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MLK--Vietnam
2
MLK & the Vietnam War
1966-1967
French Indochina
Global Context
The Birth of Vietnam
A Brief Timeline
16-17th C - French and Portuguese missionaries arrive & trading posts established
Early 19th C - French assume direct political involvement
1862-1885 - France secures control of what it calls Indochina (Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia).
1885-1920s - France retains this control and relies on goods, labor and land of these nations, while suppressing revolution/nationalism.
1940s- WWII renders France incapable of holding on to the territory and suppressing agitation.
1950 - France forced to recognize partial independence of Indochina (except for its foreign policy and defense systems). Remember--Ho Chi Minh
U.S. enters into diplomatic relationship with the region
1954 - Vietnamese nationalists success in repelling French government from its Northern regions.
U.S. breaks ties with that region of the nation.
1954-1975 - Civil War ensued.
The U.S. begins supplying arms and funds to France to suppress nationalists in North Vietnam.
1965- U.S. deploys 100,000 troops to Vietnam with the intention of sending 100,000 more in 1966.
1973-1975 - No clear victory in the war. U.S. withdraws troops.
1975- 1995 - U.S. diplomatic relations with Vietnam remain strained and limited.
Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic REpublic of Vietnam (1945)
“We hold truths that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
This immortal statement is extracted from the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776. Understood in the broader sense, this means: “All peoples on the earth are born equal; every person has the right to live to be happy and free.”
The Declaration of Human and civic Rights proclaimed by the French Revolution in 1791 likewise propounds: “Every man is born equal and enjoys free and equal rights.”
These are undeniable truths.
Yet, during and throughout the last eighty years, the French imperialists, abusing the principles of “Freedom, equality and fraternity,” have violated the integrity of our ancestral land and oppressed our countrymen. Their deeds run counter to the ideals of humanity and justice.
In the political field, they have denied us every freedom. They have enforced upon us inhuman laws.
They have built more prisons than schools. They have callously ill‑treated our fellow compatriots. They have drowned our revolutions in blood.
They have sought to stifle public opinion and pursued a policy of obscurantism on the largest scale; they have forced upon us alcohol and opium in order to weaken our race.
In the economic field, they have shamelessly exploited our people, driven them into the worst misery and mercilessly plundered our country.
The have ruthlessly appropriated our rice fields, mines, forests and raw materials. They have arrogate to themselves the privilege of issuing banknotes, and monopolized all our external commerce.
They have imposed hundreds of unjustifiable taxes, and reduced our countrymen, especially the peasants and petty tradesmen, to extreme poverty.
For these reasons, we, the members of the Provisional Government representing the
entire people of Viet Nam, declare that we shall from now on have no more connections with imperialist France; we consider null and void all the treaties France has signed concerning Viet Nam, and we hereby cancel all the privileges that the French arrogated to themselves on our
territory.
The Vietnamese people, animated by the same common resolve, are determined to fight
to the death against all attempts at aggression by the French imperialists.
The Draft
U.S. Realities
Realities of Guerrilla Warfare
Counting the Costs
Racial Dimensions
Racial Dimensions
Black Soldiers at War
Disproportionate Representation
- African Americans made up 14% of the entire U.S. Population
- African American men made up 11% of all males in the U.S.
- 70% of the African American men who enlisted were rejected from service.
- 16% of African American males were drafted for the war in Vietnam (1967)
- Black soldiers made up 10% of the all U.S. army soldiers present in Vietnam (1967)
- 23% of these men were used as combat soldiers (Marines & Army)
- Only 5% made officer ranks
- Black soldiers represented 14% of all non-combat deaths
- 12% of the men who died in the war (active combat and non-combat) were black men.
Systemic Racism
De Facto segregation continued as the war progressed and black soldiers who reported incidents of abuse or discrimination or violence were severely punished.
- 25% of all non-judicial punishments during the war were meted out to black soldiers
- 34% of all black soldiers were court martialed during their tenure in the war
- By 1969, 58% of all U.S. militay prisoners were African American men.
White Man's Burden?
Civil Rights Politics & Foreign Policy
As the war unfolded, civil rights activists and leaders began to ask some critical questions that linked their domestic fight to the international liberation efforts in southeast Asia and Africa.
1) How could nonviolence be justified now?
2) What level of progress could they expect given the loss of legal gains {Great Society programs}
How could/should they measure patriotism?
3) Was this a "white man's war"?
King's Interventions?
King as an Anti-war Advocate
1. The War in Vietnam was as much economic warfare on the poor as it was political.
2. The United States was extending its immorality to the developing world?
3. All Americans who counted themselves patriotic or anti-oppression could not justify support of the war.
4. Silence was acquiescence to global inequality
5. Continued aggression in Vietnam would mean "spiritual death"
6. A Revolution of Values was beginning...