Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence”

Questions for Further Study

• 1. What did King see as the connection between the Vietnam War and the issue of racial justice in the United States?
• 2. Compare this document with other critiques of the Vietnam War, in particular those contained in Malcolm X’s “After the Bombing” (1965) and Stokely Carmichael’s “Black Power” (1966). What similar arguments do the documents present? How did King’s attitude toward Vietnam differ from that of the others, if at all?
• 3. Why did some of King’s advisers urge him to sidestep the issue of the Vietnam War? Why do you think the war was such a divisive issue at the time?
• 4. What did President Lyndon Johnson and others see as the potential political consequences of the speech?
• 5. Many of King’s arguments against the war in Vietnam could be applied to other conflicts, such as the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. How persuasive do you find King’s arguments? Would they be applicable to other conflicts?