According to Skye Gould and Daniel Brown of Business Insider, “The US military [currently] has over 1.3 million men and women on active duty, with more than 450,000 of them stationed overseas.” Many U.S. soldiers are “deployed to conflict zones like Syria or Iraq.”[1] Given the current scope of U.S. military operations, are the issues King raises in his “Beyond Vietnam” speech relevant today? Could the case be made that our current foreign policy has implications for domestic policy? How?
[1] Daniel Brown and Skye Gould, “The US Has 1.3 Million Troops Stationed around the World — Here Are the Major Hotspots,” Business Insider. Accessed October 16, 2017. http://www.businessinsider.com/us-military-deployments-may-2017-5.
King’s message in his “Beyond Vietnam” speech still resonates today. He argues that in the U.S., the privileged are obstinate to give up the rights they have, despite the suffering of others. While the U.S. was involved in conflict in Vietnam, privileged, educated men often found ways out of the draft. Meanwhile, black men who had less privilege and faced racism in the U.S. had to fight in the war. The Cold War focus on being a “stronger” nation than the Soviet Union through technology, wealth, and property rights emphasized the focus on privilege that played such a large role in American society during the Cold War. The materialism and militarism that resulted took away focus from pressing domestic issues. In today’s society, racism, gun violence, and other pressing domestic issues are largely ignored by the U.S. government, despite the large scope of U.S. military operations in countries where racism and violence have resulted in larger conflicts. King’s message that a nation in which there are people neglected by society and in need of aid is one which needs restructuring of values still rings true today. The U.S. has largely continued to ignore minorities and its citizens that are in need and oppressed by societal norms in favor of focusing on materialistic and militaristic interests that maintain the position of the privileged. There is still a need in the United States for a revolution of values and interests that better support the domestic issues in the country rather than ones overseas.
King Raises a very interesting point in his “Beyond Vietnam” speech. King called the United States, “greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” The Vietnam War was a war against communism and many in the United States did not understand why the US was involved in in a proxy War there. Today the United States has Soldiers all throughout the world to protect the United States and democracy. King believed the United States only was involved in wars for a profit. Today many believe that to also be true with U.S. Soldiers being deployed in places like Syria and Iraq where there are untapped resources. King “Beyond Vietnam” speech is clearly still very relevant today. There is most definitely a connection between foreign policy and domestic policy. Mary L. Dudziak claimed that “civil rights reform was in part a product of the Cold War.” The Cold War had an effect amongst black’s civil rights as if the Cold War never occurred “The democratic upsurge of black people could of happened 10 years earlier.” The Red Scare also led to a crackdown against the American left. Foreign policy clearly has an implication for domestic policy.
Dr. King’s speech holds significant relevance today given our current military operations overseas. First, as King noted with black soldiers drafted to Vietnam, we still today have blacks fighting for an ideal of freedom that they may not have experienced. Racism and racist policies are alive and well in our society. Additionally, we as Americans wonder why we generate so much hatred from the regions of the world which we are militarily involved in. Yet as Dr. King mentions in his speech, these people, like the people of Vietnam, hate us in many cases because our military actions have destroyed their lives. As King mentions, our military policies overseas reflect our domestic policies at home- both of which seem to be, in many cases, devoid of love for our fellow man. For example, our unnecessarily harsh drug laws that have destroyed inner city communities without consideration of the impacts they have on families.