Forty years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King gave the speech "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence." It was April 4, 1967 -- a year to the day before he was murdered. He was speaking at the Riverside Church here in New York. King billed the speech as a declaration of independence from the war and called the United States: "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today." [includes rush transcript]

Time magazine called the speech "demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi," and the Washington Post declared that King had "diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people."

• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., excerpt of his "Beyond Vietnam" speech at Riverside Church in New York on April 4, 1967.
  For more of King's speeches check: Pacifica Radio Archives.