Martin Luther King Gets Angry About Media Hypocrisy

"The time has come for America to hear the truth about this tragic war." 

- Martin Luther King Jr.

One year before his death Martin Luther King Jr. began speaking out against the U.S. attack on Vietnam.  Not only did he defend the rights of brown people in Southeast Asia but he also grasped the economic devastation that militarism brings to residents of both sides of the war.  

"And you may not know it, my friends, but it is estimated that we spend $500,000 to kill each enemy soldier, while we spend only fifty-three dollars for each person classified as poor, and much of that fifty-three dollars goes for salaries to people that are not poor.  

 So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor, and attack it as such." 

In addition to his grievances with racism, militarism and economic exploitation King also criticizes the press.

Who Are the Most Heavily Bombed People on Earth?

The Laotian people have lived with the sad distinction of most heavily bombed people on Earth.
Every eight minutes for nine straight years bombs were dropped on their heads.

From 1964-1973 the U.S. ran 580,000 bombing raids on the landlocked country bordering Vietnam.  The Mother Jones video above and recent story by Fatima Bhojani outline these outrageous events.

Millions of cluster bomblets are lying unexploded in Laos
(Image Credit: UXO Lao)

Finally, Legacies of War  and The Diplomat explain more about the secret war in Laos.