Director, Playwright, Essayist
The following is a wholly fictious scene between Lyndon Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Bayard Rustin on the eve of Dr. King's anti-Vietnam-War speech at Riverside Church.
Act III
Scene 5
(A Conference room in the White House. Valenti is on stage; a Secret Service Agent enters with King and Rustin)
AGENT
No one saw them get out of the car, and there was no one in the corridors.
VALENTI
Thank you.
(Agent exits)
VALENTI
As we discussed, this meeting never happened.
KING
It is understood.
(Valenti opens a door and sticks his head in)
VALENTI
Sir.
(Valenti stands back, and Johnson enters through the door)
JOHNSON
(to King) You’re making a speech. At the Riverside Church in New York. To Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam.
KING
Yes, sir.
JOHNSON
Don’t take a mind reader to guess what you’re gonna to say.
KING
No, sir.
(Johnson collapses into a chair)
JOHNSON
Why?
KING
Well, sir … I …I understand we do not live in an ideal world … war exists … but … while I hate to say any war is justified … some wars, you can argue … justification … but with this war, sir, it becomes harder and harder every day …
JOHNSON
You’re like all the rest. Fulbright … McNamara, who got me into this mess, now he’s says it’s a mistake, quits the administration. Those kids … they hate me so bad. I was a teacher …ran the National Youth Administration in Texas … and they hate me so bad …
KING
Sir, this is not about you, it is about human life …
JOHNSON
No, this is about me – you’d never come out against Kennedy, who was so sophisticated, so charming --he talked a good liberal game, but he was fence-sitter – but you come out against the hick.
KING
Mr. President, I respect your commitment … your skill, you’ve made a commitment that no other president has, but this is an unjust war.
JOHNSON
Goddamn it! The Cong are communists. Ho is a communist.
KING
These are poor farmers who are being forced from their land into … “strategic hamlets” …they are ruled by corrupt generals who have no care for their interests.
RUSTIN
Martin, don’t think for a second that Ho Chi Minh is better than the generals or even as bad. He is worse – he is a Stalinist. He is a brother-in-arms to the Soviets, who make the South Vietnamese generals look like nuns swatting naughty boys with rulers. Ho Chi Minh’s comrades have sent 14,000,000 people to gulags; they killed 700,000 in the purges; and they not only forced millions of “poor farmers from their land,” they starved 5,000,000 of them to death
KING
Ho Chi Minh is not Stalin; he is an independence leader – he is more of a nationalist than he is a communist.
RUSTIN
Ho Chi Minh was a co-founder of the French Communist Party; he worked for the Soviets in Moscow and China; He has killed people in his own movement just because they weren’t communists.
JOHNSON
Listen to your friend Bayard -- the generals may be sons of bitches, but they’re our sons of bitches – we are saving the South from much worse – We – Are -- In -- The -- Right!
KING
Must we sacrifice innocent women and children – and don’t forget about thousands of American boys …
JOHNSON
Don’t you dare question my commitment to our soldiers! I love those boys – I have served, you have not – I love those boys – and when I go there, when I go to Vietnam, they love me.
KING
Must we sacrifice them to the lesser of two evils?
RUSTIN
Mr. President, Mr. President … if you will listen a moment. Your accomplishments are great. You have ended legal segregation. You recognize that the next civil rights front is economic
segregation. From the beginning of your presidency, you have fought to eradicate poverty; you are a champion of the poor even greater than President Roosevelt. It is horrible that this war is
costing lives – no one realizes the horror more than you. It is also costing money. This war is starving the Great Society. It, as Martin says, is a fight for the lesser of two evils. And, sir, I am no foreign policy expert, but I do not think this is a vital front in the fight against totalitarianism.
JOHNSON
Don’t you think I know what this war is doing to the Great Society? I’ve betrayed the woman I love for this bitch war. But what you don’t know is there would have been no Great Society without this war. I mean, yeah, sure, if we weren’t already in there when I got this job, yeah, I coulda done it without the war, but with us committed – I didn’t stand tall, the right would have used that weakness to shoot down one piece of legislation after another. But the trick was … the trick was … not to let the war get so big they could say we can’t help the poor, we got this war to fight. So you know, McNamara … limited war … I followed the limited war strategy, keep it from getting too big, but it just keeps getting bigger and bigger … but I’m not licked, yet … we can do it, like I said in the State of the Union .. guns and butter -- richest nation on earth … we can do it.
KING
Sir, are you saying that this is not about Vietnam, it’s not about communism … it’s about Congress?
JOHNSON
No. Yes … it’s partly that. But it’s about Vietnam … communists are sons of bitches, not knights on white horses … it’s about keeping our word … it’s about our allies, it’s about leading …
KING
I cannot believe that you had to fight this war to … to get poverty programs, to get Medicare, and … education … and … and even if you did … it is wrong … wrong to send men to their deaths, to bomb people – poor people to help other poor people …
JOHNSON
What about helping negroes? Great Society ain’t just poverty programs, it’s the Civil Rights Act, it’s the Voting Rights Act – I couldn’t let a weak stance on Vietnam undercut any of my legislation.
KING
I do not believe that is true, sir, you’re rationalizing. If it were … if it were true – had I known that, I would have spoken against the war long ago. I will not pay for the rights of Negro people with lives of Vietnamese people, with the lives of American soldiers.
JOHNSON
No, just the lives of negroes. And some white liberals. Who you kidding? You’re in the martyrdom business. The four girls in Birmingham was the price you paid for the Civil Rights Act. James Reeb and Viola Liuzzo was the price you paid for the Voting Rights Act.
KING
Reverend Reeb and Mrs. Liuzzo were committed to our cause and knowingly and willingly took risks. But you are sacrificing Vietnamese who have no say in this war – I am not talking about the government of North or South Vietnam or the Viet Cong – I am talking about farmers. And if what you’re saying is true, American boys who think they’re dying to fight communism are dying for your domestic agenda. And as for the girls in Birmingham – you said, “How dare you” to me? How dare you, sir, compare the death of four girls, who did nothing worse than go to church, to your sending men to their deaths. I did not risk those girls’ lives – they just went to church.
JOHSNON
What about the Children’s Crusade? Sending kids to face Bull Connor’s attack dogs? They capable of taking willing and knowing risks? Don’t get me wrong, most effective thing you ever did. Without Bull Connor siccing the dogs and fire hoses on those kids, no Civil Rights Act.
KING
Mr. President … it is not possible for me to … say anything without it sounding like a rationalization … but … but I think it is obvious that there is a difference between young people fighting for their own future and soldiers fighting for a cause they are being lied to about.
JOHNSON
I am not lying – this is about communism – it’s about our word. Doctor, doctor, don’t throw it all away. What you and me done, Martin – it wouldn’t have happened without you pushing from the outside –
KING
It was not me, sir, it was – it is a movement –
JOHNSON
That found its leader – that found its president. A hundred years since reconstruction – didn’t nothing happen till you came along; didn’t nothing happen till I came along. We’ve got so much
more to do … and time … time … it’s against us -- we got to integrate the judiciary -- you know, you’re friend Bayard is right, this war … its taking money from the war on poverty … keep on pushing, you just push and push and push for more money for poverty programs …
KING
I am doing that, sir. And I am also going to push and push and push to end this war.
RUSTIN
Which, Martin, which will hurt your work on poverty. If you get involved in the anti-war movement, you get involved with a bunch sophomoric adolescents who make excuses for
Stalinist butchers and carry Viet Cong flags – you will lose the support of labor; you will lose the support of many liberals; you will do incalculable harm to our movement.
KING
So be it. If I have unwittingly benefitted from this war, it stops now. If speaking out against the war costs the movement support, that is a price I am willing to pay.
JOHNSON
This conversation never happened. (He exits)
Lights down