Read a rhetorical analysis of Martin Luther King Jr’s Beyond Vietnam: Time to break silence. He picks from history as well as politics and also supports his choices with philosophical wisdom. Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. Now there is little left to build on, save bitterness. Using the approach, the context of the speech will be analyzed according to the classical cannon of rhetorical. 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. Abhijeet has been blogging on educational topics and business research since 2016. The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, delivers a speech entitled “Beyond Vietnam” in … He says, “ 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. To get his point through and make the meaning clear, King uses phrases like “break the silence of the night”, “a vocation of agony”, ‘based upon the mandates of conscience’, ‘deeper level of awareness’. These are the times for real choices and not false ones. We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. While those words from 1963 are necessary, his speech “Beyond Vietnam,” from 1967, is actually the more insightful one. In part, we do not commemorate the aspects of Dr. King’s legacy that are wrapped up in “Beyond Vietnam” because a chorus of voices at the time condemned the speech as too radical, as communist, and as contrary to the interests of a Civil Rights Movement that was finally gaining traction on issues of social justice at home, and that stood only to lose by associating its cause with the most … But instead there came the United States, determined that Ho should not unify the temporarily divided nation, and the peasants watched again as we supported one of the most vicious modern dictators, our chosen man, Premier Diem. These are revolutionary times. It is a sad fact that because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of communism, and our proneness to adjust to injustice, the Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch antirevolutionaries. Instead, we decided to support France in its reconquest of her former colony. America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. The idea with the clergy took the theme of silence is betrayal. He repeatedly stresses upon breaking the silence because in this situation being silent was a sin. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. America is overlooking its own poor and pouring resources into a war which does not offer any political, economic or social advantage. The irony is explicit in King’s words that the war is just an attempt to cover and hide the more pressing issues before America. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation and for those it calls “enemy,” for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers. This speech is not addressed to Hanoi or to the National Liberation Front. Beyond Vietnam A Time To Break Silence Analysis 768 Words | 4 Pages. From The Vietnam War, PBS. As Arnold Toynbee says: Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and good against the damning choice of death and evil. With that tragic decision we rejected a revolutionary government seeking self-determination and a government that had been established not by China — for whom the Vietnamese have no great love — but by clearly indigenous forces that included some communists. And if we will only make the right choice, we will be able to transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of peace. Therefore, communism is a judgment against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions that we initiated. We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men. It is why while he attacks America’s intervention in Vietnam on the one hand, on the other he brings people’s attention towards the other side of life where America can become a beacon of hope and peace for the entire world including Vietnam. They will be concerned about Guatemala — Guatemala and Peru. Exactly a year later, King was assassinated. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people. 2 In an article titled, “Beyond Vietnam-A time to Break Silence.”, he tries to provide compelling evidence and sound reasoning to decry America’s involvement in Vietnam war. It is not addressed to China or to Russia. War is not the answer. Photo: Ad Meskens. Apart from drawing a parallel between the situation in Vietnam and America, he shows neither stood to gain from it. Now let us begin. We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. We must provide the medical aid that is badly needed, making it available in this country, if necessary. I say we must enter that struggle, but I wish to go on now to say something even more disturbing. It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. I speak of the — for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home, and death and corruption in Vietnam. Part of our ongoing — Part of our ongoing commitment might well express itself in an offer to grant asylum to any Vietnamese who fears for his life under a new regime which included the Liberation Front. Hanoi remembers how our leaders refused to tell us the truth about the earlier North Vietnamese overtures for peace, how the president claimed that none existed when they had clearly been made. He knows the bombing and shelling and mining we are doing are part of traditional pre-invasion strategy. King’s ‘conscience’ prevailed by his giving this speech because he was being discouraged in … He means to make people ask questions of themselves and ponder over the meaninglessness and uselessness of war and what would remain behind once the war was over. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. The idea of nonviolence is much larger than ordinary people see. The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise, we must choose in this crucial moment of human history. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. His choice of diction and use of imagery help him deliver his point effectively in a manner that impresses both the audience’s heart and mind. For nine years we vigorously supported the French in their abortive effort to recolonize Vietnam. Follow along with the transcript, below. In 1957, a sensitive American official overseas said that it seemed to him that our nation was on the wrong side of a world revolution. His indictment of the U.S. government and the war became known as “The Riverside Church Speech” and it was criticized by media from The New York Times to the Washington Post, and by groups such as the NAACP, which objected to the Civil Rights Movement weighing in on the war and joining anti-war protests. Madison Grant Works of Dr. King Beyond Vietnam/ A time to Break silence Analysis Paragraph 2 “A time comes when silence is betrayal”. 1. In the North, where our bombs now pummel the land, and our mines endanger the waterways, we are met by a deep but understandable mistrust. So they go, primarily women and children and the aged. Fifty years ago on April 4, 1967, our prophet Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave the historic speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” at New York City’s Riverside Church. 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 - … The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. 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. While his I Have a Dream speech is considered his best one, his other speeches too offer a glimpse of his powerful rhetoric and his art of persuasion.