King told reporters on Face the Nation that as a minister he had “a prophetic function ” and as “one greatly concerned about the need for peace in our world and the survival of mankind, I must continue to take a stand on this issue ” (King, 29 August 1965). King’s anti-war sentiments emerged publicly for the first time in March 1965, when King declared that “millions of dollars can be spent every day to hold troops in South Viet Nam and our country cannot protect the rights of Negroes in Selma ” (King, 9 March 1965). Declaring “my conscience leaves me no other choice, ” King described the war’s deleterious effects on both America’s poor and Vietnamese peasants and insisted that it was morally imperative for the United States to take radical steps to halt the war through nonviolent means (King, “ Beyond Vietnam,” 139).
On 4 April 1967 Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his seminal speech at Riverside Church condemning the Vietnam War.
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