Summary Of Martin Luther King Jr Vietnam Speech

On April 4, 1967 Doctor Martin Luther King Jr gave the speech, “Beyond Vietnam-A time to Break Silence.” In this powerful speech Dr. King addresses his followers, and explains why the same people who are advocating for civil rights, should also protest the war in Vietnam. Dr. King’s main appeal is towards pathos because he is explaining his reasons, most of which are moral in some way. Dr. King develops the central claim of the speech by explaining how the war is taking away resources from the poor, how the soldiers are disproportionately poor people, and lastly how the war is completely against his morals. His central claim of the speech revolves around war being an enemy of the poor.

In the first part of his speech, Dr. King begins with his first reason for protesting the war in Vietnam. He

King’s third paragraph is his final reason, as he states in the first sentence. His third reason for protesting the war is his morals. His claim is that morally he cannot stand by with the violence that is being used, when he wants everything he does to be nonviolent. When he tells followers not to use violence they ask “what about Vietnam? They ask if our own nation wasn’t using massive doses of violence to solve its problems” (Paragraph 3). Dr. King feels that he cannot speak against violence being used in the ghettos without having protested the greatest use of violence, “[his] own government.” (Paragraph 3). Dr. King uses specificity such as “Molotov cocktails and rifles” (Paragraph 3) to create a vivid image of the violence that has occurred in his own nation.

Dr. King made this speech to address the violence going on in the Vietnam War. Throughout the speech he is answering the question of “Why a civil rights leader has become a anti-war protester?” He uses rhetorical strategies such as; diction, similes, and specificity to strengthen his argument. To answer those who question him Dr. King gives three claims all of which resonate with people in different