Illustrative Image
Written by Rick Sterling. Originally published by GlobalResearch
In April 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered an eloquent and stirring denunciation of the Vietnam war and US militarism. The speech titled “Beyond Vietnam” is relevant to today’s war in Ukraine.
In the speech at Riverside Church, King talked about how the US had supported France in trying to re-colonize Vietnam. He noted, “Before the end of the war we were meeting 80% of the French war costs.”
Click here to access complete text and audio
When France began to despair in the war, “We encouraged them with our huge financial and military supplies to continue the war.”
King went on to recall that after the French finally left Vietnam, the United States prevented the implementation of the Geneva Accord which would have allowed Ho Chi Minh to unite the divided country. Instead, the US supported its preferred South Vietnamese dictator.
The U.S. has played a similar role in blocking compromise solutions and international agreements to the Ukraine conflict.
Following Ukraine protests in February 2014, the European Union negotiated an agreement between President Yanukovich and the opposition to have early new elections. The attitude of lead US official Victoria Nuland was crystallized in her secretly recorded comment, “F*** the EU!” Despite the agreement, a violent bloody coup led by ultra-nationalist Ukrainians was “midwifed”.
The ultra-nationalist coup government immediately started implementing policies hostile to the Russian speaking citizens of Ukraine. The coup and the new policies provoked the conflicts and resistance which have led to the situation today. The coup and policies were abhorred by a majority of Ukrainians, especially in eastern Ukraine. The Russian speaking Ukrainian citizens of Crimea voted overwhelmingly to secede from Ukraine and re-unify with Russia.
The Minsk Accords of 2014 and 2015 were intended to resolve the conflict by granting some autonomy to the the Russian speaking sections in the eastern Donbass but keeping them within Ukraine. Thanks to the admissions of two prominent former European leaders, Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande, we know that the West and their Ukrainian government puppet never intended to implement the Minsk Agreement.
Like the 1954 Geneva Accords regarding Vietnam, the 2014 and 2015 Minsk Agreements on Ukraine were never implemented because Washington did not want a compromise.
When Ukraine President Zelensky had negotiations with Russians in Turkey at the end of March 2022, UK PM Boris Johnson hurried to Kyiv to dissuade Zelensky from continuing serious negotiations to end the war.
Similarly, the US is providing the big majority of weapons, military supplies and financial aid to Ukraine just as they did to France and then the puppet government of South Vietnam. And similarly the US and allies do not want a resolution to the conflict which might in any way be seen as win for Russia.
Rationalization vs Reality of Wars in Vietnam and Ukraine
In April 1965, U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) explained why he was escalating US involvement in Vietnam. With an Orwellian touch, he titled the speech “Peace without Conquest” as he announced the beginning of US air attacks on Vietnam. He explained that
“We must fight if we are to live in a world where every country can shape its own destiny and only in such a world will our own freedom be secure… we have made a national pledge to help South Vietnam defend its independence and I intend to keep that promise. To dishonor that pledge, to abandon the small and brave nation to its enemies and the terror must follow would be an unforgivable wrong…We are also there to strengthen world order… To leave Vietnam to its fate would shake the confidence of all these people in the value of an American commitment and in the value of America’s words.”
Click Link to access video and audio of LBJ’s John Hopkins Speech
President Biden and administration leaders sound similar to LBJ in the early stage of the Vietnam War. In his remarks to Congress asking for additional funding for Ukraine, Biden said,
“We need this bill to support Ukraine in its fight for freedom…. The cost of this fight is not cheap, but caving to aggression is going to be more costly if we allow it to happen…Investing in Ukraine’s freedom and security is a small price to pay to punish Russian aggression, to lessen the risk of future conflicts.”
Both Russia and the US now acknowledge that the conflict in Ukraine is between Russia and NATO (led the US). Ukraine is a proxy for the US which promoted the 2014 coup and has been pumping weapons into Ukraine ever since. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has been explicit: “We want to see Russia weakened.” The Ukrainian Defense Chief says they are fighting “to fulfill NATO’s mission.”
These wars are unnecessary
Just as the US could have lived with Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh leadership without the war, the US could live with Ukraine being a neutral country and bridge between east and west, Russia and western Europe.
However, as ML King observed 54 years ago, that was not (and still is not) US policy.
“The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit.” He went on to name many other countries which are victims of US intervention and aggression. He said, “And if we ignore this sobering reality we will find ourselves … marching …and attending rallies without end unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy. Such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam…”
Incrementally Increasing Conflict toward Total War
In 1965, when President Johnson announced the beginning of US air attacks on Vietnam, the war had been going on for many years. The US kept incrementally increasing its commitment – from political support to advisors and trainers and special operations. In spring 1965 “only” about 400 US soldiers had died in the conflict. The war was not yet widely unpopular. Americans who protested against the Vietnam War were a small minority.
We may be at a similar or earlier point in the conflict with Russia via Ukraine. While many tens of BILLIONS of dollars has been committed to Ukraine, plus advisors, trainers and other support, the US military has not yet been openly and actively deployed.
The incremental buildup in Vietnam ultimately led to over 58,000 Americans and three million Vietnamese civilians and soldiers being killed. US prestige and influence was severely damaged.
Martin Luther King Jr said in his 1967 speech [exactly two years after LBG hi,
“We have no honorable intentions in Vietnam …. The world demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people.”
If the incremental buildup toward war with Russia is not stopped, it will be immeasurably worse than Vietnam. Already we are seeing tremendous destruction with Ukrainians and Russians dying by the thousands. As with Vietnam in 1965, this could be just the beginning.
The costs of war and militarism
Dr King described the negative impact of the Vietnam war at home. He said
“A few years ago there was a shining moment …. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor, both black and white, through the Poverty Program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the build-up in Vietnam and I watched this program broken and eviscerated … I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.”
Today, with nearly 60% of the federal discretionary budget going to the military, so called intelligence and nuclear weapon modernization, the situation is even more stark. While US infrastructure corrodes, homelessness, personal debt, suicides and addictions increase. Instead of spending resources improving the lives of ordinary people, the government is pouring borrowed billions into another unnecessary war.
Western Media Distortions
Western media portrayed the US and South Vietnam winning the war in South East Asia until the 1968 Tet offensive exposed the lies and reality. Similarly, western media portrays Ukrainians winning the war midst overwhelming Ukrainian public support. In reality, Russia and the secessionist areas control large areas and will advance in the near future. Ukrainian losses are already huge.
The idea that all Ukrainians love the West and hate Russia is false. As an indication of the mixed sentiments, the country having received the MOST emigrants from Ukraine is Russia. While a small number continue from Russia to west European countries, the big majority stay in Russia with many awaiting the end of warfare.
Just as South Vietnamese puppet leaders were built up the US for political reasons, so is Ukrainian President Zelensky. His speeches are written by Washington insiders. Largely censored from the media, Zelensky has overseen the imprisonment, torture and killing of opponents. The largest opposition party has been banned. Many Ukrainians oppose his policy and continuation of the war.
Ukrainians have become cannon fodder for the US geopolitical goals, just as the South Vietnamese were.
Will the US and allies continue to escalate the conflict in Ukraine, to “double down” on an intervention half way around the world with the goal of hurting Russia? Have we learned nothing from Vietnam and subsequent US/Western foreign policy disasters of the past 40 years?
ML King’s Hopes and Death
In his profound speech, Dr King said:
“We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values…When machines and computer, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered… A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death …..The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just… Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out in a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism and militarism.”
Click to see full-size image
Click to see full-size image
Exactly one year after delivering the speech at Riverside Church, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated.
The Vietnam war continued for another seven years until the Vietnamese finally defeated and expelled the US military and their puppets. The disaster of the Vietnam War will be small compared to the disaster which may befall us all if US policy of attacking Russia through Ukraine is not stopped.
Rick Sterling is an independent journalist based in the SF Bay Area. He can contacted at rsterling1@protonmail.com. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
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No sense in this article
Just shows how disgusting america is and imperialists your troll
There is a lot of sense something you don’t have,wake up FFS.
@Hans
Yes, I agree (ich stimme zu – sorry my german not so good) Anyway. People in Europe need to understand that all their governments are traitors. They are nothing but puppets of the NWO-JWO. Most of the current ones are even fullblood communist, marxist, maoist or bolshevic criminals and agents. Like for example Merkel, Habeck (who openly stated to be a maoist) or thr current german chanchellor Scholz.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was in the 1980s part of the radical left and identified as a Marxist… (see also picture)
He frequently visited East-Germany, then under Soviet control… And here we sit wondering why Europe’s energy policies appear to be so irrational…”
https://t.me/EternalMuscovite/38000
Moreover it is a blatant, and even stupid lie that US is supposingly preparing to invade Russia. That’s just bullshit media fake-news, and everybody (apart from maybe the most extremly stupid putin-fanboys in this forum here) knows it !!
In fact neighter official side is truely interested in winning the war, nor in pushing for sincere peace-talks. Therefore…then why can t we, the people here, start doing it (discussing peace – resp. ending this war) on our own ? Wouldn t that be better than talking about how to more effeciently kill each other ? But you will see the mods here are against peace same as world-jewry itself of course doesn t wants peace in christian or muslim countries.
(If you speak german) this here you should listen to, in order to understand the real problem, and the real evil agenda and entities behind this whole war-circus:
The aim is world-war 3, and reducing world population, starting with eradicating the intelligent folks first.
The ADL chief, and living scum, Abraham Foxman told this full openly in 25th Aug. 1998 in New York already, but people are to ignorant to listen to announcements of these disgusting, maximum satanist, hook-nosed demons.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/5y9wH5wgTkRv/
What most here still not realize is that it is not Russia who is targeted by the so-called Ukraine War. It is Europe !!!
Would the USA (which is a fully jewish controlled entity) indeed want to fight Russia ( which too is a completely jewish controlled entitiy) then the USA would of course do it with effective means and gear.
Remember that in 1944, with the Normandy D-Day operation, USA was landing onto the beaches 40.000 US soldiers every single day into Europe against the National-Socialist German Wehrmacht.
Whereas now USA has trained an “unbelievable dangerous” number of 500 Ukrainian troops in Germany Grafenwöhr US base to fight in Ukraine. UK announced having trained 20.000 Ukraine troops, over the past 6-8 month, which will be ready tfor combat within the next weeks. This all knowing that Russia has just drawn in 300,000 (!) conscripts and thrown them to the front.
So for all who have at least 1 functioning braincell left, it should be absolutely clear, that USA isn t fighting Russia, and Russia isn t fighting the USA. They didn t do in World War 1, they didn t do in World War 2, and of course they do not do in World War 3 eighter ! Instead they, like always, work hand-in-hand in order to destroy those who are not accepting jewish supremacy !
Btw. Europe too is already jew controlled but fell to them only in 1945, and the western civilization stemming from Europe, and the anti-jewish knowledge is so deeply routed inside its culture that the jews are very afraid that – especially now after the vaccine-jab-genocide, which the jews commited, the europeans will wake up to who did this to them, and again start rising and fighting the jews to the death !!! That’s why the jews want to eradicate Europe first !!!
See, for example, if USA was truely wanting to prepare Europe for fight with Russia, then USA of course would do the following:
For example: Pushing for nationalism in whole of Europe in order to create a militant maximum anti-russian sentiment inside Europe, and get the populations of the different nations as menly, tough, war-ready and battle-hardened as possible. Get the men to become men again, istead of pussies. Train the armies of that nations intensively, and enlarge their size by a factor of at least 20 !
But what is the reality ? USA pushes for sanctions of Russia which are by design only hitting Europe, not Russia, USA forbids EU to buy russian gas and oil, but USA itself buys and imports large amounts of russian gas and oil and is even expanding it. Moreover USA pushes for homo-globo agenda, degeneration, poisoning of European food, want from 24th Jan. 2023 the europeans to eat vermin, which are mixed into the powdered grain products, bread, potato-mixes etc. etc. Nationalists are hunted down, incarcerated, murdered etc. in Europe (The same direction, btw. is happening even inside the USA)
So here we see it clearly that the USA does the direct oppossite of preparing Europeans for war with Russia. Instead they are weakening Europe and its people in every possible way, in order to make them easy prey, and destroy them completely.
And still you people here not realize that they are in cahoots? Can t you see from all these facts, that they are both working together !???
Why is all that, you ask ? Because both USA and RU are controlled by Jews, which want to first eradicate Europe, then the USA and Japan, then that little bit what s left of fake-christian Russia, then Islam, and finally all none-jews apart from 500 mio, who will be needed as servile slaves and whores to the jewish self-proclaimed masterrace.
The ADL chief, and living scum, Abraham Foxman told this full openly in 25th Aug. 1998 in New York already, but people are to ignorant to listen to announcements of these disgusting, maximum satanist, hook-nosed demons.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/5y9wH5wgTkRv/
And another one, Moscow’s ex prime Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, and also good friend of Mr. Putin, goes even more direct on it, listen here: https://www.bitchute.com/embed/U1gOYHsx3nVC/
Or Here too: https://birthofanewearthblog.com/the-jewish-agenda-to-destroy-the-white-race/
Therefore forget all the western (US & EU propaganda) as well as the eastern (Russian & Chinese propaganda) as behind them its just jews who not want to de-nazify or de-russianize your countries, but in fact want christians to slaughter each other. They want that you, as a christian, go out and slaughter your christian neighbors, landsmen and brothers on their (the jews) behalf ! That’s the cause of it all. Therefore, wake up and DON ‘ T do it !!! If you start see through the fog of jewish lies and there media propaganda and refuse to kill your fellow christian brothers and sisters, these jewish vermin are the fucked ones.
And, god-willing, all christians and muslims one day will unite and hunt down all these hook-nosed filth of the earth, till the last cockroach is eradicated from the face of the earth, and mankind will be free of these satanic world-parasites once and for all.
Same rambling dipshit screed that you keep posting. There’s no need for you to feel left out. Suicid would be a great option for you. So many different ways you could choose. Take some time and pick the method that’s right for you.
Con cừu tự nguyện đi tới nhà mổ, mặc dù nghe thấy tiếng la thảm thiết của đồng bọn của nó phát ra từ nhà mổ
Have we started the USA race war yet? yes, no? Not yet? WTF are we waiting for. Hurry the fuck up please
The Paris Peace Accords of 1973, among the representatives of the Vietnam and the United States – Le Duc Tho and Henry Kissinger respectively – declared the United States a “DEFEATED POWER”, etc. . I understand that America, with advisers and means, had entered the war in the early 50s, helping the French who were beaten every day, with the triumph of Diem Bien Phu a resounding and grandiose defeat in which the French power was downgraded to a minor power. Vietnam is the devil slayer of South East Asia. Thank you, Vietnam.
Vietnam wrote the book on resisting Imperialism,RIP General Giap.
I entirely agree. Vietnam is an indomitable People. General Giap is one of the greatest strategists in History.
MLK was a real revolutionary, unlike the BLM idiots who are funded by Soros. However, during the Cold War, there was the communist threat. Now there is not such threat because Soviet Union fell and both Ukraine and Russia became Christian and capitalist.
There never was a communist threat like there is no Russian threat now,its just the way the Imperialists work,they need a threat to justify their brutality.
There was communist threat actually.
What was the threat ?? I was born in a communist country( although not a hard line communism ) I’ve been living in the West for 45 years now and there is very little difference !! If we are truly free to choose then why is Communism abolished ?? A gain I don’t like it just as much as I don’t like our so-called democracy !! I would much rather have a Sweden’s style socialism !!
There was no communist threat in the United States. The US police state apparatus labelled King a communist because the US was, is and will be an imperialist plutocracy and King called them on it. Sixty years of propaganda and police state brutality were used to characterize any move toward reform of the plutocracy as “communist”, which allowed the US state to get away with “Operation Chaos’, “Cointelpro”, “Operation Garden Plot”, “MK Ultra”, etc. ad infinitum.
Communism and KGB are the definition of MK ULTRA.
Victoria Nuland, the satanic occultic whore.
And the American taxpayer that now has millions of “revolving door” H1-b dual citizens from Asia, Iran in it that are content to be made unsafe and are indifferent to what that means for them in both of their “homes”…
And as for the 1 visa card carrying Americans???… They gave up and saluted “no questions asked” after the JFK assassination and Vietnam War!…
And the single most fundamental and basic question one can raise post Maidan 2014 is “why” Russia refuses to abdicate it’s membership in such a corrupted “H0u$e of “cards” as the UN?!!!
If it wants to change THIS https://www.govexec.com/oversight/2018/05/its-not-just-trump-us-has-always-broken-its-treaties-pacts-and-promises/148179/ and it'”$” influences that will sacrifice even it’$ own https://ae911truth.org to maintain global dominance and hegemony with it’$ currency… Then the only way out is for Russia to show the way out to the rest of those members to presenting the idea of a new location for that HQ’s (same rules) but under new management that will enforce those rules for all it’s members!…
Very good article full of facts,what worries me is many supporters of the American 4th Reich know the nature of the brutal American Imperialism but support it for some reason,what they get out of it i have no idea other than a wich to be on what they see as the winning side,well they are on the side of the losers.
“Many supporters” should be “some supporters” due to how the activity evolves and news propaganda used to release it. If you have heard the term “deep state”, you also know undercover activities have existed for more than a half century and they establishes crisis areas throughout the world to fulfill an agenda before those incidents are ever revealed to the public in news propaganda form. Recent “use and abuse” country examples are Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen. I was in VN and ODS/S (eye witness) and will tell you what was actually happening vs the news propaganda fed the public was as different as night and day. IMHO, we (US) should NOT be involved in any way shape or form in Ukraine.
A former CIA operative confessed to MLK’s assasination on his deathbed in Florida and produced the rifle used in the killing but somehow the evidence disapeared .
Vietnam was a war fought and lot by half measures that was never well organized or planned or fully committed to and the result was a national schism, distrust of govt. and the military, and a national legacy that lasts to this day of ‘question authority’. Especially today when communications and information systems and resources are leaps and bounds better than they were during the Vietnam era, you would think that these people would have their acts together and be able to understand and resolve disputes and prevent conflict through effective and internationally accepted and respected arbitrage, but no. But no. And as long as these politicians and govt. officials continue to play their stupid little games, play stupid, pretend ignorant, demonstrate sheer incompetence, and perpetrate their underhandedness and lie to the public, the beatings will continue…which is why no one trusts them.
Half measures? The US had over half a million of their troops in Vietnam in 1968-69, a third-world agrarian peasant country, accompanied by everything from heavy artillery to B-52s. The national schism occurred because the war was inherently evil, was conducted behind an endlessly expanding shroud of lies, and because huge numbers of Americans were uninterested in getting maimed or killed on behalf of the shareholders of RMK-BRJ (known today as Halliburton, the would-be owners of Iraq).
Well written and correct. Ask families in their cellars in the Donbass their thoughts, they are not pro American or even pro Zelensky. They are smart enough to see bs. America is making no friends.
Shouldn’t an entity that is exposing ‘Government corruption’ include the part where American soldiers were shipped there in support of NATO regaining what France recently lost, that was the place most important shipping the opium out. JFK would never have allowed a war to start when the reason was a ‘false flag’.
JFK was murdered by the CIA 9 months before the US army went 10 folds upto 500,000 troops in Vietnam. Surely JFK didn’t sign the budgetary line for that. The USA was ever founded in order to overthrow British Fuedalism, Imperialism and Colonialism. So why is the UK its best friend in resuscitating Franco-German Feudal-Imperialism throughout the Balkans, Eastern-Europe, Africa, the Middle-East and Asia?
So much BS, the Vietnam war was lost in the streets of US cities, even the NVA generals admitted that. The US public just got sick of it. King was a communist who use Christian rhetoric, his life proved him to be a sexual predator and the professional agitators on his staff stirred up riots wherever he gathered crowds. He deserved to be shot for the women he abused, not to mention all the destruction he caused. The welfare state he and Johnson pushed through Congress destroyed Black family and culture in the US. Funny how Putin repudiated communism, but so many communist apologists who support mass murderers like Ho want to link their cause with his. First time I have seen the claim that more refugees have gone to Russia, everyone else has it 2 or 3 to 1 to the west. I believe Russia is doing the right thing, I just get sick of fools tying it back to the mass murdering communist system.
All we the peasants can do is witness this monumental geopolitical event. If NATO intervenes, I hope China steps up to plate as well.
America lost America completely after JFK was murdered and LBJ was installed. LBJ is a member of the chosen club and the chosen have been in charge of our foreign and domestic policies ever since. November 22, 1963–was a silent coup.
The USS Liberty is a prime example of this treason by LBJ.
Just like theirs nothing Catholic about the Vatican, there’s nothing American about America. The world is controlled and manipulated by a small tribe of sociopaths and have used America to install communism in every country, using the central bank to achieve this goal.
The official history recorded and taught in academia is pure fiction.
People may be waking up to the music but have no idea the conductor is kosher.
Total suckers for the Occult-Ritual….Martin Luther ‘King’–>MLK = MaLiK/MoLocK/MoLecK…the reprobate Deity humans get sacrificed to Ahaha As it was in the beginning same so at the End