A Time to Break Silence - Essay Example

Martin Luther King urged the Vietnamese to view the Americans as “strange liberators” (American Rhetoric: Online Speech Bank). As pointed out by King in his speech, the United States gave ample support to France when the Vietnamese led by Ho Chi Minh struggled for liberty from the French. The United States support suggests that the liberty of the Vietnam people was not in the interest of the United States government. Indeed, this fact was further buttressed when the United States government declined to recognize the independence of Vietnam even after the French has defected. Given the support given by the United States government to the French and the role the former played after the defect of the latter by the Ho Chi Minh-led revolution, it is, indeed, hypocritical for Americans to play the role of liberator of the Vietnam people. This argument by Martin Luther King was reliable.

King was, however, guilty of hasty generalization when he mentioned that those who question his opposition to war “do not know the world in which they live” (American Rhetoric: Online Speech Bank). In this fallacious argument, King claimed that by questioning his opposition to war, these individuals were ignorant of who he, King, is and therefore they are ignorant of the world in which they live.

King’s argument is guilty of hasty generalization since he based a broad conclusion (ignorance of the world) on a very small sample (ignorance of King). Furthermore, King was guilty of irrelevant conclusion when he claimed that he was “compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such” (American Rhetoric: Online Speech Bank). He meant American involvement in the Vietnam War diverted money meant for social welfare to finance the war. Indeed, the war diverted money meant for fighting the war on poverty to financing the Vietnam War; Read More