Martin Luther King

In this article, the author Adam Fairclough interprets one aspect of King’s career: King’s opposition to America’s involvement in Vietnam. The article has an explicit thesis statement: a focus on the successes of Martin Luther King Junior by examining the nature of his organizational base, his relationship with the wider black movement, and the national political context . The author has illustrated his thesis by providing King’s views on the war, attempting to provide an explanation on how he acquired those views. The author has further illustrated the significance of King and his organization in the peace movement.

Summary and analysis

Condemnation for the war against Vietnam was advanced by various movements among them; the peace movement and the civil rights movement. The civil rights movement was led by blacks and supported by a coalition of blacks and whites, while the peace movement although interracial, the majority were whites . Although these movements had different lines of action, it apparently became clear from the then existing state of affairs that King had a passionate desire of combining them, in this own words “the fervor of the civil rights with the peace movement,” believing that social progress and war were inherently incompatible . Even though he criticized the existing governments’ policy on foreign issues and envisioned several groupings, all these did not easily happen as he had planned. This failure is most likely to be attributed to the fact that such movements were meant to advance ideals by blacks and as such considered by many to be impractical. However, with regard to his leadership style he is regarded as being a charismatic leader. On the contrary, Garry Wills argues that King was not a charismatic leader in the sense of substituting traditional and legal power with his personal will. Garry emphasizes that King relied on the deep traditions of the church, on the preaching power of a Baptist minister and further appealed to the...