see Lucks, “Martin Luther King Jr.’s Riverside Speech and Cold War Civil Rights,” 409. King also connected his understanding of African resistance to colonial domination and black resistance to segregation as part of a struggle against white supremacy. See Dyson, I May Not Get There with You , 244–45.

Quoted in Long, Against Us, But for Us , 156.

Among the historical studies that reflect this critique of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, see George Herring, America’s Longest War: The United States and Vietnam (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1996); Gabriel Kolko, Anatomy of a War: Vietnam, the United States, and the Modern Historical Experience (New York: The New Press, 1994); Jonathan Neale, A People’s History of the Vietnam War (New York: The New Press, 2003); Gareth Porter, Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004); and Marilyn B. Young, The Vietnam Wars, 1945–1990 (New York: HarperCollins, 1991). For an insightful recounting of the murderous onslaught of U.S. firepower in Vietnam, see Nick Turse, Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2017).

Christian G. Appy, American Reckoning: The Vietnam War and Our National Identity (New York: Viking, 2015), xii.

Eig, King: A Life , 474.

Quoted in Lucks, Selma to Saigon , 186.

Ralph B. Levering, “Martin Luther King, Jr.: The Challenge of Inclusive Peacemaking,” Peace Heroes in Twentieth Century America , ed. Charles DeBenedetti (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986), 222.

Murphy and Jasinski, “Time, Space, and Generic Reconstitution,” 101–02.

As Dyson points out, “In King’s mind, race, poverty, and war were intimately related.” I May Not Get There with You , 6.

Quoted in A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. , ed. James Melvin Washington (New York: HarperCollins, 1991), 61.

Martin Luther King, Jr., Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? (New York: Harper & Row, 1967). All further selections are from this edition with page numbers being cited in the main body of the chapter.

Branch, At Canaan’s Edge , 597.

Ibid., 595.

Quoted in Lucks, Selma to Saigon , 201.

Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, 604.

Quoted in A Testament of Hope , 408.

Quoted in Hall, Peace and Freedom , 22.

Phillips, War! What is it Good For? , 251.

Quoted in Westheider, Fighting on Two Fronts , 33. The rest of the Chicago 15 statement seems to channel the exact words of King’s Riverside address: “Born and raised in poverty and oppression, young men from America’s urban ghettos are forced to burn and kill poor peasants in a land of the Third World in order to preserve a ‘freedom’ which they themselves do not even enjoy in their own land.”

For a masterful analysis of that strike by black workers in Memphis and King’s support for it, see Michael K. Honey, Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King’s Last Campaign (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2007).

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Shor, F. (2024). “Beyond Vietnam:” Dr. King’s Riverside Address. In: Peace Advocacy in the Shadow of War. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-49321-8_4

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MLK's "Beyond Vietnam" Speech - Rhetorical Analysis Essay Lesson Writing Guide

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This resource supports your students' rhetorical analysis essay writing with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Speech/sermon, delivered at Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, "Beyond Vietnam--A Time to Break the Silence" (also known as the "Riverside Church speech." Important: This listing is for a two-page excerpt of the entire sermon. (See product previews). The full speech, read loud is linked to the assignment (YouTube) and includes a transcript within that link.

When I teach this speech, I focus on looking at Dr. King's delivery through juxtaposition . I've included slides to support students' understanding of juxtaposition and how to analyze it as a rhetorical device . I have also linked 3 of my YouTube videos on strategies for Reading Like a Writer and analyzing the following rhetorical devices: repetition, parallelism, juxtaposition, alliteration, analogy (metaphor/simile), irony, sarcasm, understatement, litotes, asyndeton, polysyndeton.

This resource includes a detailed/scaffolded Rhetorical Analysis Essay Writing Guide, which hats helped my students write the AP Language Rhetorical Analysis essay, connecting writer's / speaker's choice in writing to idea-based themes, while analyzing the function and impact of the writing choice. This Guide is a color-coded chart that helps students "chunk" and process the thinking steps of writing a rhetorical analysis essay. This is modeled after the AP Language Rhetorical Analysis essay, but would be great in other grades as well as history.

What's included:

• 17-slide lesson on juxtaposition as a rhetorical device, how it functions and builds a deeper meaning within the text on a word/phrase/sentence level and in relation to the writer's message. Facilitates students' understanding of juxtaposition through visual thinking.
• A detailed/scaffolded essay writing graphic organizer that guides students in developing thorough analysis and commentary with specific rhetorical analysis questions to get students to see the connection between writing choice ( What / How / Why ) it connects to the writer/speaker's message and produces a " so what " (Impact), as well as thesis writing frame and claim/topic sentence writing frame . The table organizer contains cues to get students to connect rhetorical choice to device to message and impact.
• A Google Document with assignment overview + brief description of juxtaposition + Dr. King's EXCERPTED sermon/speech . Please note: This listing is a two-page excerpt of Dr. King's full sermon/speech.
• A single slide demonstrating "rhetorical analysis sentence flow," or variations of pairing sentences together to dig deeper beyond the function of the rhetorical device, but how it helps shape the speech and deliver the message.
• Links embedded into the documents: power verbs, tone wheel, rhetorical analysis writing frames, 3 videos on my YouTube Channel on rhetorical devices beyond juxtaposition (see above description, link to the full audio version (YouTube) of Dr. King delivering the sermon/speech.

I've had great outcomes using the table guide/writing organizer as a first step to the rhetorical analysis essay. After a few times with it, students begin to see the connections required of this essay.

Juxtaposition in this speech is deeply embedded in its message as I guide students to l ook for more than one level of meaning . By analyzing for juxtaposition , students begin to pair side-by-side Dr. King's descriptions of racism in America with injustices of Vietnam War and push each other to think about his message. As a speech that conveys Dr. King's views on the Vietnam War, and a call for taking action both for Civil Rights in America as well as a call for peace in Vietnam, the text also pairs well with SPACECAT or SOAPSTone and discussion of the Rhetorical Situation - exigence, purpose, message - and its place in history of our nation and globally.

Two other resources that I find helpful are my listings for AP Lang Rhetorical Analysis Essay Reflection Tool and Rhetorical Device BIG Slide Deck .

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