The Vietnam war in the 1960’s was the longest battle in the history of the United States. During this time, Martin Luther King, a well-known Civil Rights leader, delivered his powerful “Beyond Vietnam” speech that raged against the war in Vietnam. On the other hand, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States, presented his “Speech on Vietnam” which escalated the crisis in Vietnam and believed in controlling the spread of communism around the world. Martin Luther King’s “Beyond Vietnam” speech is more persuasive than Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Speech on Vietnam” because he gave several reasons on why the war in Vietnam should not continue. Proving that the U.S. should have avoided Vietnam because it had affected the Civil Rights movement,
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He assumed that exploiting Vietnam would begin to divert money and attention away from private programs to help the poor in the U.S.. King states, “And i knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of the poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic, destructive suction tube’’(“Beyond Vietnam”). Surely, King was certain that Vietnam would consume more valuable resources rather than aid the poor. Additionally, he followed his senses and spoke out against U.S. militarism. As a result, King saw the war as an “Enemy of the poor and to attack it as such”(“Beyond Vietnam”). He strongly wanted to aid those in need and felt that Vietnam had the taking of making it more difficult for them to survive. Moreover, King pointed out that the military was drafting young black men to protect the liberties and freedoms of Vietnam; however, these black men did not have any rights for themselves.He states that “We were taking young black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem. So 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.”(“Beyond Vietnam”) King demonstrated that although black people were fighting side to side with white people in Vietnam, they still had less rights and freedom than whites. In addition, this was a difficult question to disprove because blacks were dying alongside whites to honor their country. He pondered why was it that whites and blacks could die together, but still did not have the same equality or rights as each other.
He assumed that exploiting Vietnam would begin to divert money and attention away from private programs to help the poor in the U.S.. King states, “And i knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of the poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic, destructive suction tube’’(“Beyond Vietnam”). Surely, King was certain that Vietnam would consume more valuable resources rather than aid the poor. Additionally, he followed his senses and spoke out against U.S. militarism. As a result, King saw the war as an “Enemy of the poor and to attack it as such”(“Beyond Vietnam”). He strongly wanted to aid those in need and felt that Vietnam had the taking of making it more difficult for them to survive. Moreover, King pointed out that the military was drafting young black men to protect the liberties and freedoms of Vietnam; however, these black men did not have any rights for themselves.He states that “We were taking young black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem. So 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.”(“Beyond Vietnam”) King demonstrated that although black people were fighting side to side with white people in Vietnam, they still had less rights and freedom than whites. In addition, this was a difficult question to disprove because blacks were dying alongside whites to honor their country. He pondered why was it that whites and blacks could die together, but still did not have the same equality or rights as each other.