Sunday 20 May 2012

MARTIN LUTHER KING Beyond Vietnam: speech

                                                       
"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." "War is not the answer. Communism will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. Let us not join those who shout war and, through their misguided passions, urge the United States to relinquish its participation in the United Nations."
"We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate."

The following is mirrored from its source at: http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/liberation_curriculum/speeches/beyondvietnam.htm
Although the speech was made about the Vietnam War in the 1960s, the poster on Youtube saw parallels with the invasion of Iraq. America left Vietnam and is today one of the biggest foreign investors in that country, which is ironically ruled by the communist party which the thousands of Americans died to defeat. King's speech was prophetic and history shows how 'victory' in wars always leaves a legacy of bitterness, which may indeed fuel future wars - consider the defeat of Germany in WW1 and the rise of Hitler leading to WW2. 

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