should have stayed out of the affairs of the Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. Just because one country takes the communist route does not mean the rest of the world will follow. If Communism really does not work then I think Vietnam would have eventually seen this and therefore ultimately change to a democratic form of government on their own, just as the United States did in the 18th century. .
Martin Luther King was "the preeminent leader of the civil rights movement" (Bizell 850) in the 1960's. While America was at war with Vietnam he gave his "Declaration of Independence from the War in Vietnam" speech at the Riverside Church. King's views on communism were outlined in this oration. He was of the live and let live attitude. King thought that a country should govern themselves the way they want to, not the way another country tells it to. He expressed concern about the U.S.'s role in Vietnam for this reason. King writes, "what must they think of us in America when they realize that we permitted the repression and cruelty of Diem which helped to bring them into being as a resistance group in the south?" (King 853). Here King sympathizes with the plight of the Communists. He asks this question rhetorically in order to make his audience think about who the real aggressor in Vietnam is. He makes it clear that the Communists did not appear out of thin air. There was a reason for their rise. He decides for us that it is America, not Vietnam who is at fault. It seems as if he is saying that Vietnam reacted to our actions, and not the other way around. They had no choice but to protect themselves against the ruthless dictatorship America put in power. I think he is trying to illustrate that any political group could have risen in order to try and stop what America was doing, and by chance, this time it was the Communists. Just like democracy rose in the Revolutionary War in America, Communism rose in Vietnam.
