The 1960’s witnessed two profound social movements: the civil rights movement and the movement protesting the war in Vietnam. Although they overlapped in time, they were largely distinct. 

For a brief moment in 1967, however, it appeared that the two movements might unite under the leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr. King’s role in the antiwar movement 　appears to require little explanation, since he was the foremost advocate of onviolence of his time.

 But King’s stance on the Vietnam War cannot be explained in terms of pacifism alone.After all, he was something of a latecomer to the antiwar movement, even though by 1965 he was convinced that the role of the United States in the war was indefensible. Why then the two years that passed before he translated his private misgivings into public dissent? 

Perhaps he believed that he could not criticize American foreign policy without endangering the support for civil rights that he had won from the federal government.

　
金在反越战运动中的地位似乎毋需任何解释，既然他是他那个时代最为杰出的 非暴力（nonviolence）倡导者。

但金有关越战的立场单靠和平主义（pacifism）是无法得以解释的。毕竟，在某种程度上他是反越战运动的姗姗来迟者，虽然早在1965年，他已确信美国在越战中的地位是无可辨解的。那么，为什么只有在经过了二年之后，他才将其个人的私下忧虑转化异议呢？

或许他相信，一旦他批评美国的外交政策，这必将会危及到他从政府那里业已赢得的对民权运动的支持。（直译为：或许他相信，他不可能在不危及到他从联邦政府那里业已赢得的对民权运动的支持
的情况下来批评美国的外交政策）。