○  名人演讲：打破沉寂  ○

s point i should make it clear that while i have tried in these last few minutes to give a voice to the voiceless in vietnam and to understand the arguments of those who are called "enemy," i am as deeply concerned about our own troops there as anything else. for it occurs to me that what we are submitting them to in vietnam is not simply the brutalizing process that goes on in any war where armies face each other and seek to destroy. we are adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a short period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really involved. before long they must know that their government has sent them into a struggle among vietnamese, and the more sophisticated surely realize that we are on the side of the wealthy, and the secure, while we create a hell for the poor.

somehow this madness must cease. we must stop now. i speak as a child of god and brother to the suffering poor of vietnam. i speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. i speak for the poor of america who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home, and death and corruption in vietnam. i speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. i speak as one who loves america, to the leaders of our own nation: the great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to stop it must be ours.

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 o

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