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Rhetorical Analysis Of Beyond Vietnam By Martin Luther King

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Violence is said to never be the answer in any situation, as determined by America's constitution. If the basis of America is non-violence, the question comes up, why did America fight in Vietnam? Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Junior sets out to solve this tragedy by giving a speech. In the article "Beyond Vietnam", Martin Luther argues that war in Vietnam has far reaching affects that not only rapaciously take away America's resources, but make an immediate impact on African Americans perspective on the civil rights movement. Luther starts off by explaining that Vietnam heavily takes away valuable money of the US. Because of this, he argues,"America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor". More specifically, using …show more content…

Later he goes on to explain that along with funds, Americans are mindlessly losing there lives when such epidemics are unneeded.The article mentions,"ending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and to die". This text primarily serves to illustrate the dark side of the never ending war by describing the extraneous lives lost. Being consciously aware of these atrocious outcomes forces the reader to switch to Luther's side, while giving the war at Vietnam a negative connotation. The final point Luther points out is about young African American's perspective if this war goes along. The leader talks about how America's government is setting up the way their children think, and showing violence as the answer for the country's problem is projecting a bad example. The article says,"if our own nation wasn't using

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In the 1967 speech, “Beyond Vietnam”, the author, activist Martin Luther King jr, states reasons why America needs to end their involvement in the Vietnam War. During this time period there was a lot of controversy surrounding the war. Many people believed that America had no reason to interfere, Dr. King being one of those people. In his speech addressed to the laymen and clergy at Riverside Church he used pathos, logos, imagery, and an argument shift to list the reasons why America should withdraw their troops, and to create sympathy within his audience.

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But, as the South Vietnamese were fighting for their liberation from a communist regime and the Americans were not, the Americans could not provide the Vietnamese with the will to win. Seeing as their efforts in Vietnam were not as effective as had been hoped for, America began to lose support for the war as tensions at home increased. “It is like sending a lion to halt an epidemic of jungle rot,” [Doc E]. The lions that were being sent, as many of the time recognized, were often minorities and oppressed people. Martin Luther King, a popular civil rights activist, said, “We were taking the 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,” [Doc C].

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During the late 1950s and 1960s the southern states in America were segregated. Black and white people were separated from bathrooms to schools and therefore, blacks had to use their installments or they would be punished by whites. While this was happening, two African American men, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, wanted segregation to come to an end. So they proclaimed their ideas and started to form groups to protest against segregation in America. Consequently, Martin Luther King Jr’s civil rights philosophy made the most sense during the 1960s because integrated schools was the goal, nonviolence could have a huge impact on the enemy and nonviolence was the only practical strategy.

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All they wanted was “to save the soul of America” (King, Beyond, 42). Martin Luther King Jr is an African American preacher and civil rights activist that along with every other African American male and female in 1976 was waging a war in America for their not-so-natural born rights. Not only were they fighting for their own rights in 1976, but they were sending away the son, husbands, brothers of other Americans thousands of miles away to the country of Vietnam to fight an unjust war for the rights of the people in Southeast Asia. Martin Luther King Jr proves to all throughout his speech “Beyond Vietnam --- A Time to Break Silence” that the Vietnam war was unjust by his use of emotional diction, the allusion of Jim crow, and repetition.

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One of the most controversial wars in history and a turning point in American foreign policy, the emotions and events surrounding the Vietnam War capture the essence of the era. The rise of rebellious youth culture and anti-war and anti-draft movements were key social aspects of American life leading up to and during the fighting. (Doc 2, 3) On the political side, Congress aimed to control the Chief-Executive with legislation such as the War Powers Act of 1973, requiring the president to remove all unreported troops in Vietnam and report any further sent. (Doc 7) To say the country was divided would be a massive understatement.

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Many people believe in God, so by MLK’s sharing his beliefs, he has just gained many followers. The ethical appeal used in MLK’s life changing speech goes to prove that it is more convincing than any other text against the Vietnam

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It has always been known that in order to gain trust from voters and also sound credible political candidates need to assert both their personal and moral convictions. For example, John F. Kennedy confronted a religious issue in his Campaign Speech to the Houston Ministerial Association. On the other hand, Bill Clinton talked about his absence of experience on the military area and also stated his opposition towards the Vietnam War during his speech Address to the American Legion Convention. During the delivery of their speeches both candidates confronted a rhetorical obstacle; this obstacle was inertia, and structure and tone were the two strategies that served as key for the candidates to get through the obstacle.

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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.

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War was always known to improve society, but it has actually been a burden in the world that has caused so much damage. I believe that the people should have a world without war so their can be more money for the people, and the death rate will decrease. This world should be War-Free because war causes violence and it is arbitrary. Even though, the novel, All Quiet On The Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, illustrates events from World War I, it still proves that war can be a dangerous place that leads to negative effects. War is a menacing place which causes so much violence that it has to be removed.

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Smiley and West frequently reference Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s famous speech on the Vietnam War which criticizes the American government for using the war as a diversion from domestic issues. They commend King for his courage to explicitly address the government’s shortcomings and state that “War is the enemy of the poor.” American intervention abroad can benefit the White Agenda because the government can project an image of a White Savior furthering democracy and freedoms in tyrannical states. On the other hand the image of America’s success is tainted by the legacy of poverty in this country, and to even address the problem would be an admittance of its

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Martin Luther King Jr. persuasive speech was for the minorities who wanted to stand against oppression, just like many people of color did in The Long Walk Home. Dr. King audience lack an education, poor class people, and oppressed. The allowed King to use terms his audience could understand and maintain the ability to influence government officials to understand their movement is crucial. King use his religious beliefs to make a connection between the American Dream which the American people can understand. Within the speech, King was capable to use scripts from the Bible, cited the US Constitution, and covered the ideology which America was organized on.

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1524 Words | 7 Pages

The war in Vietnam to do this day has gone down as one of the influential and controversial wars in United States history. The war lasted from 1955 to 1975.The nation as a whole began to uproar over the war and the major consequences of the war. There were many reasons why so many Americans were against the war. Public opinion steadily turned against the war following 1967 and by 1970 only a third of Americans believed that the U.S. had not made a mistake by sending troops to fight in Vietnam (Wikipedia). Not to mention, many young people protested because they were the ones being drafted while others were against the war because the anti-war movement grew increasingly popular among the counterculture and drug culture in American society and

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On April 4, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy gave his remarks on the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Robert’s goal was to inform people on Martin Luther King’s journey and to strengthen people’s attitudes on the whole situation. Robert’s main points throughout the speech were how the country as a whole should move forward, why the states should not resort to violence but unity instead, and he also addressed that the country needed unity, love, and compassion.

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Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most influential leaders of his time and played a crucial role in the African-American Civil Rights movement. Luther was a charismatic leader who took a firm stand against the oppressive and racist regime of the United States (US), devoting much of his life towards uniting the segregated African-American community of the US. His efforts to consolidate and harmonise the US into one country for all is reflected in many of his writings and speeches spanning his career. As a leader of his people, King took the stand to take radical measures to overcome the false promises of the sovereign government that had been addressing the issues of racial segregation through unimplemented transparent laws that did nothing to change the grim realities of the society. Hence, King’s works always had the recurring theme of the unity and strength of combined willpower.

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1. Introduction A great speech as it is, Martin Luther King 's "I Have a Dream" is widely considered as an epitome of political rhetoric. Written by a major figure in African Americans activism, the importance of the speech partially originates in the significance of the historical moment in which it was delivered, as well as the importance of its message. More importantly, however, language played the most essential role in providing a voice to the cause, since the linguistic discursive choices that were made by the writer of the speech created the most profound effect upon its hearers. Indeed, it is the linguistic structure of the speech, its discourse, that is, that facilitated its resonating with people to this day, making it politically relevant.

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