金的反战立场让他丧失了包括约翰逊总统、协会领袖和权威出版商在内的许多白人盟友的重要支持。<ref name=MED08>{{cite book|last=Dyson|first=Michael Eric|title=April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King, Jr.'s death and how it changed America|year=2008|publisher=Basic Civitas Books|isbn=978-0-465-00212-2|chapter=Facing Death}}</ref>“媒体开始反对我”，金抱怨媒体的双重标准<ref>David J. Garrow, ''Bearing the Cross'' (1986), pp. 440, 445.</ref>：为他在美国的非暴力抵抗鼓掌，而谴责他声援“弱小的棕色皮肤的越南儿童”。<ref name=Pierre2011>{{cite news|last=Pierre|first=Robert E.|title=Martin Luther King Jr. made our nation uncomfortable|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/therootdc/post/martin-luther-king-jr-made-our-nation-uncomfortable/2011/10/16/gIQA78NPoL_blog.html|accessdate=2012-08-17|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=2011-10-16}}</ref>《生活》杂志把金的这次演讲称作“来自河内电台的蛊惑人心的诽谤”{{sfn|Robbins|2007|p=109}}，《华盛顿邮报》则声明金“对他自己的事业、国家和人民的用处正逐渐消亡”。<ref name=Pierre2011 />{{sfn|Lawson|2006|p=148}}

这篇名为“越南背后”的演讲反映了金后期的政治主张的演变，这与他所属的高地研究与教育中心（Highlander Research and Education Center）的教学是并行不悖的。<ref>{{cite book|title= Restaging the Sixties: Radical Theaters and Their Legacies|page=297|last=Harding|first2=Cindy|last2=Rosenthal|isbn= 0-472-06954-3| publisher =University of Michigan Press|year=2006|first= James M.}}