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Posted: 11/2/2011
Dr. Martin Luther King spoke out against America's involvement in Viet Nam after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway,December 10th.1964, for work and speech on Non-Violence. This angered the government of the United States,as well as vast majority of the population that felt that he being ungrateful after being awarded and unpatriotic in not supporting this country's involvement in southeast Asia. Most White Americans had favored Dr. King over the more Malcom X, who at that time,before his assasination,did not preach nonviolence. Malcom X, who after leaving the Nation of Islam, changed his name to El-Hadj Malik el-Shabazz, spoke of 'by any means necessary'. But while Dr. King was still considered the more passive and non-threatning of the two, America was not comfortable with Blacks speaking out on the international stage against American foreign policy. America has not expirienced changed as a nation the way it did in the late 60's and early 70's since then.. After the war and then Watergate,the nation was silenced. Why ?
Some believed that after a series of assasinations of JFK, Malcom X, MLK, AND Robert Kennedy Jr, most leaders,as well as most people had become afraid to speak out, that is until today.
The irony, in the eyes of Dr. King, was that he was awarded the peace prize for asking Negroes,(as we were referd to back then,) to be passive against Alabama Governor Bull Conner's vicious dogs and waterboarding, then denounced for praticing the same non-violent methodology against the North Vietnamese. Since that time, a pattern has developed. Andy Young, who was later Secretary of State under then President Jimmy Carter, was later forced to reisgn his post for his handling of a situation that involved Israel. Although he was Secretary of State at that time,and that was his role,politians at home sharply criticized for actions and he was force to resign. Today Condeleeza Rice assumes that role and is sha