In Martin Luther King’s speech, “Beyond Vietnam: a Time to Break the Silence” (above), he quotes a Vietnamese Buddhist teacher in his denunciation of the Vietnam War:
This is the message of the great Buddhist leaders of Vietnam. Recently one of them wrote these words, and I quote:
Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. It is curious that the Americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory, do not realize that in the process they are incurring deep psychological and political defeat. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom, and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism.
When Dr. King nominated Thich Nhat Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967, he wrote in his letter to the Nobel Committee:
I do not personally know of anyone more worthy of this prize than this gentle monk from Vietnam. He is an Apostle of Peace and Nonviolence. His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity.
The ongoing conversation between these two historic figures about ending the Vietnam War took many forms. While he was in America in 1966, Thich Nhat Hanh strongly encouraged Dr. King to speak out against the war. Previously, on June 1st, 1965, Thich Nhat Nanh had addressed a letter to Dr. King entitled, “In Search of the Enemy of Man.” In his letter to Dr. King, he wrote:
I believe with all my heart that the monks who burned themselves did not aim at the death of the oppressors but only at a change in their policy. Their enemies are not man. They are intolerance, fanaticism, dictatorship, cupidity, hatred and discrimination which lie within the heart of man. I also believe with all my being that the struggle for equality and freedom you lead in Birmingham, Alabama… is not aimed at the whites but only at intolerance, hatred and discrimination. These are real enemies of man — not man himself. In our unfortunate father land we are trying to yield desperately: do not kill man, even in man’s name. Please kill the real enemies of man which are present everywhere, in our very hearts and minds…
Yesterday in a class meeting, a student of mine prayed: “Lord Buddha, help us to be alert to realize that we are not victims of each other. We are victims of our own ignorance and the ignorance of others. Help us to avoid engaging ourselves more in mutual slaughter because of the will of others to power and to predominance.” In writing to you, as a Buddhist, I profess my faith in Love, in Communion and in the World’s Humanists whose thoughts and attitude should be the guide for all human kind in finding who is the real enemy of Man.
When Oprah interviewed Thich Nhat Hanh last year (below), she began the program by mentioning Dr. King’s nomination of Thich Nhat Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967–though no winner was picked that year. On this anniversary of Dr. King’s birth, it’s worth remembering his warm and revolutionary friendship with Thich Nhat Hanh and other Buddhists in Vietnam…
