Friends in Struggle

On the friendship between Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Thich Nhat Hanh

Illustration by Narrative Initiative

In 1967, less than three years after receiving the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., stood at a lectern in Riverside Church in New York City. There, he delivered a paradigm-altering speech called “Beyond Vietnam.”

“My conscience leaves me no other choice,” he said. “I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government.”

This month is the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, and April 4 the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination, giving us two reasons to reflect on a historic friendship that speaks to his vision and courage. King’s scorching statement condemning the war and outlining a path to peace drew swift rebuke by mainstream media. Civil rights leaders were furious. The New York Times called the linkage “disastrous for both causes.” The Cincinnati Enquirer said he’d become “unctuous” since winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

King’s friendship with Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh helped drive this anti-war stance into the public conversation. In 1965, Nhat Hanh wrote King a letter urging him to recognize their shared intellectual and spiritual legacy. “You cannot be silent since you have already been in action and you are in action because, in you, God is in action, too — to use Karl Barth’s expression.”

In 1966, they met in Chicago and held a joint press conference. They said, “We also believe that the struggles for equality and freedom in Birmingham, Selma and Chicago, as in Hue, Danang and Saigon, are aimed not at the domination of one people by another. They are aimed at self-determination, peaceful social change, and a better life for all human beings.” Following their statement, Vietnam exiled Nhat Hanh.

Nine days after King’s 1967 speech, he led a march of 400,000 people (his count) from Central Park straight to Ralph Bunche’s United Nations office. A year later, 53% of Americans would say the war was a mistake.

King nominated Nhat Hanh for the Nobel with a public letter, though such nominations were taboo. The letter forced a choice on Vietnam, which might have been worth more than any prize. The committee canceled the 1967 prize. A few months later, King and Nhat Hanh met for the last time at the Pacem in Terris in Geneva.

Nhat Hanh was devastated by King’s assassination a year later. But their shared legacy lives on. In their friendship I see a model for how to make honorable relationships that change the world.

It can be difficult to make friends across lines of difference, and that some power relations don’t lend themselves to friendship. But we can take King and Nhat Hanh’s example on building meaningful friendships whose care and commitments extend beyond just two people who know each other.

Lessons on friendship

1. Someone has to reach out first. That first outreach is often due to needing something–needing it quite desperately, in fact. Nhat Hanh needed the Vietnam War to end and hoped to engage King’s cultural and political power, hard built through years of civil rights organizing.

2. A shared intellectual or cultural lineage, even among people who are different from each other. In his letter, Nhat Hanh mentioned several of their shared influences. This foundation can serve as a less powerful person’s sharpest tools.

3. Trust had to be built fast. King and Nhat Hang were busy people in less technologically-connected times. They didn’t have much time to get to know each other but they had to quickly decide whether or not they could trust each other. Small kindnesses seemed to make lasting impressions. At the 1967 conference, Nhat Hanh was late for their breakfast meeting, but later would tell the story of how Martin Luther King put a cloth napkin over Nhat Hanh’s plate to keep his breakfast warm.

The trust that King and Nhat Hanh built together held both immediacy and longevity. At an anti-war rally held three weeks after the assassination, Coretta Scott King read a note that she had found in her husband’s pocket - the Ten Commandments of Vietnam. Number 10: Thou shalt not kill. Even with King gone, Nhat Hanh vowed to continue building the Beloved Community King held dear; without it, no enduring change would be possible. For more information on this inspiring relationship, check out Brothers in the Beloved Community by Mark Andrus.