The Vietnamese people proclaimed
their own independence in 1945 after a combined French and Japanese
occupation, and before the Communist revolution in China. They
were led by Ho Chi Minh. Even though they quoted the American
Declaration of Independence in their own document of freedom,
we refused to recognize them. Instead, we decided to support France
in its reconquest of her former colony.
Our government
felt then that the Vietnamese people were not "ready"
for independence, and we again fell victim to the deadly Western
arrogance that has poisoned the international atmosphere for so
long.
Martin Luther King, Jr., 1967 speech