This speech while a cry to end the war in Vietnam also pointed out some major flaws that lied within America at the time. King points out that we cannot give the vietnamese their freedom, nor can we give everyone in our country freedom(the blacks and women). He believes that this is a huge problem. The Government is to focused on money and foreign affairs. As a country we are to arrogant to address the many issues at home. King simply wonders how we can fix another broken nation when we are one ourselves. The government spends millions of dollars on fighting a war we should not be fighting instead of using that money on something that matters. Why not spend the money at home and try to create a better society for everyone? Our priorities were out of line during the time and I believe that King realized this even though the government itself did not.
Just my opinion but i think amid all the tensions with the soviets etc. America was just trying to flex its muscles to show the soviets what we were capable of.